Girls Day Out

Kurt and Adam went to New York City today to spend the day at the New York Auto Show. That left Alyssa and me at home to do whatever we wanted. One of my favorite day trips is driving to Lancaster county. I love driving through the back roads seeing all the Amish with their horses and buggies, watching them work in the fields, seeing the little boys and girls playing in their yards...you get the picture! I have two quilted pillows that I got many years ago at a quilt shop in Intercourse, PA and they are pretty much shot. It was a beautiful day, so we hopped in the car and drove down to the Lancaster area so I could get another set of pillows. On our way, we drove through Fogelsville, which is where Kurt's family lives. My sister-in-law, Miget, is a huge fan, too, of Lancaster county. We called her on our way and asked her if she wanted to come along and she did! We had a wonderful day! We had a nice lunch at Shady Maple Smorgasbord...although, we were all pretty miserable after we were done....we were stuffed!! Then we drove quite a few back roads just enjoying the Amish and the scenery. Miget noticed that none of the Amish men were working in the fields and that there were quite a few families in their best clothing riding in their horse and buggies. We wondered if today was a holiday for them; Miget asked a Mennonite gentleman at one of the gift shops we were at. He confirmed that it was indeed a holiday. We couldn't go to my favorite quilt shops, which are actually just rooms in Amish homes, as they were closed due to the holiday. I did find two beautiful quilted pillows at a shop in Intercourse.

On a sad note, however, we passed the house in Leola where that teen boy murdered six members of his family last week. We didn't realize what it was at first, but while driving by, we saw a police officer parked in his cruiser by the house, crime scene tape around the property and hundreds of stuffed animals, balloons, flowers and cards by the front porch. It gave us chills to think what had happened in that house. It was quite sad.

We had a very enjoyable day. It was wonderful having a girls day out! I wish we could have driven around another three hours, but it was time to come back to reality...

Note: The picture of the house above is just a generic Amish farm; it is NOT the picture of the house in Leola.

Also, as most of you know, the Amish do not like to be photographed. We tried to be respectful of those wishes as we took pictures earlier today.