Scootin' in the Coupe

Innkeeping is such a stressful job....all that cookie baking, talking to guests and fluffing of pillows  can wear you out.  Luckily, my friend Lynne, fellow innkeeper at The Australian Walkabout, had the solution.  She suggested that we check out the new coupes at Strasburg Scooters. Great idea! And, since Lynne is a four-wheelin' kind of gal, I got to ride as passenger and just enjoy the scenery.

And what scenery it was.

 

We took the roads less traveled...except, that is, for the team of 6 workhorses coming up behind us...

 

We stopped to see some friends along the way...

 

some were two legged, some were four...

 

 

We got to breathe in the fresh air...and melt the stress away.

And we explored a couple of covered bridges almost too pretty to be real.

 

 

 

 

 

The coupes are very cute - you'll feel like you are riding in a cartoon car while My Little Deuce Coupe plays in your head, courtesy of the Beach Boys.

 

 

We visited some ladies on the farm,

and fell in love with the kittens (of course).

We saw Lancaster County from far and near...

 

including a house with telltale signs of young Amish boys living there!

And at the end of the day, we were ready to head back to our inns and greet our guests. 

So the next time you are feeling a little work stress, head to Lancaster County, stay at a bed and breakfast (we recommend The Artist's Inn and Australian Walkabout) and schedule a scooter tour.  We'll even give you a coupon for the tour.  We bet your stress will melt away.

The Secret Behind Innkeepers' Great Breakfasts….

Part of why the food tastes so good at bed and breakfasts is because it looks so nice.  Most innkeepers know how to create wonderful food with fresh local ingredients.  They dress it up, serve it in a beautiful atmosphere….and voila - guests feel pampered!

Certainly garnishing plays an important role – as does an accessible herb garden.  But most innkeepers  I know have great stuff.  From beautiful linens to quirky serving dishes, B&Bs set a table that matches their excellence in the kitchen.

So….what do two innkeepers from Lancaster County do when they get a rare day off?  Well, go shopping for more stuff, of course.  That’s just what Lynne Griffin (of the Australian Walkabout) and I did.  I discovered Marlyand China years ago.  They used to sell only wholesale, but have now opened up their showroom and website so that you, too, can enjoy all that great china you find at The Artist's Inn.

This is the overstock room - a treasure trove of vases, dishes, cups and platters.

I don't often use them for breakfast, but I have the covered casseroles,

several of the pitchers, and the platters on the bottom shelf.

Although the showroom is small, we managed to fill several bags full of great "stuff". My friends are usually more organized than I am; Lynne's the one that marked the boxes so that we could get everything back to the right inn.

The folks at Marylnad China are very helpful trying to wedge fragile packages into a small car.

Whether you need platters for your muffins,

berry bowls for fresh fruit,

serving dishes for jam,

or a tea set for your Babymoon package, you can fine all that and more at one of my favorite "secret" shopping places, Maryland China.

Wheelin’ Round Lancaster

Recently I saw Lancaster in a whole new way. Yes, I have been in the city many times and have taken several tours. But this was on two wheels – no, not those two wheels, these were side by side......as on a segway. Here's the view from the top:

Talk about fun. It reminded me of my days of downhill skiing – and what a difference a little weight distribution can mean. I used to call them “ski legs” – coming home from a week of skiing out west and then trying to negotiate the cubicles at work with the same speed. This is much the same, weaving around obstacles on the sidewalks. I was also reminded of my dad on my first driving lesson in his boat of a big Chevy – we had gone to a nearby mall. It was Sunday and, back in the day, there was no shopping then, so there were no other cars in the parking lot. My Dad’s car was his pride and joy and I was very nervous about driving it. It had a bench seat and I had it pushed completely forward so that I could reach the gas petal, forcing his knees almost to his chest. I remember him saying to treat the gas pedal as though it were an eggshell. We crept around the parking lot at 5 mph until a pop can appeared in front of the car. Gripping the steering wheel but not wanting to panic and swerve, I tried to straddle the can. Bad ideas as I had no idea where the tires where, and it was crushed underneath. So ended my driving lessons with Dad. Let’s just say I owe a big “Thank You” to Larry Connors – wherever you are – my boyfriend at the time who showed much patience in teaching me how to drive. Ah, but I digress...on this day I was trying to learn to “glide”. And it was much less complicated than learning to drive.

