Happy Spring!

Wow! Have we been busy!! Our apologies for this late entry to our journal...

We've had many wonderful guests this past month from ALL over-Australia, Peru, Scotland, from all over the US, many family and friends from VA...plus we were part of an art tour for the month of April hosting open houses on Sundays and Wednesdays. And when we didn't have guests we had a few days off to do some spring projects (painting the upstairs common room and dining room, new kitchen floor, cleaning and mulching flower beds just to name a few...).

Wish we could take the credit for our beautiful yard and gardens-the credit belongs to the former owners, Jim and Pat. Everyday we discover another surprise in our gardens. Finally, the yard we've always wanted-lots of flower beds, plethora of tulips (one of my favorite flowers), fountains...

Our schedule did allow us some time to expore a few places. When Lauren was home for spring break, we toured the Landis Valley Museum, which is not too far from us-a wonderful recreation of life here in the early 1900's.

Heidi and some visiting friends went over to Intercourse to the Kitchen Kettle Village and went on an Amish wagon ride through the country side-absolutely beautiful! Be sure to ask for Elsie-she was a fantastic guide.

There is so much to do here! We highly recommend visiting the Lancaster Visitor Center website and visiting the center once you get here. Whatever your interests are, let us know and we will try to get as much information as we can before your visit.

Lunch at Lily's

Not your mother’s meatloaf…
Mary Lynn has proven to be an indispensable friend during the ‘getting to know the area’ period of our lives. She has become the go-to girl whenever we need to find the best of something. So when she invited us to lunch at Lily’s on Main (also known as Lily's American Cafe) in Ephrata, we knew it would be fabulous. The restaurant is decorated in the art deco style of the 1930s. Be sure to check out all the little art deco style lamps on the tables-I absolutely love them! The menu has some very creative selections, which made it difficult to decide. We chose to have the grilled Kobe meatloaf, and as the title says, it’s not your mother’s meatloaf. It’s a very sophisticated version (ketchup not needed-my mom used to put an inch layer of the stuff over the top!)-the meal of meatloaf with mashed gold potatoes and asparagus was beautifully presented in a tower fashion. Now this is comfort food! After savoring our food, we decided to just look at the desert tray-after all, this is research- we have to be able to tell our guests the lowdown on this place-Big mistake! Again, very tough decision. The one that got our vote was the ‘turtlemisu’-a very clever rendition of tiramisu with caramel and nuts. Absolute heaven!

Another cool note to point out is that the restaurant is adjacent to a very retro looking movie theater, showing first run movies. BE sure to check that out. Lily's American Cafe is definitely a wonderful place to send guests.

Our new Amish friend...

Coming to this area, you can’t help but notice that there is another world living and breathing right beside the world ‘we’ live in. We're sorry to say that we don’t really know very much about the stoic people we now live amongst-the Amish. We’ve been a little uneasy about offering the ‘Amish dinners’ that is so popular among tourists for fear of exploiting the Amish. Before Jim and Pat left the area, Pat arrange for us to experience one such dinner and to meet one of the women she sends guests to. Her name is Amanda and was sweet as can be. It was a delightful time. Amanda was just as inquisitive about us as we were about her. We left her home with a greater understanding-she explained to us why she offers this experience. It provides her a little income to help take care of her family. Many of the Amish women do these dinners as a way to help the family with farm expenses. Sadly, many of the Amish are unable to keep their land.

Rachael is the other Amish woman that Pat spoke so highly about. She’s been taking a break (until March) from the dinners, as she recovers and adjusts after the birth of her sixth child. I really wanted to meet her and to see where I would be sending our guests. So Lauren, our little baker, made some big chocolate chip cookies for us to take on our visit. We had a nice time, getting to know each other, watching her interact with her older children when they came home from school, really not so different from us “English”. The children were very polite, as was Rachael’s husband Samuel. I knew right away that Rachael and I would become fast friends. This past weekend, we had several guests who requested dinner at Rachael’s, if she was up to it. Rachael said it would be great to do sort of a practice run to see how things went with the baby-I decided to join along. As we drove towards Rachael’s (it’s only 3 miles or so) the sun was starting to set low over the farmland-this perhaps is my favorite time to drive the country side. The land is so beautiful…

Rachael and her family welcomed us with great hospitality, letting us share a wonderful meal and fellowship, followed by a tour of the farm. Our evening ended on a sweet note-Shoo Fly Pie! Our guests couldn’t get enough of it and suggested that we should sell them at the inn for guests to take home… guests could order them when they make their reservations. Rachael and I exchanged a look of inspired partnership and agreed to meet soon to work out the details…
To learn more about the Amish way of life:
http://www.800padutch.com/amish.shtml

A sad time...

We lost our brother David on February 6th. He was only 48-we are still stunned and heartbroken. We last spoke to him on Christmas Day-he called to say he was genuinely happy for us in our new adventure as innkeepers and was planning to visit in March. He, like John, had retired from the Coast Guard and had started a career with the FAA. We will miss him greatly.

