Jiggity Jog...

When I was a kid and we traveled anywhere with my Grandmother, she would always sing this song...

To market to market to buy a fat pig,
Home again home again jiggity jig.
To market to market to buy a fat hog,
Home again home again jiggity jog.

I find myself singing the same song when I'm returning home from a trip.  Memories...

So before I get to the trip, I have to show you what was waiting in the mail for me when I arrived home.  Some time ago I won a contest on Mouse's blog for a PIF.  She was to stitch something for me, and I would stitch something for someone else to Pay it Forward.  Her stitched picture arrived in the mail while I was away but I have since picked it up at the post office and here it is in all it's glory...

I will be framing this soon, can't wait to hang it on my wall.  Anyone who has been to my house knows I adore lighthouses, and this one is so beautifully stitched.  I love it, thank you so much Mouse, from the bottom of my heart!!

I was also able to finish another of the crazies, and here it is.  It is Winter from Filigram.  I just love the birds in this pattern!

So...about that trip...
Last year around this time, my DH surprised me with a short getaway while our son was on a church youth group trip.  He had so much fun last year, he decided to surprise me again this year with a trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  He told me where I was going (ok, truth is I guessed and he confirmed) but didn't tell me the plans he had made.  We stayed in the most divine Bed and Breakfast called the Apple Bin Inn.  Jamie and Steve, who owned the place, were charming hosts and Jamie is an excellent cook.  The accommodations were wonderful, so comfortable and charming, I just can't say enough good things about this place.  I hope we are able to go back again and see Jamie and Steve.  They made arrangements for us to have dinner with an Amish family, as well as point out some places of interest.   Thank you so much, Jamie and Steve, for making our trip so memorable.  We met some nice people each morning at breakfast, a lovely couple from Australia, some ladies from Boston who were administrators of the youth soccer league there, and a couple with their granddaughter who made breakfast conversation lively and fun.  And I can't forget Steve's knock knock jokes and his moo mixer.

We were able to take a drive to see some covered bridges...

Took a ghost tour of Lancaster (just to clarify...we have fun on these tours because in reality we usually learn a lot of the history but also personal stories of real people who lived there that you don't always hear on a regular tour of the city) and met a lovely lady who knew so much history, she was so charming...

We had dinner at an Amish farm, and got to see a baby calf only a couple of hours old, but I hesitated to take pictures because they don't like to be photographed...
We toured Landis Farm Museum where we watched a lady do some spinning...
 

We took a segway tour too, but I couldn't hear the tour guide too well through the ear piece they gave me, and besides I was concentrating on driving the thing to really hear what she was saying.  I have to say, it was intimidating at first but so much fun once we learned the nuances of how to steer it.  It's really quite easy, and I hope we can take our son back sometime to have another go at them!!

We went to visit Wheatland, the home of former President Buchanan....

We also ate at Bube's Brewery, it was one of the last remaining standing breweries from the 1700's that was converted into a tavern, a very charming place and the food was pretty good too! 

Of course no trip is complete without a trip to a cross stitch store!  We were driving through Strausburg and DH made a sudden stop.  He called it an emergency stop, and I'm so thankful he did.  We met the owner and she was quite accommodating.  If you have a chance you have to stop at her store!  It's called Hodge Podge and is on the main street.

My most favorite thing of being there was going to the Sight and Sound theater to see Jonah.  Thankfully DH had made reservations months in advance as well as reservations for a back stage tour.  We got to meet two of the actors, and recite a line from the play on stage...so we can say we acted on the Sight and Sound Theater stage...LOL  My line?  "He's gone!!"

We made it home from our trip just in time to dump our suitcases at home then run to the airport to pick up our son from his missions trip to Mexico.  Seems the crew had a blast, though the accommodations down there were not the most comfortable.  They did some painting, some cleaning, made friends with some kids in the park, took a dip in the ocean and just grew in the Lord.  When he came home, I was impressed with his new hair do...I thought he had learned to spike his hair, but what I later learned was that with the low pressure shower he wasn't able to wash all the shampoo/sand/sweat out of his hair, so sleeping on one side and then the other, he wound up with a perfectly spiked hairdo.  LOL  I don't recommend you try this at home!

So that's all the news that's fit to print!  Now it's back to the old grindstone, with doctor's appointments and squeezing in work here and there....but next week I'll be helping out with Vacation Bible School so that should be fun/exhausting!  Don't you just love summer?