SISTERS VACATION TO LANCASTER COUNTY DAY ONE

 

Hello, friends!  Hope you are having a great weekend.  It is hot here.  But I guess it is hot everywhere these days.

For those of you who have been with me awhile, you might remember when I had a week away with my sister every year.  But these days we settle for a couple of days.  And our two days away were this past Tuesday and Wednesday.  We had such a good time.

I met Elaine on Tuesday morning in the Wawa parking lot near my house.  All the streets are torn up and there was no way I could explain to her how to do the detour.  So, I led her to my house.  I was all packed and ready to go.  It didn't take long to get us on the road.

I always love seeing how I-76 is cut right through a mountain.  You can see it in these rock formations.

We were hungry when we got out to the Lancaster area and stopped into Dienner's for lunch.  Dienner's is one of our favorite places to eat.  We like going on Tuesdays because the special that day is ham loaf.  So very good!  We both ordered it.  Elaine had sweet potato fries and cole slaw with hers.  I had broccoli and bread stuffing with mine.  I only got the stuffing because Amish bread stuffing is the best!

It was too early to check into the hotel, so we took a ride down to see Hershey Farm.  There was a huge fire there about six months ago.  They had to tear down the restaurant and gift shops.  They are rebuilding, but it isn't supposed to be reopened until the end of 2024.  It was so strange to see the hotel part standing by itself with part of the parking lot and the other buildings gone.

We left there and went to Elaine's favorite store, Antique Village.  She looked around while I sat in the car.  I kept looking at this one metal rooster garden stake.  When Elaine came back, I asked her how much it was.  It was only $14, so I bought it.  I am not a big fan of antiques unless it is something that came down through my family.  But this just spoke to me.  I didn't take a picture of it, but I am putting it in my yard very soon and will show it to you.

We headed to Rockvale Mall then.  There were only a couple of places we wanted to look at.  We started with Christmas Tree Hill.  I usually want to buy everything in that store, but this time nothing really spoke to me.  Very strange.  But then I don't need more things in this house.

We were heading over to Reading China and Glass when Elaine pointed out the sky.  It was quickly turning black.  We knew we were in for a big storm, so decided to head for the hotel which was only a block away.  We just got there, checked in, and the heavens opened.  We couldn't even get our luggage out of the car.  It was like a monsoon.  So we headed to our room to use the bathroom, etc.  In just a few minutes, the sun was out and Elaine went to get our bags.

It was still early so we decided since the storm was over to go back to the outlets and go through one of our favorite stores, Reading China and Glass.  My legs were hurting big time and I knew I couldn't walk through that huge store, but I also knew that a lot of good things are kept iup front right near the doors.  And I would have a cart to lean on to help me get through.

I was right.  The store had been rearranged.  When we were checking out the cashier told us it had been changed during covid when everything was shut down.  They had been wanting to do it for awhile, but this was the perfect time when the store was already closed.  Instead of a large part of the store taken up with cash registers, they are now in a row across the front of the store.  And there is a lot more food toward the front.  There were also all kinds of little gadgets, utensils, etc.  I got a little whisk that Joe was looking for to make scrambled eggs.  He was happy when he saw that.  I also got a Scrub Daddy and a Scrub Mommy, some popcorn jellybeans, and some Joe's Tea iced tea.  Sweet for me, unsweetened for Joe.  We also got bottles of water.  So much cheaper than in the hotel's vending machines.

We weren't really hungry, but needed to eat something.  It was around dinner time.  Many years ago we had tried the Waffle House for breakfast and didn't like it.  But we decided to give it one more try.  Elaine got a grilled cheese sandwich and hash browns.  It was awful.  I got an angus hamburger and hash browns.  It was super greasy.  The grease poured off of it onto the plate.  I will say mine was better than Elaine's which wasn't even cooked all the way.  The cheese wasn't even melted.  So two fails and Waffle House is off of our list of ever eating there again.

We went back to the hotel, turned on a movie to watch, and I went right to sleep.  I am not used to being up all day.  Alright, I admit to taking a nap every day.  I'm getting old.  I was tired!

That's the end of the first day.  I did get up around midnight, got into my pjs and brush my teeth, but that was about all once we got back to the room.  I tried to stay up and talk.  I really did.  *sigh*

I'll be back later with Day Two.

Have a great day.

Kathy