SISTERS' WEEK DAY FOUR (TUESDAY)

Today Elaine and I went to Lancaster County.  Elaine's best friend, Donna, came along with us.  We had so much fun.

Elaine drove, so I was able to get some good pictures along the way.  We headed through center city to get to the expressway.

We were lucky enough to see the Zoo Balloon floating over the zoo as we passed.  Cool!

We know we are in Lancaster when we see the beautiful farm land.

The first place we went to was Kitchen Kettle.  It was so crowded.  We couldn't figure out why everywhere we went was crowded.  It's a Tuesday so we figured it would be an off day.  We went to the Christmas Shop and got our annual ornament.  Every year on Elaine's birthday week we buy a new ornament for this year.  She got a blue delft nutcracker and I got a shimmery star.

Then we went to the Jam and Relish Shop.  We always go overboard there.  I got pumpkin bread, a Farmer's Blend Coffee K-cup for Joe, a bag of tortilla chips, mango salsa (unbelievably good), pepper jelly and pumpkin butter.

On the way out Donna and I stopped and bought some peaches from a farmer there.  They are so sweet and smell wonderful.

There was a guitarist there today.  There is always someone performing.  I stopped and listened to him for awhile.

A pot of coleus outside of one of the shops.

Another pot with different coleus.  I know my friend Debbie will love these pictures since she loves coleus!

Donna and Elaine taking a picture of me taking a picture of them!

The guitarist.

Sorry about the end.  I'm still not sure about using the movie button on my new camera.

It was getting late so we headed over to the Sight and Sound Theater.  

We had tickets for the show "Moses".  It was amazing!  The special effects were wonderful!  I can't say enough good about it.  Tickets at Sight and Sound are expensive, but it was worth every penny we paid.

We were in the balcony.  They were the best seats I could get.  We prefer to be down lower, but there are no bad seats in the place.

Elaine and Donna

And yours truly.

There was a magnificent statute of Moses in the lobby.

Here it is again from another angle.

 We headed for the parking lot after the show.  There is an Amish farm right next to the parking.  It is so pretty.  I took a lot of pictures of it.

 We went to Bird-in-Hand Restaurant for dinner.

Right before we went in, we saw a balloon floating over the building.  It was the same one Joe and I had seen flying over the Rockvale Mall the last time we were in Lancaster.  But this was much closer.

 We all had the smorgasbord for dinner.  Everything was delicious.  I had a slice of cantaloupe for dessert that was so sugary sweet!  Yum!

We waddled out of the place right before the closing at 8:00 p.m.  Then it was the long drive home.

Our last view of Lancaster.

There was a lot less traffic and we made good time.  When we passed the zoo we saw the balloon again.  At first we thought it was a huge moon when it was behind the trees.

We passed Boathouse Row and the Art Museum on the way home.  They are always beautiful.

Philadelphia is beautiful at night.

The Benjamin Franklin Bridge between Philadelphia and New Jersey (Delaware River).

I got home around 9:30 p.m.  It has been fun yesterday and today, but I am tired.  I'm glad tomorrow is a nothing day so that I can rest up.

-- Kathy

SISTERS' WEEK DAY THREE (MONDAY)

This morning I actually got around to changing out the flowers in my pot at the front door.  Better late than never.  I think they look really nice.

The weather held out today and we headed for Ocean City.

The beach was really crowded.  We didn't have beach tags, so we didn't go on the beach.  But it was very windy and the sand was blowing all around.  I don't know that it would have been all that pleasant if we had.

Quite a difference from last year when they were still cleaning up from Hurricane Sandy.

The first thing we did was get Polish Water Ice.  It's not like Italian which is chopped up ice with flavoring over it.  This is like a cross between ice and gelato.  And as Elaine pointed out the flavor goes all through it like sherbert.  So very good!  It's the best thing to eat ever!

Elaine had cherry.  It was the exact color of her top!

I had my favorite -- mango!

 There were lots of kites out.  It was hard taking a picture of them.  The sun was so bright that I couldn't see anything in the viewer.  I just sort of aimed in the general direction and hoped for the best.

We loved looking out at the ocean.  But it was so windy!  I was glad I had pulled my hair back so that it wasn't flying in my face all the time.

I had a hot dog for lunch at Botto's Sausage Express.  Joe and I along with our friends Bud and Karen and my brother Henry and his girlfriend Lena were there on their opening day last year.  Their food is so good.

Then we headed for Jilly's Arcade.  You know we couldn't leave without playing some pinball and skee ball.  I was surprised that I did really well at pinball.  I mean REALLY well.  But Elaine did FANTASTIC at skee ball.  We were playing the same lane, taking turns and trying to beat each other.  But at the same time trying to beat the house.  If you made 280 points or more, you got a free game.  Elaine got 270 points!  Neither one of us could get to that magic 280 mark.  However, a little boy a few lanes away got over 300.  And another lady got over 400.  Just saying.

The boardwalk was crowded with both people and sea gulls.

We decided to have dinner before we left to come home.  We looked at a couple of places and decided to try a new place called Ike's.

Elaine had a green salad with crab meat.  I had fish and chips.  It was served with sun-dried tomato tartar sauce and the chips were homemade potato chips.  Oh my, how good.

It was starting to get late so we took one last view of the ocean.  It was still really windy and the waves were rough.  You could see a cloud of sand flying in the air in the distance.

Another shot of the boardwalk.

 We went to Fudge Kitchen before we left.  After all, what's a visit to the shore without fudge?  I also got some of Joe's favorite sugar free dark chocolate almond bark.  He was really happy when we got home.

I actually found the way home without getting lost.  I almost always drive around looking for the right street on the way back, but this time it was easy.  Elaine's a good navigator.

I was really tired by the time I got home.  But it was a wonderful day!

 On to Lancaster tomorrow!
--Kathy