A Special Photo.......

First of all, a disclaimer:

I did not take this photo.

This picture looks like a postcard to me, one of those too-perfect images you see for sale. Or one of those things you find in a picture frame that you buy for a gift.

Second disclaimer:

I feel terribly guilty about posting this photo on my blog.

These are three little Amish girls who were selling cookies outside the farm where we browsed for quilts and other crafts. (It's where I bought my rug.) I saw them with my own eyes and spoke to them, so they are very real. (Yes, I bought some cookies I didn't need, only because I didn't think they would sell me one of the children.)

Amish people do not like to be photographed. They typically will allow photos taken from a distance, or from their backs, but not anything that shows their faces. They consider photographs to be graven images, and besides they do not like to attract attention to themselves. I didn't take the photo, but am I just as guilty (tacky?) for publishing it? I DID resist the temptation to post it on Facebook.

I was enthralled by these little girls. The perfection of their skin, the austerity of their hairstyles, the innocence of their smiles. One of the leaders of our tour took this photo, and she sent each of us a CD of images. I keep going back to this one again and again. Is it possible to be slightly in love with three little girls whose names I don't even know?

I learned a lot about the Amish in our brief stay there. I previously thought they had very little contact with the "English" (that's anyone who isn't Amish, so for just a couple of days I considered myself English), but that isn't the case. They do business with the English (obviously), and they have no qualms about visiting English doctors or using English hospitals. They are very friendly, at least the ones with whom we came in contact, and the Riehls, the family with whom we had dinner, demonstrated a marvelous sense of humor.

The Amish have their own schools, even though they pay school taxes in their respective communities. We saw some Amish children on their way to school, some riding the push-cycles I showed you yesterday, but many of them walking. Some of them were barefoot, and our guide said they prefer to go barefoot as long as possible. Such a tiny detail, but it was fascinating to see them all dressed up in their Amish clothing but barefoot.

The Amish do not believe in insurance; they take care of each other. In the case of disaster or catastrophe (major illness, barn fire, etc.), the Amish band together and take care of the injured party. They have huge sales, they come together to build a new barn themselves, whatever it takes to make life right again for whoever has experienced hardship. Our tour guide said in 2006, when the Amish school shooting took place (only about 7 miles from where we were), members of the Amish community were astounded at the outpouring of love and support from people all over the world. They apparently didn't think the rest of the world "cared about them."

The Amish do not operate automobiles (although it is permissible if an Amish person works for someone outside the faith and operating an automobile is part of the normal duties of the job), but they aren't AGAINST autos. They will accept a ride from an English person with a car if necessary, and some of them have a joint phone used by several farms, though it won't be INSIDE the house.

My favorite expression used to describe the Amish ways is that they "want to be IN this world, but not OF this world." I found myself comparing my own desires and ambitions with theirs, and I didn't think I looked favorable in comparison.

I even like the Amish view of education. They send their children to school through about the eighth grade (attending the same number of days required by public schools), making sure the youngsters can read and write. After that point, they are taught a vocation. The attitude is that if a person can read and WANTS to gain knowledge, he or she can acquire it at the local library. I was aghast at first, but then I decided that approach makes a lot more sense than imprisoning teenagers in their desks and attempting to force-feed them information and knowledge they may never use. Or need. (I think I hear the English Teachers United folks knocking on my door, demanding I surrender my membership card.)

I found the Amish people and their ways simply beautiful. If only I could be Amish with the Internet.

Some Photos......

I am a bit disappointed in my photos from the Pennsylvania/Virginia trip. Maybe it's because we were on the go, go, go so much and I didn't have time to properly "compose" them. (Truly, some of them were taken from the window of the bus. I mean the deluxe motor coach.) And as I typically do, I have mourned the shots I didn't get. I'm still mourning the fact that I did NOT photograph a tiny little girl from the trip Hubby and I took to Aruba in 2002. From this trip, I regret not getting a photograph of the CAMELS grazing on one of the Amish farms we drove by.

By the way, I am determined to go back to the Amish country of Pennsylvania and ride my bike. It just seems so appropriate.

Here is a sampling of some of the photographs. I won't bombard you with all of them in one sitting.

These guys were playing in the little square of an area called Kitchen Kettle in Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Oh yeah, I had to buy magnets and a shot glass from THAT place. The square had lots of souvenir shops, craft shops, and restaurants.

I fell in love with the colorful farms that dotted the Pennsylvania countryside. You can tell an Amish farm from an "English" one because there are no lines going into the buildings.

The Amish horses are beautiful.

