Lancaster County, PA

Warning: This post contains pictures. Many, many pictures.

The following pictures give you a visual of what our vacation looked like. As I'm sure you've concluded from the post title, we visited Lancaster County, PA. Beautiful, beautiful place. Very green with rolling hills, lots of farmland dotted with barns and big houses, lines and lines of laundry flapping in the breeze, a regular clip-clop of horses. And before I forget to mention, it was also....busy. Very busy. Tourist hot spot? Oh yes indeed.

But after a stop here...

...where we ate some very delicious yummyness...

...and a pit-stop so Hadassah could help Daddy with something...

we drove up to here:

 Need a romantic retreat? Mother daughter date? R&R?

 We found just the place...

...isn't it beautiful? I found it on the Vacation Rental By Owner site (vrbo.com). It was so lovely, it deserves its own post. Stay tuned.

For one absolutely lovely week, we spent time relaxing, hanging out...

...exploring...

...and having fun. (Tim ventured into the creek and made it across a large, deep hole. He celebrates.)

Tim and Hadassah also did some serious studying. Nothing like a piece of lunch to learn about the fascinating world of ants.

We also did a lot of touring around the area. A borrowed GPS allowed us to explore all the (less busy) back-roads and not get lost. Which was an interesting concept: Exploring the back-roads allowed us to get a little better glimpse of how the Amish and Mennonite live. Simple, basic living. It was refreshing to watch and we couldn't help but long for it, in a way. But if it weren't for our modern technology, we would've been rather lost. At any rate - they have a beautiful place to live.

Our vacation also had its enjoyable side trips. Hadassah's absolute favorite day was spent at Dutch Wonderland. She looooooved it. The day was long, but she was determined to get the most out of it! And why not? It's not everyday we visit an amusement park geared toward little kids! Where little blonde girls can ride a train...

...glide through the air...

...ride a pony...

...get a picture with a princess...

...be a princess...

...get carted around between rides to save energy for the next one...

...wait in line to ride a car by herself...

...ride the Turtle Whirl with her mom FOUR times! (woohoo! I found a "Tilt-a-Whirl" Partner!!)...

...be a train engine (with a little help from dad)...

...cuddle tight with mom because man, this is exhausting...

...get whipped around at high speeds and giggle while doing so...

...ride through the air yet again, this time in a cable car-ish...

...and best of all, get a picture with a dragon!!!

I kid you not, this was the single most exciting thing for Hadassah the entire day. A picture with Duke? A DRAGON?! Yes please, mom!!

And, if you're not sick of pictures yet, we also got a few shots of our trip to the Ephrata Cloister, which was quite fascinating. (check out their pillows!) To think that someone thought this was the way to "be Christian". (check out the history page on their website). There was a nice little group of people in our tour as we explored the homes these early American settlers lived in.

Here's a shot of our tour guide in the chapel. Men and women alike wore this outfit, so that there was no individuality. You'd never know who was who from the back when the hoods were on.

And how cool is this? Tim and Hadassah are standing on floors walked on by people in the 1700's. (so was I, for that matter, and I sure thought it was incredible). The kitchen floor of this building was original.

They have an amphitheater outside for special occasion events. I rather like this picture:

I am only now realizing that we have no family shot. Not even one! Oops.

This vacation was very memorable. Hadassah still talks about Dutch Wonderland, even telling random people the story-line of the diving show she saw there. If you hear her mention green frog princes, just smile and nod and mention Dutch Wonderland. You'll make her day. It's fun when your children get old enough to really enjoy something and are actually be able to remember it! Much of our fun was watching Hadassah have fun. But it was also relaxing. Can't believe it's over.

Now the question is: Where to go next summer?