Amish Country

This weekend we went up to Lancaster county, Pennsylvania to Amish Dutch country. Dave's cousins Beth, Debbye, Becki, and Susanna were in the area and we went up to see them. We started out the day at a HUGE Amish Farmer's Market (I keep referring to it as Amish country, but we later learned that most of the 'Amish' are actually Mennonites). It was indoors, and in addition to finding fresh produce, sticky buns, Apple Butter, Preserves, and fresh Cornbread, we also got so sample a bit of everything else (fresh pretzels, salsa, candy, pop corn, sausages, cheese...you name it, it was there).
Next up it was lunch time. We went to an Amish buffet where we stuffed ourselves with yummy wholesome food. We took this picture outside of the restaurant. Beth is sitting next to us, and Debbye and Becki are across from us. We were amazed to learn that both are pregnant with their first child and due within seven weeks of each other (they're twins, in case you can't tell from the photo).
After lunch, Beth had to go to work, so the rest of us continued on with our shopping. We stopped at two hand-stitched quilt stores. Susanna fell in love with one quilt we saw (quilt not pictured)...she took lots of pictures and is bringing them back home with her so her husband can take a look and decide whether or not to get it. I had an amazing time at the quilt stores because they also had fabric for sale. There were several civil war prints that I was musing over when a stack of homespun cotton caught my eye. One bolt was a gorgeous purple plaid, the price was right, so I bought it. The I found the drapery remnants table and got a jacquard fabric for my Tudor dress at only $2 a yard. It isn't silk damask like I really wanted, but the colors were perfect and I couldn't let a bargain like that slip by.
We ended our day at the local outlet mall. We all had very successful shopping trips. I found four dresses (but one get $10 off), and a couple were already on sale. I also got the necklace I'm wearing in the photo for 70 percent off!! The only thing better than outlet shopping is outlet shopping when everything is on sale. It makes for some ridiculous bargains.We hope to see them all long before next year's annual trip (yay...next time there will be babies!!), but next year we're going to try and time the trip so I can go with them to Hershey's chocolate day spa. It sounds perfectly decadent!