A little vacation close to home-Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Day Trip to Lancaster County

Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Our recent day trip to Lancaster County proves that you don’t have to go far away to discover new things and have a good time!  Joan’s brother and his wife, Tom & Maureen, visited us from Montana and requested a trip to Lancaster County during their stay, an easy request to honor since it’s one of our favorite places to visit too. 



We started out early in the morning since we had to be back in Philadelphia in the evening for a performance of Ballet X.  It was cloudy when we started, out, not a good sign for the day, unfortunately.  We drive one hour west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the Morgantown exit, where we got on one of Lancaster County’s beautiful back roads, Route 23. The sun came out and we enjoyed the green countryside and lush farm fields. Driving through Goodville, PA, we were fortunate to see our friend Vera Newswanger out tending her beautiful garden, so we stopped for a visit.  We had purchased many quilts from Vera over the years we were innkeepers at The Queen Victoria Bed & Breakfast in Cape May, New Jersey, and our guests often remarked on the fine quality of the quilts. 



Baby Quilt by Vera Newswanger

Vera welcomed us to her spotless home and showed us her quilt showroom, where we once again admired the fine work of the quilts she and her church friends had made.  In fact, Joan couldn’t resist temptation, so bought a crib quilt for friends who recently had a baby!  Tom & Maureen enjoyed not only the quilts, but the sound of Vera’s “Dutchy” accent.  It was a welcome beginning to our Pennsylvania Dutch day. 



After bidding Vera goodbye, we continued a few miles west on Route 23 to East Earl, and the Shady Maple complex, where we had a traditional country breakfast in the grocery store Maple Leaf café, recently enlarged and redecorated.  A thick, crisply fried slice of scrapple still creamy on the inside and eggs-what’s not to like?


Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

After cruising the aisles of Shady Maple, admiring all the variety of smoked meats, delicious-looking baked goods, and wide variety of produce, we were surprised when we returned outside to find that the sun had given way to rain.  We drove through the downpour up Route 322 to Ephrata, where we stopped to visit the Ephrata Cloister, an historic site maintained by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.  



Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

The sun came out just as we arrived, and we spent some time enjoying the historic site.  One of America's earliest religious communities, the Ephrata Cloister was founded in 1732 by German settlers seeking spiritual goals rather than earthly rewards. Gathered in unique European style buildings, the community consisted of celibate Brothers and Sisters, and a married congregation of families.   At the zenith of the community in the 1740s and 1750s, about 300 members worked and worshiped at the Cloister.  Today the National Historic Landmark site has a small museum exhibit area that clearly explains the philosophy of the settlers and their daily life in the Cloister.  After perusing the displays, we did a self-guided walking tour of the historic site, enjoying visits to the carpenter’s, printer’s and weaver’s houses and the bake house, as well seeing the massive Saron and Saal, or Sister’s House and Meeting House.  You can do a virtual tour of the buildings by clicking on this link.  A highlight of the visit was talking with the Pennsylvania State archeologist, who was leading a dig behind the weaver’s house, who explained what he and his team were discovering.  An obligatory visit to the well-stocked gift shop concluded our visit to this charming and historic part of Lancaster County.

Continuing on back roads past the farm fields, we found our way to Lititz, recently voted the “coolest small town in America” where we visited another Pennsylvania landmark of sorts, the Wilbur Chocolate Company factory.  Our very favorite dark chocolate Wilbur buds are made in Lititz, and you can smell the scent of chocolate in town.  We toured the little “Candy Americana Museum” where we saw chocolate molds, pots and tins and viewed a video about how chocolate is grown and processed.  There was a chef demonstrating how to make chocolate truffles, so of course we had to have a taste or two, then buy all the necessary ingredients, as well as a good supply of dark chocolate buds. (Joan's advice:  suck, don't chew!)

Lititz really is a cool little town, so although the sun was bright and hot, we strolled the tree-lined Main Street, past the General Sutter Inn, and the Sutter House across the street where John Sutter of California Gold Rush fame once lived.  (We were sorry we couldn't stay overnight with our friends Debbie & Werner Mosimann, innkeepers of the Swiss Woods Bed & Breakfast Inn, which is always our choice for the best place to stay in Lancaster County.)  Charming antique and gift shops beckoned us, but the best was the Matthew 25 Thrift Shop at 45 E. Main Street.  Immaculately clean, with well-displayed items all organized by color and size, the shop had very friendly staff who helped us with our purchases of a sport coat for Dane and a yoga top for Joan.  We love thrift shopping and almost always find something.  Matthew 25 was a real find and the bonus is that we learned that the net profit is given away to local nonprofits, churches, hospitals, and schools that help meet emergency needs of people living in Lancaster County.  

It was getting late in the afternoon by the time we left Lititz, continuing to follow back roads north and east to Adamstown.  We stopped at the Oley Valley Architectural Antiques, one of The Queen Victoria’s antique suppliers, and were pleased to see the owner, Joel Zettler, at the helm.   Joel has a huge warehouse loaded with all kinds of juicy antiques, especially architectural antiques.  It turn out that the film industry has become one of Joel’s best customers, using his wonderful antiques for sets in many recent movies.  Joel told Tom a bar in Bozeman, Montana had just installed one of his bar-backs.  

Our final destination was the Stoudt’s Black Angus restaurant, adjacent to Stoudt’s Brewery, one of the pioneering microbreweries in America, and Stoudt’s Antique Mall, which, alas, is only open on weekends.  In the past we have scored many finds at the booths of Stoudt’s antique dealers.  But breakfast had been a long time ago, and nibbles of those Wilbur truffles didn’t keep us going long, so it was time for an early dinner at Stoudt’s.  We enjoyed some of their flagship brews along with our beef stroganoff, jagerschnitzel and smoked pork loin chops.  Good German food and beer to top off our Pennsylvania Dutch day in Lancaster County.  And the ride home was just over an hour.  A great getaway to beautiful countryside and a step into the past to give our Montana family a taste of Pennsylvania Dutch country.