Mini Trip - Day 2

0700 - Wake up.

0800 - Breakfast is done. My little carb queen, Bella, ate Frosted Flakes and a donut for breakfast and was sad when I wouldn't let her top it off with a biscuit. A mini cup of peanut butter is all I could convince her to eat protein wise.

0832 - Sonic sighting! Briefly consider stopping but I'm not hungry at all. Maybe on the way back...

0840 - Find the Amish Farm at Target. The directions on the website say to look for Target and they are the farm next to it. So I drove past Target and was looking for a farm. No farms anywhere in sight. So I go back to Target. And there in the Target parking lot, directly adjacent to Target, is the Amish Farm. It was a nice tour though longer than I expected. Felisa even asked the tour guide at the very end how much longer the tour was going to last. I was a bit embarrassed of course but oh well. Though the atmosphere was lacking because of the location, the guide gave us lots of good information about the Amish.

1115 - Done at the farm. Stop at Target to buy toothpaste and new toothbrushes for the kids.

Our reviews of the farm:
B - liked the kitchen
F - liked the horse
R - liked the wood carving shop
L - liked the pygmy goats and that it was clean


What we learned:
B - that they eat chow chow which they make from vegetables from their gardens
F - how they lived - that is different from how we live
R - about the clothes they wear
L - about the simple way of life
S - I thought it was all very interesting. I didn't realize how integrated they are with the surrounding English. I never considered that there aren't many new farms to buy and so the younger generations have to find other ways to make a living. I was surprised buy how many powered appliances they use which have been modified to run with powers other than electric.

1150 - 12:35 p.m. Touring the pretzel factory in Lititz - where hard pretzels were invented. The kids got to roll and twist practice pretzels. It was nice that we arrived just in time to eat a soft pretzel before the next tour and didn't have to wait too long.

1:45 p.m. Stop at Taco Bell for lunch. Review the map to figure out the best way to get to New York. Decide on the scenic route through the "mountains".

2:06 p.m. McD's for iced coffee

2:58 p.m. pass a Polish National Catholic Church

3:07 p.m. Ashland, PA - cool garden on the hill with brick steps and a statue

4:01 p.m. Pass Grumpy Mountain Road

4:05 p.m. Pass The Scrapbook Lady scrapbook store

4:22 p.m. Road sign "Buckle up for the next million miles"

4:45 p.m. Give Felisa the DVD player to watch a movie

5:13 p.m. Now we are under the rain clouds that we have been watching for a bit. The clouds look like rain but it isn't raining.

5:16 p.m. Now it's raining! Oh and lightning too!

5:23 p.m. Mansfield, PA. I had planned to stop here for a break but not now that it's raining! The hotel isn't too much farther.

5:36 p.m. Well we either have an old map in the GPS or a new road. We have fallen completely off the "road" on the screen and the GPS lady has been "Recalculating" repeatedly.

5:38 p.m. New York!

6:00 p.m. Made it to the hotel in Corning. Even fancier than last night because it's a one-bedroom suite with two TVs! It's happy hour too so we get some snacks before unloading.

7:00 p.m. Off to dinner at Market Street Brewing Company. After parking the car, we walked a few blocks to the restaurant. On the way we stopped in the pet store. Pet Store Puppies are so sad. And of course Felisa wanted to know why we weren't buying a pet today. Bella spent the whole time looking at the bunnies. Then we found a face on the brick wall. Ryan named him Old Man Wall-ter. At the restaurant, we got to sit in the rooftop seating section which the kids thought was great fun. We played with wikkistix while we waited and then enjoyed a delicious dinner of steak, burgers, and macaroni and cheese nuggets.

8:48 p.m. Back at the hotel and it's time for the pool. The desk clerk had said that there were two pools - indoor and outdoor - but we never did find the outdoor pool. Must have been an imaginary pool! The water was of course freezing but there was a hot tub so that's always good.

10:00 Ron skyped us. The kids were still wired and not sleepy at all. Finally got them all to at least be quiet.

1206 - It's very late and I should be sleeping, not updating my blog. And so I will say good night!