PA Holidays #1: Lancaster County

Well, we're back. Again. From Pennsylvania. Whoo!!

As usual, our visit was awesome, featuring wholesome family fun, gift-giving and getting, Beatles Rock Band at night, day-trips to nearby attractions, cows, cold COLD weather, fantastic friends, that fabulous Philly accent, hoagies, soft pretzels, Asher's chocolate, and Tastykakes. :-) It was everything that a PA visit should be, especially the opportunities that we had to see Gigi (Tim's grandmom) one more time before her passing. We love our Gigi.

I've decided that instead of spending seven hours at the computer, reviewing and organizing and compiling my bamillion photos into one ridiculously gargantuan blog post, I'm going to publish several mini-posts that highlight some of the activities that we enjoyed while we were gone. Starting with... Lancaster!!!

Tim and I took Weston out to Pennsylvania Dutch Country one afternoon for some sightseeing and shopping and eating. After trucking up the turnpike for awhile, we came to this lovely sight:
As you can see, Weston was beyond thrilled:

Our first stop was the Shady Maple Farm Market, which is technically a supermarket, but in a beyond-awesome kind of way. In my opinion, it is the best supermarket that I have ever experienced in my life. I could spend hours just wandering their massive produce section, bulk section, and bakery section, not to mention the rest of the store. Oh, it is heavenly. We picked up some sticky buns, shoofly pies, and whoopie pies to share with the family, along with a new stash of PA Dutch egg noodles for my private stores. :-)

Then it was off to the Shady Maple Smorgasbord, which was PACKED, but which is fortunately large enough to accommodate a small city-state of hungry diners. Like I said, my poison is the buttered egg noodles, which are plentiful and deeeeelicious:

I did not expect Weston to become as obsessed with those buttered noodles as I am, but yes... he did:

It became a full-handed effort to smush them into his mouth:

Got 'em all? Yes.

He really appreciated all the pictures that I was taking during his mealtime:

(We all got to experience that scowly little face many times during our trip! We have come to love it.)

Next, it was off to Rockvale Outlets!! Shockingly, we looked but did not buy. It was cold. And Weston was tired. And despite forgetting every other time, we actually remembered that our suitcases MUST be 50 pounds or less on our return flight. We are learning. :-)

We were on our way back to Lansdale when I was hit by a sudden urge to visit Strasburg Railroad. By the time we arrived, it was mostly deserted (because for some reason, it closes at 3:30 PM in the winter?!), but we were able to peek longingly into the gift shop windows with their big "CLOSED" signs. Haha! Don't worry, it was actually really nice to walk around the trains and take pictures:

Tim happened to notice that the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania across the street was still open, so we braced ourselves against the freezing wind and ventured over there:

We did not even need to buy admission to the museum because, guess what... the gift shop was open, and it had a train table. Yes, a TRAIN TABLE.

Train table + Weston = JOOOOOOOY!!!!!

Naturally, we haunted the train table corner of the gift shop for quite a while, and ultimately decided to spring for a Thomas engine for Weston (best. present. ever), in order to express our gratitude for the playtime:

And that was our afternoon in Lancaster County! FYI, Jesus Christ works out of Lancaster. We passed His office:

So, now you know that if you're ever in dire need of the guidance, help, and/or comfort that only Christ can provide, you know where to find Him (at least during office hours).

More PA Holidays posts to come...!