Mother - Daughter 8.0

May 6th-8th

This year for our Mother-Daughter Weekend, we headed to the country for a relaxing but overly packed weekend.

We started our weekend with a trip down to the Lancaster Central Market. After wandering through the market and purchasing some fun things to take home. We decided to venture elsewhere for breakfast.

Not far from the market we found Rachel's Creperie.  This place was on point. We loved it!

After breakfast, we wanted to check out an Amish farm and not far from where we were was Amish Farm & House. As we approached the farm, we were sure our GPS was incorrect and it directed us into a Target Parking Lot, but it was correct. There in the parking lot was the old Amish Farmhouse with school buses lining up. It wasn't exactly the experience we were looking for so with even getting out of the car, we decided to try a different area to tour.

Through the country we traveled to Landis Valley Museum. This was an interesting place full of history and entertaining employees. We didn't realize it but it wasn't a traditional Amish farm, it was a traditional German community that they had saved from all over Lancaster and recreated in this location.

With the rain starting, we headed out to find a buggy ride to beat the rain. Thankful we were able to find Aaron & Jessica's Buggy Ride.

We had a fantastic time with our Amish buggy drive and he took us through his personal farm and taught us about aspects of his life and the life of Amish families. We even purchased homemade cookies and root beer from one of his grandsons.

We rushed to Wheatland for our final stop of the evening. Wheatland was President Buchanan's Lancaster home. While we were there our tour participated in a Period Re-enactment. I was even asked to be a Senator. It was a really neat experience despite talkative toddlers and salty tour guides.

The night ended with dinner at Lancaster Brewing Company. We had covered a lot of ground but we had plenty more the next day.

On Sunday, we made our way to Bird In Hand Farmers Market. This was everything we hoped it would be. We had an authentic Amish pancake breakfast and purchased way too many Amish treats for our drive home.

Our next few stops were to do a little shopping. We walked around Kitchen Kettle Village and found a quilting store to check out.

In the afternoon, we drove out to the "Coolest Small Town 2013", Lititz, PA. We both really enjoyed our time in Lititz. The Chocolate Festival that was in town was a bit of a bust for us but we made due by checking out all the local favorites like Wilbur Chocolate, little store fronts and a fantastic lunch at Tomato Pie Cafe.

We even took the time to learn about Sturgis Pretzels and became Official Pretzel Twisters!

Time went quickly and it wasn't long before we were heading to our final destination for the day at Strasburg Railroad. It is not a Mother-Daughter Trip without one meal of cheese and fruit and this year we were able to have that meal with a glass of wine on a train.

It was great! We had so much fun relaxing and enjoying the countryside.

I love having the opportunity to have this time with my mom and I can't wait to see what our next adventure will be.

A Weekend with the Mugs

February 15th-17th

This weekend we headed north to visit some friends in Lancaster, PA. It had been too long since we had a chance to hang out.

Friday night when we got into town, we met up with them and some of there friends at a local hotel for drinks and jazz music before moving on to a local pub, Molly's. We spent the evening laughing, making new friends and catching up with old ones.

The next morning we headed downtown to their market. It is a super great place with fresh meats, veggies, fruits, breads, etc. It is inside so we could avoid the snow and cold. We were even treated to a Flash Mob while we were there! After we purchased a few things, we each got a donut and headed up to the crows nest for some people watching.

After our trip to the market, we headed back to the house to make breakfast before we headed out to America's Coolest Small Town of 2013, Lititz, PA. We had a fantastic time exploring this town and it just so happened that the day we were there was their Fire & Ice weekend. We missed the fire part (chili cookout that morning) but were able to catch the ice part (ice sculptures). They also had an amazing smelling chocolate factory, Wilbur's, the first commercial pretzel bakery, Sturgis' and a really good restaurant that we got lunch at called Tomato Pie Cafe. (Jed & I have already tried to recreate the sandwich we got there twice! So good!)

After spending the day in Lititz, we took a few hours back at the house to relax by the fire, play an old game that we all just love, the name game, and snack on our other goodies from the trip to the market that morning. Before long, it was time to head over to our dinner reservations at Jethro's.

What an incredibly memorable dinner! Our waitress was very unique with a hilarious laugh that we all (everyone in the restaurant) couldn't help but laugh at and continued to try and make her laugh so we could all hear and laugh too. Jed got a very creepy shoulder massage from another lady working at the restaurant and the food was pretty good too. We heard that the party was going to continue at the local bar, Tally Ho but we decided to call it a night and head home.

Sunday morning we were up ready, cooked breakfast, cleaned up breakfast and at church on time! That was pretty impressive in our book. After church, it was time for us to pack up the car and start the trip back home. We had such a great time this weekend and look forward to the then opportunity to go back.

And what is a trip through PA with out our stop at the Hershey's Chocolate World. And boy was it a crazy there! We figured in the middle of February we would be safe from all the tourist but it was CRAZY!! We saw a Hershey's marching band and all the chocolates came out for a parade and to greet the crowd of kids & us. :) So fun!