SISTERS GET-AWAY DAY #2

Hello, friends!  What a day we had today.  All day we have had terrible thunder and lightning storms.  The rain poured so hard you couldn't even see out of the windows.  The thunder sounded like it was right over the house.  And the lightning struck an electrical transformer down the street from my house.  The light from it was so bright it was like looking at the sun.  And then everything was dark and we were without electricity for about 6 1/2 hours.  Fortunately it was during the day so between storms we did have some daylight.  And even during the storms it was light enough to see.

As a result I couldn't make dinner since our stove uses electricity to light the pilot lights.  So Joe and I went to Shop Rite.  He got a sandwich and I got sushi.  When we came home, the lights were on, the air conditioner was running and the TV was playing.  Yay!

So that was our exciting day.  But let me tell you about another exciting day and that was yesterday on our second day in Lancaster County, PA.  Again, I have lots of pictures for you.

We got up in time to have breakfast in the hotel.  A free breakfast is included in the price of the room.  And it's not just coffee and donuts.  We had scrambled eggs, fruit, and coffee cake.  I had water and Elaine had coffee and juice.  After we ate we went back to the room, made sure everything was packed up and checked out.  Elaine went down before me and put her luggage into the car.  I was able to see her from the room.

They were paving over the end of the driveway.  The county was putting in new water pipes and have been for months.  It looks like they are finally finished. 

 When I checked out, Brittany was on the desk.  Joe and I know her from all the times we have stayed there.  And she knows us too!  It was nice to see her again.

We headed over to Sight and Sound Theater.  Joe and I had gotten Elaine and me tickets to the show "Jesus."  Joe and I had seen it earlier and knew she would like it.  This is a fountain she is standing in front of but you can't see it too well.

The show was fantastic!  We had wonderful seats.  Afterwards I asked Elaine to take a picture of me in front of the building.

We knew we wanted to go to Hershey Farm before we headed home and it was right next door to the theater.  So that's where we went.

I waited outside while Elaine parked the car.  Here is an Amish buggy that you can get into and have your picture taken.  I've done that in the past.

The planters were so pretty.

There are always rocking chairs to sit in.

The goats were no fools.  They were both in the shade.  It was hot!

We didn't stay to eat because it was getting late and we wanted to get started toward home.  But we did buy some things in the store.  I got fresh baked honey wheat bread, some whoopie pies for a couple of friends, mini animal crackers, chocolate covered pretzels, a bag of Joe potato chips and two bottles of Joe iced tea -- one for me and one for Joe.  I had to get things that I saw his name on.

Our trip home was pretty fast until we reached Route 76.  Then it was about 5 miles an hour for around 10 miles.  But it really wasn't a bad trip home.  I took a picture of the Art Museum as we passed by.  I love the Art Museum and hope I can get there soon.

The city skyline.  We aren't in the country anymore.

This building is part of the Comcast Campus.  I really like it.

As we were driving along Route 676 I was able to get a picture of the Family Court building and the new Mormon Temple.

By this time it was the beginning of rush hour and of course I-95 was like a parking lot.  But we actually made very good time.

And that is the end of our vacation in Lancaster County.  But the vacation continues.  After a couple of days at home, I will again leave Joe and travel to Elaine's house in northern New Jersey.  We have no plans but whatever we do it will be fun.

Meantime, Joe and I are having fun using Duo and seeing each other on our phones while we talk to each other.  Shades of science fiction!

Goodbye July and hello August tomorrow.  The summer moves on.

Kathy

SISTERS GET-AWAY DAY #1

It's time for my annual Sisters Getaway with my sister Elaine.  We do it every year around her birthday.  Yesterday she drove down here and we headed for Lancaster County.  I have lots of pictures to show you, so let's begin.

We left Philly around 11:00 a.m. and headed west.  Elaine drove so I got a chance to take pictures.  I love Philadelphia's skyline.  This shows City Hall with William Penn's statue on the top and Liberty Place behind it.

This is the new Amtrak building.  I had never seen it before.  I love it.