We were trying to put our faces in the cut-outs, and we asked a bystander to take our picture. She couldn't see what was showing on the screen, we couldn't stand on top of each other, and the camera wasn't close enough. Epic fail, I guess. I think Frogger Blogger (bottom right) looks like she's in that old Brady Bunch opening scene.

The Dutch Apple Theater, where we saw Fiddler on the Roof. Wonderful production, wonderful food, and excellent desserts. It's all about the desserts.

Not a very good picture because it was taken from inside the bus. I wish we had had more opportunities to get off the bus and take photos of the scenery.

An Amish buggy. They have been required to put reflectors, lights, and a reflective triangle on them to make them safer when driving at night. Many roads have extra paving outside the travel lane to help accommodate the Amish buggies. Still, I was nervous when our bus (I mean deluxe motor coach) passed close to them. If a buggy has a visor-looking attachment on the top of the front of the buggy (a spoiler, if you will), it indicates the buggy belongs to a minister, a bishop, or other officer of the church.

Amish push-cycles. Our tour guide explained that pedals would allow travel considerably farther from home, so Amish people have modified bicycles to push-cycles, which afford mobility but I suppose aren't ideal for long distances.

Some of the many, many gorgeous quilts for sale.

More photos to come. Thanks for accompanying me virtually!

PennsylvanianTrip Day 6......

Short post before I crash.

Long ride, but I made it to the game with plenty of time to spare. I was sooooooooooooo happy to see Hubby.

Good to be home to my bed. My coffee pot. My dog. My Hubby. My computer.

Pennsylvania Trip Day 5.......

The "Monk" in me feels weird referring today as Day 5 on the Pennsylvania trip, since we are now in Virginia. But I'll work through my issues on my own time.

This was another busy, busy, busy day. As our tour guide, Deanne, said yesterday, you go on vacation to the beach to rest. You don't rest (or relax, apparently) on a tour like this one.

We spent the whole day touring Williamsburg. If you're at all familiar with Williamsburg, you know they strive to keep the historical part of the town as true to the 1700's as they can. So the only way to tour Williamsburg is on foot. (I suppose you could do it on horseback, but I left my horse at home.)

We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked some more. Oh, and we shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped.

I am not a history buff by any stretch of the imagination, but I do appreciate the history associated with Williamsburg. I'll probably be considered blasphemous for saying this, but I think Williamsburg is a little full of itself. I love the folks being in period costume all over town, but when they start talking in the present tense as if they are still IN the 1700's, I start getting a little cynical.

I know, right? Me? Cynical?

I had to laugh when one of the "craftspeople" was talking like that and an airplane could be heard overhead. I wanted to yell, "How do you explain THAT?" But of course I didn't. I thought it was clever of them to hide the cash register behind a panel of wood. Tee hee.

I am very glad we came, and I have enjoyed almost every minute. But I'm also glad to be going home tomorrow. That's what travel is all about, isn't it? I'm actually looking forward to the bus ride home tomorrow. At least I can rest.

Pennsylvania Trip Day 4........

Today was a tough day. I realize that sounds horribly ungrateful, complaining about a trip I didn't even pay for. But things did not go as planned.

We were supposed to tour Hershey (chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate), have lunch, and be on our way to Williamsburg.

Our tour guide for the last two days has been a local woman from Lancaster Cointy, Pennsylvania. She was very knowledgeable about the Amish and other local attractions, but her delivery was ... a little ... boring.

We went to Hershey this morning and went to the alumni center for the Milton Hershey school. The school, originally for disadvantaged boys, has a rich and fascinating history. Just not 3 hours' worth of fascination. (Please Google this school and read about it when you have time. I plan to. It trly is a blessing.) Even our own tour guide said she got "confused". I think she was being nice. All day we were looking forward to going to Chocolate World, and by the time we got there, we had exactly one hour. We did have a very nice lunch at the Hershey Hotel, a beautiful venue. Just try to imagine what the desserts were like at the Hershey Hotel.

We were about an hour late leaving Hershey, and that put us right outside Washington, DC right at 5:00. Oh. Joy. We sat in traffic for a little over an hour, and there were some hurting people by the time we got to a restroom. (For some reason no one wants to use the one on the bus.)

We finally got here about 9:30, and tomorrow is another busy day, touring Williamsburg. Hubby told me to take lots of pictures, so I'm thinking it's a place he and I need to come back to.

Pennsylvania Trip Day 3.......

Wow. There's no way I can adequately narrate everything we did today. Since I can't import pictures, I'll give you just a snapshot of most of our events and describe in more detail the one thing I wasn't allowed to take photos of.

