I love weekends in Amish Country!!

Today, we visited a quilt shop in Ephrata, PA called Piece By Piece. I will post a separate entry about our shopping experience, but for now, I wanted to share my Amish experience!

Ephrata is about 12 miles south of Reading in Lancaster County. I wanted to enjoy some Amish scenery, but didn't know where to find the Amish. As we were driving down "Main Street" in Ephrata, we saw a horse and buggy turn down one of the side roads that led out of town. I knew that was which way I wanted to go.

As we traveled through the Amish country, we passed 2 horse and buggies, AND we passed 2 Amish men in a horse-drawn wagon full of church benches. If you've read any of the Beverly Lewis books, you probably know that on Saturdays, the Amish get set up for church the next day. They deliver all the benches and chairs to the home that is going to host church for that day. We saw two Amish men doing that. It was so neat to see.

We saw many Amish people riding bicycles and passed many Amish homes and farms.

Then we came across either an Amish or very conservative Mennonite one-room school. I *had* to stop and peek in. It was sooo neat to see inside! It was hard to believe it was real. I could have gazed in the window all day.

While we were there, my two older children were in the van afraid I was going to get in trouble for peeking in the windows of this school. They told me that an Amish guy on a bicycle just road by. Then I heard them saying, "Someone's coming - hurry up!!!".

I wasn't afraid - I knew we weren't doing anything wrong. This older gentleman was walking down the street, and came to talk to me. He said that the Amish guy on the bicycle that just went by teaches at that school. How neat is that?? He said it was a shame we missed him because he could have told us more about the school.

After our scenic drive through Amish country, we stopped at Walmart and enjoyed shopping with quite a few Amish families.

I just love it here!!!