Autumn Weekend in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Spending Update for Lativa/Estonia: I spent $544.81 over 14 days in the Baltic States for an average of $38.92 per day. When I left there, I had spent $4524.34 over 129 days (including the purchase of 6 airline tickets--4 in Indonesia and 2 in India) for an average of $35.07 per day since departing Texas.

Friday, Sept. 28, 2007--Lancaster County, PA

I met Jack and Drew's family except for one daughter-in-law today. They are a nice group. The youngest, their grandson Jack, is one year old this week and is a real delight. He is one of the happiest children I have ever known. He smiles all the time, he never fusses if something is taken from him, etc. Their granddaughter is in kindergarten and is quite mature for her age. It shows in the level of conversations she has. Both sons are nice and work in the food business; therefore, they have interests that appeal to me. Kyle lives here in the house where Jack and Drew have an apartment is quite charming. He's the father of Little Jack. Jeff seems a little more serious, but has a sense of humor that shows in his ability to pull of jokes on the family. Kyle's wife has done lots of nice decorating in the house and created a fantastic castle-like birthday cake for Little Jack's birthday.

Jack and Drew's home here is just across the street from the university where he used to teach--Millersville University. We went through the campus. It is a beautiful one with lots of big trees, a nice lake with swans and ducks, and some wonderful old buildings. We toured the oldest building which has been restored nicely to serve as the office of the president of the school. Later, we also went by the education building and visited with some of Jack's former colleagues.

We went to downtown Lancaster to visit the market. It is held on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday of each week in a nice market building in the center of town. We wandered up and down the aisles seeing all the delicious items available. Because there have been immigrants from various countries settle here, there was a nice variety of eithnic foods available. Some of the stalls were run by Amish families. We decided to eat there. It was a sunny day, and a table was available outside in the sunshine. I bought us pieces of quiche and some red lentil salad. Jack got us drinks. Afterwards, I went back in to an Amish bakery and bought us long johns (long strip donuts with frosting on top) to eat for dessert.

There are many shops downtown for tourists. They sell gift and decorative items mainly. Drew and I went through some of those. She bought a purse in one shop. Just seeing an active downtown area was a delight. And nearby are neighborhoods that are undergoing renewal--areas with townhouses and old two-story private homes.

We toured through the city, then Jack and I went to Wheatland, the home of James Buchanan, the president of the U.S. just before Lincoln. It was a good, long tour with detailed descriptions of the items in the home and of the presidency.

In the evening, we had a casserole cooked by Kyle's wife Mandy. It was a Mexican lasagna with layers of tortillas, cheese, etc., and some nice spicy salsa inside. Jack made margaritas, my first ones to have in 4 1/2 months. Later, we had ice cream for dessert which was topped with chocolate syrup and crumbled chocolate chunk cookies.

Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007--Lancaster County, PA

Although the official date was earlier in the week, a party was held today to celebrate Little Jack's first birthday. It was in the afternoon, so Jack and I went out exploring in the morning. We went to Strousburg to see the train museum and the general store, to the outlet mall to buy Jack some belts, and to a garden store to buy some flowers. The train museum is huge and nice. It's the home of Thomas, the engine that has become famous through stories, movies, etc. We arrived just as a trainload of people were pulling off for a trip to a nearby town. The garden store was attached to an interesting local supermarket with lots of special items available--prepared soups, nice bakery products such as apple dumplings and sticky buns, etc.

The family and some friends came for the party. We had dips, salad, quiche, and birthday cake. I got to meet Jeff's wife who is working and going to school and, therefore, is quite busy. We took photos and enjoyed ourselves all afternoon. We never needed dinner, because the party food just continued to serve us as dinner food, too.

I was tired in the evening. I'm still adjusting to the time change. I went to bed before 10:00 p.m.