We started out by going to an Amish home where they sell quilts and other handmade crafts. They had an amazing selection of quilts, including two in the cathedral window pattern, my favorite and the one I've been working on for twenty years. One of them was $975 and one was $995. I couldn't decide which one I wanted, so I bought them both.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I bought a rug. And a Christmas ornament.

We then went to a large dairy operation, where my mother complained about the smell. Sigh.

After the dairy farm we went to a pretzel factory and a chocolate factory. Please send the rest of my clothes up here. Never mind, I'm going to have to buy larger sizes if I stay here.

Then we went to see Jonah at the Sights and Sounds Theater. After I got over the fact that it was from the Bible (I know I low, I don't know what I expected either), it was a fabulous show. But we'd been on the run and eating all day, so putting us in a darkened theater might not have been a good idea. I had to get a coffee during intermission.

The highlight of the day, though, was having dinner in an Amish home. I assumed they would split our group up, since there are 30 of us. But the Amish hold church services in their homes, so they are used to hosting large groups of people. All 30 of us ate with one family. This family is particularly capable of handling it. The husband and wife have only been married 11 months, both of them having been widowed. She had 11 children, and he had 7. They have 8 children still at home, and they have 36 grandchildren.

The Amish ask that people not take photos of their faces, so I didn't get any photos at all. They have a beautiful farm, but it was dark when we finished eating, and I didn't get any photos beforehand.

Let me see if I can possibly catalog everything they served for dinner. For starters there was fresh bread, applesauce, chow-chow, and preserves. Then salad, fresh corn, mashed potatoes, green beans, fried chicken, gravy, ham and stuffing, and buttered noodles. For dessert there was a jello-type peach pie, homemade vanilla pudding, apple pie, and brownies. I may slip right into a coma.

I want to write more about my impressions of the Amish culture based on the very limited information I've gleaned from a day and a half in Pennsylvania. But it will have to wait until I'm on a real computer.

Tomorrow is off to Hershey World and then Williamsburg. Good night!

Pennsylvania Trip Day 2......

Today has been chock-full, even though we did a lot of riding again. We got to Lancaster, Pennsylvania around 1:00, and we went to a little village called Kitchen Kettle. There were lots of arts and crafts, food (of course), and lots of other shops.

We are staying at an amazing resort hotel. Each suite has two rooms, and one of the rooms has two beds. That means Katydid and I have one more bed than we need. It's a beautiful place. Tonight we went to a dinner theater production of Fiddler on the Roof that was very good. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take photos. Boo.

Speaking of photos, I have just learned that I cannot upload pictures to my blog on my iPad. Double boo. I'll just have to post the best ones after I get home.

On the agenda tomorrow is a tour of Amish farmlands, visiting a quilt and craft show (how big IS that bus and how much can I buy?), and then dinner with an Amish family tomorrow night. On the bus today we watched a DVD about the Amish culture, and I find it fascinating. The commercialism bothers me, but we'll talk about that later.

Past my bedtime - I think that's going to be a theme this week.

Pennsylvania Trip Day 1.......

Not a lot to write about tonight. We left about an hour late this morning because SOMEONE didn't check her itinerary closely enough and thought the departure time was later. (I don't know her, but she's not on my best friends list.)

The bus trip was actually pretty pleasant. We stopped often enough that we didn't get bored or crazy, but not so often that we felt we would never get here. I am by far the youngest person here, but that's to be expected in a group like this one. And it's okay with me.

We are in Harrisonburg, Virginia, our planned overnight stop on the way to Pennsylvania. This is at the limit of what the driver is allowed to drive in a day. He has a GPS device on the bus (excuse me, deluxe motor coach) that alerts his employer if he goes 5 mph over the posted speed limit. I love technology.

Katydid, Frogger (Not)Blogger and I walked back to the hotel from dinner, but I'm afraid I would have to walk all the way to Pennsylvania to make up for all I ate.

I guess I COULD have taken some photos on the bus (excuse me, deluxe motor coach) today, but I didn't. I hope to do a better job tomorrow.

Another Trip......

I'm leaving next Monday on another trip, and I hope to have a plethora of pictures to share. In fact, I bought a camera connection kit for my iPad (I'm not lugging the laptop, and I'll explain why in a moment) so I can upload pictures each day. I hope I hope I hope I hope. (My iPad is one of the first generation ones, so it doesn't have a camera.)

