Visiting Amish country around Lancaster, PA

Left Niagara Falls after lunch on Friday, October 8 and traveled most of the day to reach Lancaster, PA. We had dinner and went to bed early in order to spend the next morning in the Amish country.

Amish home in the country

We traveled to Bird in Hand where we picked up a guide for our morning outing in the countryside.  He pointed out that the Amish people have beautiful homes, all without modern conveniences such as electricity.


 We visited this farm and saw the dairy barn with the cows inside the barn.  They sell the milk and butter to people in the area.  The Amish have small farms and do not use tractors with rubber tires; just the metal ones.  Most of the kids ride modified bicycles they call Scooters.

Schools are very small and located in small communities.  More like home schooling it seems to me.

Pictured below is a "mock Amish wedding".  A couple was chosen from our group to get married by a Mennonite minister.  The ceremony took place in the school house.  Then all the guests stayed for a big wedding feast.

We went to a restaurant at Bird in Hand where we were served food such as found at a typical wedding feast.  The food was very good.

Amish wedding taking place (bride and groom were Dr. Joe and his wife Sue Herod from our group)

 This is an example below of an Amish country home.  The houses were all so neat and clean.  Never saw any junk or clutter in the yards.  They rode in buggies pulled by mules and horses so they didn't have any junk cars in the yards.   Most of the homes had clothes lines attached to cables so the line could be high off the ground.  We saw clothes flapping in the wind all over the country-side.  I wondered if Sat. was laundry day instead of the typical Monday.

Old Amish home

We left the Amish country later in the afternoon and headed back to our hotel to rest and get ready to go to the Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster, about 20 miles from where we were staying.

It took us much longer to get to the theater than we had planned and we didn't have time to eat at the restaurant at the theater.  We barely got there in time to get inside and get seated before the play "Joseph" began.   It was wonderful!  A magnificant theater and even better play.  Live animals on the stage was amazing.  When we were getting seated I heard someone from the back call my name, and waving. i looked to see where he was sitting and at intermission I went over and there were friends from Elba, AL!

Hershey's Chocolate World

They knew we were going to be there and were looking for us.  They were on a tour also to another area of the country and stopped by Lancaster.

We got early on Sunday, Oct. 14 and drove to the beautiful town of Hershey, PA and toured the town that the chocolate baron built.  Then on to Hershey's Chocolate World.  Toured the factory and enjoyed a fun 3-D movie telling about the history of Hershey.  It was fun watching Hershey Kisses flying toward you as we looked at the presentation wearing 3-D glasses.

Of course you exited the theater into a giant gift shop filled with Hershey products.  I bought our son Bill a giant Hershey kiss for his chocolate tooth.  Later saw them at WalMart for about half of what I paid for it at the gift shop!    

We left Hershey around noon and drove to Knoxville, TN where we spent the last night on the road.  Got up early the next morning and drove through the Great Smoky Mountains toward Birmingham and then home to Coffee County.  A weary group of travelers were happy to get back home in the middle of the afternoon.

We said good-bye to all the friends we had made on the trip.  After 15 days on a bus,  they were almost like family to us!