SISTERS GET-AWAY -- DAY TWO

Day two started out nice and sunny.  We ended up getting up around 6 a.m. and left the hotel around 7:30 to get breakfast.  I took Elaine to the Rockvale Diner.
 

Elaine had eggs, hash browns and scrapple.  I had a Belgium waffle with strawberries.  Good.

After we ate we went back to the hotel to clean up and check out.  Before we went in, though, I took some pictures outside of the place.  This was right off of the parking lot.

I hope you can all see my necklace.  It is the Heart of God necklace that I bought on Friday at Hershey Farm.  It is in the shape of a heart but has the word God spelled in it.  I'll try to post a better picture of it later.

After we checked out we headed for the Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market.

 

First we went downstairs and looked in the gift shop.  I bought a couple of things there.  Then we went upstairs to the farmer's market itself.  I love walking around there.  I felt like a real country girl.  I got a tray of molasses cookies, a checkbook cover for myself, some candied ginger and the best corn and some pink lady apples. The veggies out in Lancaster are better than anything I can buy here in Philly.  I really should take a trip out to the Farmers Market at least once a month.  Especially since I now have a new car.

The last place we stopped was Kitchen Kettle Village.

 We went to the Christmas shop first.  It was time for our annual Christmas ornament.  Something always pops out at us and we know which one to pick.  Elaine found hers, but I saw a trio of angels that I loved so I bought all three.  I also bought a prism with mistletoe to hang on my door.  I have one for summer with beautiful purple flowers.  This will be nice to change out.  It was $25 marked down to $10.

Then we went to the Jam and Relish shop.  I got mango salsa, tortilla chips and vidalia onion relish.  My favorite things from there.  Elaine bought a dozen cookies.  For her free one, she got me a gingerbread boy.

On the way out of Kitchen Kettle I stopped by the farmer's stand and got a box of peaches.  I do this every year and they are always good.  The farmer told me he had picked them at 5 p.m. the night before.  Can't get much fresher than that.

Then it was time to go home.  We made good time until we got to I-76 which is always crowded.  Then when I got to I-676 we stopped completely and stayed stopped about 15 minutes.  I turned on the news radio and found out there was an accident at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the traffic was backed up for miles.  We finally made it to I-95 and home.  Elaine came in for a few minutes and then started on her two hour trip home.

So the sister's get-away is done for this year, but it was a really good time.  I'm so glad we did this.

Before I end though, I forgot to show you one picture yesterday.  We were sitting waiting for a light to change and there was a little Amish boy across the street selling homemade root beer.  He was so adorable.  And since his back was facing us and we couldn't see his face, I had Elaine use my camera to get a picture of him.  It's just precious.

And with that I will end.  I hope you enjoyed coming along with me.  Back to the real world now.

Kathy

SISTERS GET-AWAY - DAY ONE

Yesterday was my sister Elaine's birthday.  In the past we have celebrated with "Sisters Week" in which we spent the entire week together.  Since getting her new job a couple of years ago she has not had that kind of time to take off.  So it has gone down to a "Sisters Get-away".  When she retires in a few years, it will probably go back to being a week.  But in the meantime we make the most of the time we have.

Both of us we have been under a lot of stress in the last few weeks.  So we really needed to get away.  And what better place to do it than Lancaster County.  Going out there renews our spirits.

Elaine came over to my house yesterday and we took off in the new car.  I was a little nervous driving a car I really wasn't familiar with all the way out there, but it turned out just fine.  I always know I'm in Lancaster when I see the farmland.

We left Philly about 11:00 so it was 12:30 when we got out there.  We wanted lunch so I took her to Katie's Kitchen.

I love the huge weeping willow tree they have.

Elaine got a tuna wrap and I got a fish sandwich.  That sandwich was so good I am definitely going to order it again.

I haven't been there in awhile and was surprised by how packed the place was.  That's great.  I'm glad they have such a good business.  It means they won't be going anywhere anytime soon.

