OK, we're going to try to wrap up the PA trip in the next few nights. Ready?

Pennsylvania Dutch Country: First off, we stayed at a wonderful hotel in Lancaster, the Eden Resort Inn and Suites, in contrast to our less than satisfactory stay in Cherry Hill. We had a two bedroom suite, and both rooms came complete with big flat screen TVs. I could have just sat around watching TV for the three days we were there, but I don't think the rest of the family would have gone for that.

I have always found the Amish way of life fascinating. To totally eschew our 21st century technology and live without electricity, cars and all the other modern conveniences most of us take for granted takes a special kind of commitment. I wouldn't last five minutes, personally. I consider "roughing it" to mean that there's no cable TV.

One of our stops was the Amish Farm and house. It starts out with a tour of an old Amish house, then a self guided tour around the farm. The house looks quite charming in the picture below, right?



OK, let's try that again from another angle.



Not quite so quaint with the big Target in the background, eh?

That said, the Amish Farm and House was very educational and fun. The kids were especially taken with a gentleman who ran a little shop at the farm where he sold various items that he had whittled out of wood. He did very nice work and was a very funny guy. We bought a couple of items for the kids, which he inscribed with their names and some little drawings.

The other really fun thing we did was to take horse-drawn buggy ride. The buggy took us on a half-hour ride through some of the back roads of the area. Our drive, an Old Order Amish man named Levi, told us about the area and was very patient in answering the kids questions. R., who loves horses, thought this was a high point. She also wanted to take home this little fellow, who will no doubt be pulling buggies himself some day.



Luckily, I don't have room for a horse in my back yard.

So, Pennsylvania Dutch Country was a lot of fun. Next I'll talk about Hershey and then finish up with the Phillies game.