Amish Country

My extended family lives in Lancaster County. My mom's parents both grew up there and all of my great uncles and great aunts and most of their children and grandchildren live in the area. I hadn't been for 10 years so when my mom said she, Elyse, and my grandma were going to be visiting Lancaster, Matt and I drove out there for the weekend.

We saw the church in Intercourse, PA, that my great-grandfather pastored and later his son, my Great-Uncle Fred.

They had fans in the pews. This one is sportin the last supper.

These windows had been added since my last visit:

In tribute to my great-grandfather and my great-uncle.

Next to the church is the parish where my grandpa was born, and his brother, but the third brother was born in a hospital. Of all the new-fangled ideas . . .

And we had to stop by the one-room schoolhouse where Grandpa went to school.

We had breakfast with that side of the family and my grandpa's brothers told stories about the war and Dallas Seminary and sang a few bars of their high school song and made fun of Matt's Polish heritage. Welcome to the family.

After touring the tourist trap that is Kitchen Kettle and tasting 800 different types of jams, longing after handmade furniture, butcher block tables, and quaint birdhouses . . . we went to my grandma's brother's house. When we got there, Uncle Jay was picking cherries.

What a view.

I didn't get any pictures of the Amish because that's just rude, but what a different way of life! Everything seemed harmonious in New Holland, cars gave way to buggies, neighborhoods gave way to farms. Everywhere we went were pristine front lawns and so many aluminum stars on the sides of houses and barns. I want one! Clotheslines hung with black overalls and plain dresses. Signs advertising fresh eggs and produce. It was like stepping back in time.

Oh, and there was a certain soccer game that was watched. Go USA!