In just an hour we were no longer in the city but driving along Route 30 with it's pretty scenery.

Along one stretch of the road almost every tree had lots of moth nests in them.  Some trees were almost covered in them.  Wow!

You know you are in Lancaster County when you begin to see the farmland.

Such a pretty drive.

We saw lots of fields of tobacco.

And even more fields of corn.  Lots of corn.

When we got out there, we were hungry so we went to Rockvale Diner to get a sandwich and iced tea.  We got seated quickly and the waitress came over to get our order.  And then we waited.  And waited.  Over half an hour we waited for a BLT and a tuna salad sandwich.  Finally I caught the waitress' eye.  Her eyes widened and she ran for the register.  She had forgotten to put our order in.  She apologized over and over and even offered to give us a free dessert, but we told her not to worry about it and declined the dessert.  But we will think about going there again.

While we were waiting, we were looking out the window next to the table and I saw one of my favorite sights.  Favorite because it's so funny.  Dickey's Barbecue Pit next to Ultimate Fat Loss System.  You go from one to the other I guess.  Ha, ha.

After we ate we headed over to the Lenox Outlet.  They had such beautiful things but we were both broke and couldn't afford them.  I headed over to the Clearance Section where they were marked down even more.  Look at this entire rack of goblets!

Beautiful glassware.

Aren't these pilgrim kitties cute?

A glass fish.

This dish was adorable.

Vampire cats anyone?

I fell in love with this bowl but even the marked down price was too expensive.

Next we headed to the Christmas section.  These trees were so cute.

This tree and angel were so pretty!

Three smiling reindeer holding a bowl on their heads.  So cute!

Elaine found this creamer shaped like a milk carton.  She ended up buying it.

The last thing I need is more Christmas mugs.  But I really liked these.

Going down one of the Kate Spade aisles I spotted this little dish.  Life really is sweet.

This one made me laugh.  It sounds like me!

We bought a few things and then headed to Reading China and Glass.  I wanted to buy one small scoop to make my cookies.  Well, you know that didn't happen.  Again, I'll show you my purchases in another post.  There is an entire wall of just small kitchen gadgets.  You can find anything there.  And I did.

And so did Elaine.

You can find anything kitchen related in this store.  They've even begun selling brooms!

This made us chuckle.  They had Christmas trees displayed next to a grill.  It was Christmas in Florida.  Or maybe Australia.

I was getting really tired by this time because I hadn't slept well the night before.  But we wanted to stop at one more place before we checked into our room.  Last year we discovered Antique Village.  I am not into antiques that much, but Elaine is.  She can take old things and make them new again.  To me this is just a bunch of old junk.  To her, it is a treasure.

She even went into the barns at the back to search out a treasure she could use.  But the things she was interested in were too large to transport back to her house.

We checked into the room and got ready to go out for dinner.  Elaine wanted to go to Bird-in-Hand Restaurant for her birthday dinner so that's where we headed.  We both got the smorgasbord and boy was it hard to choose what to get.  I ended up with herbed potatoes, a stuffed pepper, meat loaf and zucchini casserole that I thought was so good that I am going through my Amish cookbooks to see if I can find the recipe.

After the meal we looked around in the shop attached to the restaurant and then headed out.  We had had a busy day and just wanted to relax.  Outside of the restaurant were these huge pots of geraniums.  Big geraniums.  So bright red and so pretty.

In front of the entrance were these big pots of different kinds of plants and flowers.  So pretty!

Across the road from the restaurant is a farm.  I always like looking over there.

Yesterday there were two horses grazing.  It looked so peaceful.

I thought I would give you a quick view of our room.  I never got to take pictures of the bathroom, but it was nice.  Here are the beds.  They were so comfortable.

This was the view out of the window.  An Amish farm.

In the opposite direction was a beautiful sunset.

There was a nice computer table.

And a cabinet with some drawers and a microwave and a refrigerator.  The TV was sitting on top of the cabinet.

We watched some TV and then went to bed.  It was a long day, but a fun one.  I'll tell you about day two tomorrow.

Until then...

Kathy