We want to thank all who contacted us and helped us through this sad time. What a blessing we found in Marcia, the woman who inn-sat for us while we attended the service in Massachusetts. (She had to shovel snow and spread salt several times and then awoke to no power-she was still able to provide a bountiful feast for our guests.) And to our scheduled guests Fran and Jim, for their understanding-what wonderful people.

It is times like these that we are reminded at how unpredictable life can be, not knowing what tomorrow brings. It makes us realize even more to appreciate all that God has given us and to treasure our time together. A special friend once said that grief is the price we pay for loving someone. David’s phone call on Christmas Day was such a gift…our last words to each other were “I love you”. Remember that next time you are talking to a loved one-what will your last words be?

Lunch Date

One day last week, Mary Lynn, a friend from our trivia team, invited us to lunch-she thought we needed to be exposed to a few places outside of Lititz, but really just a few miles away. The first place she introduced us to is a small restaurant that serves Puerto Rican food called The Home Plate Restaurant - Spanish Cuisine on Manheim Ave. in Lancaster. What a lunch! We had baked chicken with beans and rice. The chicken was so moist and seasoned to perfection. And you can’t beat the price-$5.00!

We then proceeded to another little find of Mary Lynn’s. La Dolce Vita Courthouse Bakery on Duke Street. It so reminded us of the great Italian bakeries back home in Rhode Island- full of glossy fruit tarts, éclairs, cannoli’s, every Italian cookie imaginable, gorgeous cakes, and in one case some fantastic looking antipasto salads and sandwiches so pretty, they should be in a magazine. We were still pretty full from lunch so we were able to walk out with just a small sampling of éclairs and cookies. And speaking of cookies, Mary Lynn broke out the pignoli cookies on the ride home- let’s just say we may never eat another store packaged cookie again. This is a soft cookie full of almond flavor covered in pine nuts. I think next time we should go to the bakery BEFORE we have lunch...

Our Big Night Out

On the 4th Thursday of the last three months, we’ve been joining a group at a local watering hole, The Toy Soldier, to participate in a game of ‘trivia’. There are five rounds in which you work with your team to answer various questions based on historical and pop cultural facts. These rounds may consist of fill in the blanks, true or false, map locations, picture identification, etc… The prizes that are awarded are bragging rights, mardi gras beads, and a gift certificate to the above watering hole. We can’t tell you how much we have looked forward to this these past few months. Pat, the previous owner, is the one who introduced us to this and our little team. She must have foreseen that we, being new to the area and not knowing another soul other than the people at the bank and various utility workers, would be in need of some other entertainment/social interactions.

Kathy, the leader/hostess of the trivia night, does an excellent job at coming up with the trivia questions and keeping us all on task. Pat told us she is the go-to girl if we have questions about the town or where to find whatever. Kathy is a 'renaissance woman' in that she has so many talents. One of them being a writer for the local paper, The Lititz Record. We've enjoyed her reflections on life-very witty. She is also involved with the Lititz Historical Foundation, another great resource for us. Another place you'll find Kathy is at Wilber's. When you visit Wilber Chocolate, be sure to check out some of her creations behind the glass in the museum. Pretty amazing stuff. And if she’s working, she’ll be the one wearing cowboy boots.

Strolling down Main Street...

Since moving to Lititz, we have been trying to do some 'meet and greets" with the stores on Main Street. Although it's been quite chilly here, it was a beautiful brisk day to take a stroll in this lovely town. Our first stop was to the hair salon 'apPIERences' to talk about possibly creating some mani/pedi packages to add to our 'Girlfriends Getaway' packages. The women working there are eager to help us with this-our packages are a work in progress so keep checking back! Our next stop was to a great little shop we found last month, 'Archeologie'. Here you will find an eclectic collaboration of antiques and home decor. We just wanted to check in with the shop owner, who is always so nice, and of course to look around. Some of her daughter's work, who is a young, up and coming artist, is on display. If you're in town for the next Lovin' Lititz Every 2nd (Feb 8th), be sure to stop by to hear a trio play some cool funky jazz.

We decided to check out 'A Perfect Blend', which is a tea room, gift shop, and cafe. We perused the gift shop, which has plenty to look at-cookbooks, tea cups, and of course, tea-lots of it! I can't wait to try them all! The smells coming from the cafe side of the building won us over. We hadn't planned on having lunch there but... If you decide to have lunch there, ask to sit near the windows on Main-it's a bright room and nice place to relax and watch the world go by. I had the crustless quiche and beef barley soup and John had the sour dough griller of different cheeses, bacon and tomato-yummo! The soup was reminiscent of my Mom's soup. I decided to be a little decadent and ordered a chocolate raspberry hot chocolate-it was probably the best I've ever had-so good. They also serve a 'high tea', which I will definitely try out-soon. If you decide to go for the high tea, be sure to make reservations or let us know and we will make them for you. To take a look at their offerings, go to www.aperfectblend.com.

Our last stop of the day was to 'The Main Street Peddler', a gift store of folk art and antiques. We could have stayed there for hours. There is so much to look at and we enjoyed the ambiance of the place. The lady working today was able to give us some great information about the area and was so pleasant to talk to, a common trait among the people we have met here in Lititz.