Written by Kim
When we left NJ it felt more like the start of our trip but it’s already day 5 since we left home. We traveled 2 1/2 hours through Nj to Lancaster City, PA. We didn’t do the typical Amish tour we went into the city.
Our first stop was the central market which is only open on Tuesdays and the weekends so we got lucky as it was Tuesday. It’s not a huge market but lots of fresh and homemade things. We bought some gooodies – some mango salsa, apricot jam, bourbon barbecue sauce, peaches and nectarines. We each had an oatmeal cookie – yum!
After perusing the market we grabbed some lunch at The Lancaster Dispensary right across the street. The food was delicious.
After lunch we did a walking tour that told us all about the history of Lancaster much of which was around the American Revolution. Here’s a good trivia fact you may not know. Lancaster was an important munitions center during the Revolutionary war. It was National Capital of the American colonies for one day on September 27, 1777, when the Continental Congress was fleeing British.
The city of Lancaster was home to several important figures in American history. James Buchanan, the 15th president of the US lived here. Thaddeus Steven’s, who gained notoriety as a radical abolishist lived here. Fulton Opera house, named for Robert Fulton the inventor of the steamboat is here. Lastly, Hershey invented his chocolates here before moving out to what is now Hershey, PA.
Trinity church is one of the oldest churches in America established in 1730. It is gorgeous with stained glass windows surrounding the sanctuary that depict the life of Christ. The pipe organ was amazing. Pews had doors because they were rented by families – to this day people request to the ushers to sit in their family pew.
For those who’ve read our previous blog posts, you may remember the painted bears in Cherokee. Well…we were excited to learn that Lancaster had a similar art project. In 2022, the Keys for the City program allowed local artists to paint pianos that were placed around the city for people to play.
We decided maybe Lancaster is a good place to try a game of trivia. You know we love trivia, What an adventure and story we have. We found trivia about 20 minutes from the hotel in a brewery that had a good food menu so thought we’d give it a try. It was a little over the river and through the woods to get there but very pretty ride
When we got to the brewery they told us they didn’t have enough teams so weren’t playing. Now what – that didn’t get us down Alex found trivia at 8 pm about 30 minutes away (it was 7 at the brewery) so off we went. A little more gas in our big Explorer but we were determined. We came in 4th only 3 points out of the money! If we only got the last bonus question we would have won. How many states in the US don’t have sales tax? We guessed 4 but were wrong. We had 2 of the right ones. Answer below in picture caption.
We stayed at a Hampton Inn a little west of Lancaster in Mount Joy. After a quick breakfast we are off to Pittsburgh next. Until then….
Amish County!