When we were finished eating we headed down the road to Hershey Farm.  We weren't staying there this time (no vacancies) but we wanted to shop in the stores.

 

I found a birthday present which I am putting away for my brother.  I also got some of my favorite peppermints, some fresh tomatoes, an LED candle, and a "Heart of God" necklace which you will see me wearing in tomorrow's post.  I  also got some Whoopie pies and homemade honey wheat bread.  The plants were beautiful, but I didn't buy any.

Here's the birthday girl!

And you know I had to get a shot of Famous Amos.  Amos used to have a purple shirt.  Now it's green.  And now he has white fingernails and toenails.  Hmm....

It was still too early to check into the hotel, so we went to Target.  Every Target has different things in their bullseye section and I was looking for items for my "Farmhouse Kitchen".  I am redoing my kitchen (especially the pantry) and when I am finished, you will see it.  Target has a line of "farmer's market" products right now.  Well, let's say it's the end of those products because the school stuff is coming out.  But I was able to find a couple of things that I had never seen in Philly.  I was SO happy.

So now we decided to check into the hotel.  I had made reservations at Red Roof Inn.  I thought it would be on my right hand side, but we saw a Red Roof Inn on the left.  I guess I was wrong.  We found a place where we could cross Route 30 and headed for the place.  When we parked, there were a bunch of seedy looking guys hanging around smoking and I'm not sure what they were smoking.  When we walked into the lobby the smell of mothballs was so strong it almost knocked us out.  The girl behind the desk said she had no reservation for us.  She called the manager who looked us up and found we were at a different Red Roof.  It was about 3 blocks farther up the street and on the side of Route 30 I thought it was.  We were never so relieved to get out of anyplace.  I was going to say I had just gotten a call and there was a family emergency and we couldn't stay.

We headed for the other Red Roof and it was a much nicer place. Whew!

We were the end room on the ground floor.  The room wasn't anything to write home about but like Elaine always says we're just there to sleep and shower.  It could have been cleaner though.

We changed out clothes and headed out to dinner.  It was too early to eat, so we went to Rockvale Mall first.  The first place we went to was the Lenox outlet.

 The plants outside were so beautiful!

We were the only ones in the store, so I was able to get a few pictures for you.

The Kate Spade dishes were tempting.  But I have so many dishes!  I didn't get them much as I would have liked to.

So many beautiful things in this store.  *sigh*  A girl can dream, can't she?
 

These were the cutest salt and pepper shakers ever!
 

I love the Butterfly Meadow collection.  I have some of the bath towels from it.
 

More beautiful dishes.
 

These were Corelle ware and had many different size dishes, bowls, etc. with it.  So pretty, but where would I put them?
 

We each bought a couple of things and because we were on the mailing list, we got a free Christmas ornament.  It was the end of their Christmas in July sale.  Almost everything was 25% off.  Good deal!

Next we went to Christmas Tree Hill.  It's not just Christmas there.  I have gotten the nicest things for fall decorating.  I got the cutest little orange berry wreath for Thanksgiving and a wooden cut out sign that says "Be Thankful."  I also got a candle scented "Hot Apple Pie" and an air freshner for the car scented "Leather."

It was getting toward 6 p.m. so we headed for  the Bird-in-Hand Restaurant where Elaine wanted to have her birthday dinner.

It was a good choice because it was one of the best meals I have ever had in Lancaster County.  Elaine said the same thing.  Oh my, it was good!  We got the smorgasbord.  Just look at this beautiful salad Elaine had.

I skipped the salad and went right for the entree dishes.  This isn't a good picture, but I'll show it anyway.  I had wonderful herb roasted baby potatoes, stewed tomatoes that was freshly made from tomatoes that had been picked the day before, zucchini casserole, a ham ball, broasted chicken and barbecued spare rib.

