Jocelyn's blog
May. 8, 2008
Farm Stay - Amish Country
Posted in USA Trip
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Before we left home, I asked Andrew what were some of the things he wanted to do while we were away. He was flat-chat with work and barely able to think but he did say that we wanted to visit Amish country. I decided to go one better and booked somewhere for us to stay in that region. I looked around and saw this lovely farm stay and knew the boys would love it too. We stayed in this rustic cabin, with all the basics. Overlooking the cabin was a volleyball net and children's playground. These things were nice but the bigger attraction was the woods behind the cabin, the pond with a row boat and paddle boat and the small farm of animals for the children to see, pet and help to feed. The best thing was....SPACE. The kids could just run around, hop on a scooter or roam. It was a great opportunity for them and they loved it. The amount of dirty clothes I have from a few days certainly bears testimony to this!! On the second morning, Stevie discovered that a nest had 3 blue eggs in it and one newly hatched. It was so wonderful to see this and to share in his delight. By the time we got back later in the day, all four were hatched and starting to walk around. So on the Monday, after commuting to Philly over the weekend, we just toured around locally. We went first to the Choo-Choo Barn. There's a miniature railway there and it is the best I have ever seen. Several rail enthusiasts we know in Canberra would have loved it! The whole of Amish country is in miniature and almost every little scene has some moving aspect to it. The layout was huge and after a certain amount of time, the lights fade and it becomes night! It was beautiful and I don't even really like this sort of thing normally. Well, Mark would have been happy to stay there for the whole day. As it was, we stayed there for an hour. We then moved on to a covered bridge, out by Intercourse. The whole time we were driving around, we were looking out for the Amish. Andrew started a "spot the Amish" game with the kids. The were looking in the fields and saw men plowing behind a team of horses, women in the garden, children playing volleyball and of course, the many horse and buggies we saw along the way. We had lunch in Ronks at a restaurant called Diemer's. It's a lovely family restaurant with a lunch buffet for children costing 60c per year of their birth. So Mark's lunch was $2.40 and Steve's was $6.60. They had a placemat with all the different traditional ways of saying grace and some praying hands in the middle. There was a Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish prayer listed. I thought it was a nice touch. After this, we went on and looked in other areas. We looked at some shops with quilts and nic nacks but it obviously is not the best place to keep boys amused.... Mind you, they did appreciate the small art gallery and I found one painting quite entrancing. When we got back, I went off to do some food shopping and Andrew tok the boys out in the boats on the pond. When I got back, we had a light dinner and then started the campfire. All the tools for a good cookout were there, courtesy of our hosts. We roasted marshmallows and threw potatoes in to cook. We also cooked up some sausages but by this time it was late, we were smoky and we just held them over until the next day. Tuesday, we had to pack up again and head north. We've had a change of plans for the rest of the trip. Tues- travel to Niagara Falls Wed- Look around Niagara Falls Thu - travel to upstate NY Fri- head toward Boston, arriving by 4pm Fri night to Mon morning -Stay with McCarraghers Mon & Tue - stay in Boston Wed- fly home Fri-arrive in Sydney and take hire car back home |
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