Lancaster County

For the last few months, I've been what you'd call a baaaaaad blogger! How does life get so busy that you can't even record in a very basic way the fun times?!?! Here is a post that I started in October, and haven't finished yet - but I figured I'd rather get some of it up there for all of you sooner than later!

In early September, Tony and I took a trip to visit our friends, Cindy and Larry, in Lancaster, PA. It was so fun! We drove out on a Saturday morning and got to their beautiful home in the early afternoon. We got the full tour of the house (they have lived there a year) and then we all went to the Central Market which was winding down for the day when we got there. It is only open until 2:00 on Saturdays. This is the oldest continuously operated farmers market in the country. It started in the 1730's. It was very picturesque, and though it seemed that the word "Amish" was written on every other jam jar, we didn't see anyone dressed the typical way.

After the market, Tony, Larry and I next headed over to Wheatland, which is the historic house of President James Buchanan, Pennsylvania's only native president. This is only a few minutes from Larry and Cindy's home. We watched a short biographical video on President Buchanan (who was a bachelor his entire life, though he was engaged at one point) and then toured the house and grounds. I learned more about James Buchanan in one hour than I had known in an entire lifetime. For example, he never went on the campaign trail. All of his campaigning was done from home. How's that for easy?!? He felt it was his duty to run for president, though it was not apparently something he desired. His niece acted as hostess for him at Wheatland and at the White House. She was the first woman to be called the "First Lady," maybe because they couldn't refer to her as the Presidential Wife.

That afternoon we headed into Intercourse, PA, (Amish country) to Kitchen Kettle Village to check out the wares. We enjoyed trying the local jellies, jams, relishes and shoofly pie! I could probably do without the shoofly pie again, but I'm glad I finally got to taste it. There are so many cute little boutiques at that little village, but we really didn't end up buying much. We did get our usual Christmas Tree ornament though! We had a fun night back at Larry and Cindy's with a fabulous dinner and watching Casino Royale again. It's a great movie! The next day we went together to Gettysburg, but I'll write about that on another post just to finally get this one up! Yea :)