For dessert I had two slices of watermelon, a slice of cantaloupe, and a molasses cookie that was out of this world.

We finished and went back to the hotel where we had a very noisy night.  The people above us were not just walking but stomping their feet even up to 3 a.m.  And there were lots of car doors and hotel room doors slamming.  We both got enough sleep, but it wasn't all that pleasant.

And so ends day one.  Day two coming up tomorrow.

Kathy

 

THE NEW CAR

What a time we have had in the last few days.  Tuesday afternoon Joe and I went to Dunphy Ford and met with Phyllis who wanted to show us the car I had called about.  It's amazing what you can find online.  I looked, I liked, I bought.  But not before I saw the car in person and took a test drive.

The dealership and Phyllis in particular gave us such a good deal.  She lowered the price, gave us a bumper to bumper 8 year warranty, gave us a 4 year tire warranty and arranged financing for us.  On top of that, the car is beautiful and the mileage low.  I drove it around the neighborhood a bit with Joe as my passenger checking out the dashboard and the feel of the ride.  We both loved it and felt this was the car God was giving us. 

After we left there, we had to go to the salvage place to finish cleaning out our car.  I had left my Easy Pass and a couple of other things in there by mistake.  We also wanted to get our license plate off of it.  I was surprised to see just what shape our little car was in.

Poor little car.  It gave us many hours of happy memories over the years.

Yesterday I met up with my friend Carole who followed me to Enterprise to return the rental car.  It was crowded there and I waited a long time.  But finally I was done and Carole and I headed off to Dunphy to pick up the new car.

Everything went well and Carole got to be the first of our friends to see it.  She loved it.  I paid what I owed and drove the car home.  Like most new cars it will take me a couple of days to feel really comfortable in it.  And it still doesn't feel like mine.  But it will.  All in time.

 So you want to see it?

I still look for a light blue car.  I'm not used to the gray yet.

The dashboard has two computers.  Not just screens, but actual things I have to program.  It took awhile to figure them out.  I'm still not sure I've got them where I want them, but it will do for now.  This is the radio, satellite, phone and who knows what else.  It has a lot of buttons.  It also shows the time and the temperature. We counted last night and you can pre-program up to 50 radio stations.

The other screen is behind the steering wheel.   Again it shows tons of things and I have to go through a menu, a large menu, to figure out what I'm doing.

Phyllis set Trip 1 to 0 miles before I left the dealership.  So you can see at this point I've driven the car 5 miles.  It's up to 9 miles now because I went to church last night.

Here's a picture of the interior.  All gray.  But that's OK.  I like gray.

 
I just realized I don't know how to put gas in it.  Oops!  I think I'd better find out before I go on my road trip tomorrow.

Tomorrow is my sister Elaine's birthday and we are heading out to Lancaster County for the day and an overnight.  Of course you are coming along.  You always do, don't you?

Until later...

Kathy

 

DINNER AT IHOP

This past week has been stressful.  Very stressful.  I think things MIGHT be settling down.  We'll see.  There's still a lot of things to do.  But the one good thing is I am going this morning to pick up our new car.  Look for a post about it tomorrow.

Among all this chaos the other night I said to Joe that I couldn't cook dinner and I was taking him out to IHOP.  We both really needed to get away.

It's good to be where we live because a mile away from us is the avenue where we can go to just about any kind of restaurant/fast food we want.  But I wanted to sit down and be served.  It was exactly what we needed to do to decompress.

I always order off of the 55+ menu.  That's plenty of food for me.  I got the chicken strips with honey mustard, broccoli, mashed potatoes and garlic bread.  It was yummy and I ate everything except I couldn't finish the potatoes.  It was too much.

Joe got chocolate chocolate chip pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon.  And never-ending coffee.

The sunset that night was spectacular.

I got some of my battery candles out and lit them.  It was a relaxing night and just what I needed.

I have to get going and get ready to run my errands.  Hope you all have a good day.

Kathy