Our fun began in Strausburg, Pennsylvania. I had purchased tickets for the dinner car of the Strausburg Rail. The weather was overcast and drizzily but mild temps and we enjoyed a 45 minute ride on the steam rail while eating lunch in the dining car and enjoying the countryside. I think I did it as much for me because it brought back memories of my childhood. My mom and I often took the train to visit her family in Virginia and I do remember eating in the dining car. I have always wanted to do that again--so now I have! It started raining hard just as the ride ended and, of course, our umbrella was in the car so we got pretty wet walking back to our car--wet jeans are so pleasant! For this reason we decided to go check into our motel room and get into dry clothes.After getting into dry clothes we made a trip back out to King's on Route 30. This is a delightful store with Amish made furniture and accessories. But my favorite section is the section with wooden plaques in a variety of styles but all bearing Scripture verses or hymns. (This is the place where Blake purchased all the plaques for the Narthex at Open Bible.) We had been wanting to make a trip there for a couple of months to look for an anniversary gift for Brent and Tiff. I knew the Scripture verse I wanted but neither Bill or I had remembered seeing it when we had been there before. Bill asked if they did custom work when we first arrived and was told, no. We thought we would have to choose something else (not that there weren't many wonderful choices) and were disappointed. How delighted I was when I found--only in one style, but still the verse we were looking for--"Taste and see that the Lord is good." I knew this was a meaningful verse for them because Brent had shared how that verse had run through his head immediately after finding out that their 14 week old unborn baby had no heartbeat. And God, being God of every detail, even had it in just one color, red--which is the predominant color in Brent and Tiffany's living room (not that this is where you need to put it, Tiff.)
On the way to the store, the rain having ended, Bill commented that maybe we would see a rainbow. Just minutes after he said this we saw the most gorgeous one we ever had--and then we noticed another one next to it, much fainter but still a double rainbow. This picture doesn't quite capture its brightness. When we parked people were stopped and just staring and commenting on the beauty of it. What a treat!
We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon back at the Bird in Hand Inn swimming in their indoor pool and then relaxing in the jacuzzi. While in the hot tub we could see the wind picking up and could tell that the mild temperature of the afternoon was dipping sharply.
That evening I had made reservations at the Greenfield Inn in Lancaster. This had been build in the 1700's as a farmhouse and now is a lovely and elegant restaurant. Sadly, I had neglected to request seating in their wine cellar which is cozy and intimate so we were seating in an upstairs room. But it was still a lovely atmosphere with delicious food. Our food did take a long time arriving (it was a busy night) but we enjoyed just relaxing and being together. When our food finally arrived the server put my plate in front of me and said, "Here are your crab cakes, maam. And your prime rib, sir." Crab cakes? Excuse me, what did you say this was? Yes, the server had made a mistake when entering my order on the computer and had hit the wrong button and instead of the chicken breasts in cheese and pesto sauce I was served crab cakes. She was very apologetic and whisked our dinners away. Happily, we didn't have to wait long until she brought the correct order--which was worth the wait.The next day we had the delight of sleeping in until 8:30 a.m.! Because I had made 10:00 a.m.
reservation at Willow Valley for their Sunday Brunch, we didn't have time to attend a local church service which is usually our habit when on vacation. So I told Bill that I expected him to preach to me! We enjoyed reading taking turns reading a Psalm each and then sharing what spoke to us in that reading. We then packed up and headed to Willow Valley. We picked a good time as the Atrium was nearly empty at that time (maybe people forgot to set their clocks ahead?) We enjoyed the ambiance and the food although it is so frustrating that there are so many choices and so little tummy space! We enjoyed the omelette bar and chocolate chip pancakes made to order and lots of other yummy foods. My favorite was the featured dessert--bananas foster. I caught the chef here making the flambe sauce that is poured over ice cream. I had never had it before and it was good--and fun to watch. They even had a chocolate fountain but I ran out of tummy space before I could indulge in that. There was a low counter with cupcakes and toppings where children could decorate their own cupcakes and peanut butter and jelly for them to make their own sandwiches so, of course, I thought of how much fun it would be to have some grandchildren along!We arrived home to find Granddad relaxing the watching a home makeover show with Cheryl. It seems that we all had had a wonderful weekend!