This trip is with my mother and both sisters. I know, I know, I hear you screaming "hypocrite" because I'm going on a trip with the same woman I've referred to as the She-Devil. (On her nickel, too.) Believe me, she's been called worse names. And she has earned every single one of them.

Example: At the company where she worked before starting her own business, they were putting a big fancy aquarium in their newly renovated lobby. Someone came up with the idea of buying a fish to match each employee's personality. There was a long pause, then someone said, "Where the hell are we going to get a barracuda for Carol that will fit in that tank?" So it's not just her children who think she's harsh and fearsome.

She has recently joined this traveling club at her bank, a group with whom she has made several trips. You can only be a member of this group if you have x number of dollars in your bank account. That goes against my grain (not to mention my bank account), but it's right up Mom's alley. To be fair (fairER?), Mom had a poor upbringing and a hard time with five kids and a worthless husband, even harder to feed all of us after the divorce. She got a whopping SIX DOLLARS a week for each child, and by golly that was still the amount my father was paying when I turned 18. He had started sending the checks to ME by that time, and he dutifully wrote a $24 check every month. No more, no less.

But I digress.

Mom enjoys traveling. Wait, let me restate that. Mom enjoys THINKING about traveling. She enjoys the looking forward to it, the planning it, the packing, the talking about it. She hates almost everything else about it. She once raised holy heck on a cruise ship because the LIBRARY WASN'T OPEN during its posted hours. She missed a connecting flight one other time (I thought it served her right for flying from Savannah to Atlanta to get on a plane to Tampa), and I was astounded when they didn't give her the entire airline as compensation.

Don't even get me started on the time she took Sweet Girl and my then-three-year-old nephew on a Disney cruise. She has such fond memories of that cruise, and both children were scarred for life. Sweet Girl called me crying about her Nanny's treatment of the youngster before they even got to the port.

Darn, I have digressed again. Back to THIS trip.

Even though a group is going on the trip, it can't be much fun to travel alone, so Mom talked Katydid into going with her. When Hubby and I were in Wisconsin, she called to see if I wanted to go too. I bit back my immediate response of, "Hell no," and said something almost worse, "But there's a football game that weekend." Then she told me that Frogger Blogger was going too, and I told her I would think about it. I couldn't let all three of them go off on a trip and not go myself! Besides, that would be an odd number, and it would make room assignments and seating assignments on the motor coach either difficult or crowded, so I agreed to go. Besides, I'm the one who is retired, and the other two had to use precious vacation days to make the trip.

And I AM looking forward to the trip, truly. I am grateful for the fact that I CAN go, and I'm appreciative of the fact that Mom insists on footing the bill for all of us. I'm NOT excited about riding on a bus for two days. The last time I was on a motor coach, I accompanied Sweet Girl's high school band to New York City for them to perform in Carnegie Hall. (Very cool experience.) I left a voice mail for Hubby somewhere in New Jersey along the lines of, "Just so you know, Hell is not a place. It's a bus ride." And they were good kids, truly. That's just a lot more sitting than I can handle.

This trip is to the Pennsylvania Amish Country and Williamsburg, Virginia. We are leaving early Monday morning from the bank, a little less than two hours from my house. We are going to see a dinner theater production of Fiddler on the Roof and a production of Jonah, with which I am not familiar. We are going to tour Amish farmlands and have dinner with an Amish family. (Please, please, please, please Mother, don't find fault with anything. Please.) Then we are going to my personal favorite, Hershey World. They can just leave me there. We tour Williamsburg the next day, and then make the trek home on the motor coach. When we get back at 6:00 PM on Saturday (Mom's 80th birthday), I will jump in my car and drive very fast (but not breaking the speed limit -  much) to the aforementioned football game. I probably won't make the 7:30 PM kickoff, but Hubby will be there already and I shouldn't miss too much of the game.

I just happened to have a picture of an Amish buggy handy. Sure it's a Wisconsin Amish buggy, but it fits the topic. Sort of.

Because we are traveling on a motor coach, luggage space is naturally limited. I don't like having a bunch of luggage ANYWAY, particularly when there is more than one hotel involved. Hence the reason I'm going to have to depend on my iPad instead of my laptop. It's not that bad, but it's a pain to use HTML code when I'm blogging. On a positive note, you won't have to read any lengthy posts like this one all next week. Score! I'm going to take a shoulder bag slightly larger than my usual purse that will hold my camera, iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Nintendo DS. (I've got to have a variety of things to do on the bus ride, but I'll mainly read.)

I think it will be an exciting adventure. And we'll see how this one goes before I make a decision about accompanying Mom to Australia in April. Fifteen days...holy smokes.