AMISH COUNTRY, PA
No better way to start your day than with a hot country breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant. You might want to sit by a window so you can witness the spectacle as the children run across the fields toward the one-room school house on the horizon. Except for holidays, vacation or during harvest time, this is a daily occurrence between the hours of 8:00 and 8:30am. This morning you will embark on a guided 90-Minute Farmland Tour departing from the hotel promptly at 10:45am. This excursion will take you around the out-of-the-way back roads and country lanes to see the amazing beauty of these lands, farmed using only horses and mules, and dotted with one-room school houses just like the one nearby the hotel. Along the way you will visit roadside stands, bake shops or a craft or quilt shop on a farm. You will also take a fascinating and educational tour of the Amish Country Homestead. This authentically furnished Amish house, along with the interpretive information handed over by the guides, offers an insight into the complex riddles of a culture so different from our own. Questions such as; “If a bottled gas refrigerator is permitted, why not an electric one?”, will definitely pop up and the experienced guides will provide you with an answer. On the other hand, at the Amish Experience Theater you will gain a better understanding of what it means to be Amish by viewing “Jacob’s Choice”. The play deals with a teenager, “Jacob”, faced with the difficult decision of choosing whether to join the Amish church or leaving everything behind to become part of the modern world. Finish your day with a hearty Pennsylvania Dutch Family-Style meal at the renowned Plain & Fancy Restaurant and savor the modest, yet delicious natural cuisine of the Amish folk. (B,D)