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...