Amish Country

At the beginning of November, Nadia and I took an overnight trip to Amish Country. I had never been there, and I heard that it was really pretty, unique, and that there was great foliage. Naturally, I was intrigued. Plus, I heard that they had really awesome soft pretzels. Everything I heard about Amish Country was definitely true. It was really pretty and it was cool to see horse-pulled buggies sharing a road with cars and trucks. It was nice to wake up and hear horses clopping by. It felt like I could've been waking up in colonial times or something.









I decided to wear this dress from ModCloth because it felt very prairie-like to me with its big bell sleeves and peasant style in general. I'm glad I bought it because it's really comfortable and the color is gorgeous! When we first got to Lancaster, we walked around and explored. We went to downtown Lancaster which is actually more modern and city-like and it was really cute! We went into some shops and food markets and then did the same once we headed into Amish Country. I got so many treats on this trip. I had three slices of pie while there and I took two slices home with me. I also got a pumpkin whoopie pie and a bottle of Holiday wine from a local vineyard. I am saving that for a Christmas party! There was this place that had a lot of wines to taste, and I had so many that I really liked including one made with Concord grapes. It tasted like grape juice and it was amazing.









We ate at a really great restaurant called Plain and Fancy. It was one of those family style places where you eat with strangers and you can eat as much as you want. The food was really good! We had fried chicken, another chicken pot pie-type dish, lots of veggies, mashed potatoes, and probably other stuff that I'm forgetting. They also had dessert! We sat with an older couple from Kansas and two younger women from New York. It was cool to hear about their lives and where they live.







The next day, we started the day off with a pretzel from Immergut, which is an Amish pretzel shop. Katherine from Much Adoo had recommended it to me a long time ago as being the best pretzel ever. It definitely held up to this claim. This was the best pretzel I've ever had in my entire life.  I wish I could have them more often. From there, we headed to the Wolf Sanctuary. They have so many wolves on their property and it was really cool to be so close to them. They were all behind fences, of course, but they had a lot of land to roam around in!















We went on the hunt for a covered bridge, which for some reason ended up being a very difficult task. We ended up stopping off in Lititz and ate at a cute bistro type place called Tomato Pie Cafe. Lititz itself was such a cute town. We went through some of the shops there, including a chocolate one! Eventually, we did find a covered bridge where we stopped and took a walk along the trail nearby.

Dress: ModCloth//Tights: Target//Shoes: Payless//Leaf Crown: Francesca's//Sunglasses: Coney Island//Lipstick: Colourpop

The final part of our trip was the best part, and it's so awesome how it all came to work out. We had heard about how there was a bunch of train attractions in a town south of Lancaster called Strasburg. It seemed like it might be kind of cool, so we decided to drive down there and see if anything was worth sticking around for before we went home.  When we got down there to the area, we saw this old steam train at the station and thought it looked cool, so we pulled into the parking lot. I looked up their website to see what it was all about, and it said that they closed at 6. It was about 5:50, so we figured we missed whatever had happened, only it seemed like there were a lot of people on the train that were just sitting there and not getting off. We thought that was odd if the train was done for the day. We decided that these people were probably just waiting to be told to get off the train, so we turned around to leave. Literally as we were facing the street waiting to turn onto it, I just happened to decide to look more into the train schedule on their website and I noticed that they have a Wine and Cheese train where you get served on the train as you take a short ride through the countryside. I also noticed that they were doing it that day. I also noticed that it said the last train leaves at 6 pm. Nadia and I freaked out, turned around, parked the car, and hastily made our way to the ticket booth. When it was our turn at the window, I said I wanted a ticket for the Wine and Cheese train. The ticket person said "There's only two tickets left" and I said, "THAT'S OURS!". In addition to there only being two tickets left when we got up to the window, it just so happened that those tickets were only available because the people who originally bought them had canceled due to sickness. It was like it was meant to be! The train ride was SO COOL. It felt so old timey! The train whistled and smoked and the chairs were actual chairs instead of bench seats like on a normal train. There were little tables as well. The cheese was great, the wine was delicious and was actually from the same vineyard as the Concord wine I liked. It was the coolest thing we did, in my opinion. I'm so glad it was able to happen!









Overall, Amish Country has a very relaxing atmosphere. There's actually a lot to do and a lot of little towns to visit, so I would have actually liked to stay maybe an extra day or two in addition to the two days we spent there. I would definitely go back again sometime, especially for the pretzels, wine, and pie! :)