A Quick Break from Life

This weekend we drove to Philadelphia to visit my parents and to pick up a few of my things. As usual, we never make it out of my Mom & Dad's house without a car packed full of stuff. We scored big time in the moving paper/boxes department and can now really start thinking about packing. The weekend was a lot more than just a quick trip to pick up stuff. It was the last visit to Philadelphia before we head out to Portland - and maybe the final visit to the city since my parents may be moving themselves.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and had a wonderful dinner at our favorite microbrewery, Iron Hill. With full bellies walked over to the local high school for some pre-July 4th fireworks. Friday was pretty relaxing, my mom and I went out shopping and Jesse and my Dad stayed at home and talked about sports and other dude stuff.

Saturday, we set out for Amish country near Lancaster, PA since Jesse and I had never been. It was a beautiful drive with pristine farms for miles. We had an early lunch at Good 'n Plenty, which is a family-style restaurant serving some local favorites, such as "ham loaf." The loaf defies description (cut like a meatloaf, but very different in taste and texture). It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The menu item that more than made up for the ham loaf was their fried chicken (some of the best I've tasted), mashed potatoes, and browned buttered noodles.

The weirdest thing about the day (other than the ham loaf) was driving along the main roads behind little black carriages that were driven by the Amish. The horses were surprisingly well-behaved, considering the close proximity to passing cars, but there were a couple of times when we had to cover our eyes to avoid seeing a couple of pretty close calls. I've seen plenty of photos of the carriages and the people, but they don't do the experience justice. It is such a strange feeling to gaze as they went about their everyday "normal" lives.

I say "normal" because, well, they don't use machinery and refuse electricity. But also, they named their towns Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand and Paradise. My Dad and Jesse schooled themselves on the "Milestones in the Life of the Village of Intercourse" while my mom and I perused a quilt shop and museum. Fact: there were exactly zero milestones between 1924 (when the first bus line was established) and 1951 (when dial telephones were installed in Intercourse). Oh and 1966 was a big year for the town when "Eros Publishers, a pornography business, is turned down in its efforts to establish Intercourse as their mailing address."

The weekend was such a nice break from the intensity of Washington. We've been pretty frantic lately trying to accomplish all of our moving tasks by August 5th. For a few days, I was actually able to relax and take a breather. The downtime was definitely needed to energize for the next days to come!