Terri and Bob Stauffer are the Chief Gliding Instructors with Red Rose Segway Tours and they do a great job of “training” you on the wonderful gadgets before you leave their office. With the slightest lean toward your toes, you go forward. And that’s when the fun begins.

Lynne (Australian Walkabout) and I had a personal tour of Lancaster. And we saw things that we never noticed before...because we weren’t in a car. We had plenty of water stops and chances to take some pictures.

We learned all sorts of interesting facts. Lancaster was a “first” for many things – Hamilton Watch Company produced the first watch here, Milton Hershey opened his first chocolate factory and Woolworth’s had their first Five and Dime Store. We discovered new places and heard a few stories. And everywhere we went, heads turned. People yelled out of car windows, waved from park benches and motioned for us to “pass” them on the sidewalk. Seems that the segways just put people in a good mood.

It was the first day of the Keys for the City. Chicago has its cows, Cleveland has its guitars, and Lancaster has placed pianos around the city.
They wait in bright colors, welcoming folks to play them. Two girls were playing chopsticks as we glided through the square, and a guy on the next block was playing some piece of classical music – the name of which I would finally remember hours later. If you haven’t seen them yet, that is reason enough for a visit.

So, the next time you get the urge to improve your mood, go downtown Lancaster and hop on a segway. Terri and Bob make it fun. And if you stay at either Lynne’s (Australian Walkabout) or my B&B, The Artist’s Inn, you’ll be able to take advantage of our coupon – saving you $10 per person.

Great Places to Shop in Lancaster County (First in a Series)

Do You Yearn For An Urn?

The time had come to do something about our front yard. Years ago, Main Street in Terre Hill had been lined with huge oak trees. Their branches reached for each other across the street and met in the middle, creating a canopy that shaded sidewalks and cooled front porches. But when the electric and phone companies started trimming them, the trees began dying off. All that remained of the two that were in front of the inn was a tangle of roots and rotting stumps. Our ivy did a fair job of covering up the uneven ground.

So we replaced the sidewalk and had the rest of the old stumps ground out. But it looked so empty. That’s when I remembered Hoover’s Farm Market.

Located on Route 23 between Goodville and Churchtown (a mere five miles from the inn), they make concrete statues and urns.

It's where I purchased my beloved three-foot bunny for the back gardens of The Artist's Inn. He has survived several years – in fact this winter’s snow covered almost all of him.
My mom and I stopped at Hoover’s and I quickly found what I wanted-two beautiful large urns to replace the trees. She insisted that I get them. In fact, she paid for them too. Now you know where I learned my shopping philosophy: “If you see something and fall in love with it, you just need to buy it.”

There’s a wide selection of urns from which to choose – along with nursery plants, fresh vegetables and home-baked goods –

even "outhouses" - so it’s worth a stop whether you need statuary or not.

There is one drawback.....Hoover’s offers no delivery on urns.

Time to call some good friends for help. Good friends like Bob and Lynne. They own an inn, the Australian Walkabout. They also own a pick-up truck. And so we invited them to dinner.....

Getting the urns in the truck was easy - Hoover's had a contraption - sort of a cross between a backhoe and a forklift. Now came the moment of truth - unloading the urns without breaking them - or any other body part.

And so Bob and Bruce wrestled with the urns. (Funny, but neighbors seem to disappear from their front porches when a project like this gets underway.)

No job would be complete without a cheerleader, though I suspect that Taylor was more excited about the ice cream at dinner than the urns.

Lynne stood by with refreshments for moral support.

I was busy taking pictures.

The flowers are planted and now we just wait for the ivy to fill in. So if this gets you yearning for an urn, you’ll know to head to Hoover’s.

One of Lancaster County’s best secrets: great little shops that offer so much – they aren’t found on any tourist map and rarely do advertising. But the locals know about these jewels throughout Lancaster County. I’ll introduce you to some of my absolute favorites in this blog.....so stay tuned – after all, there’s always some shopping to do!

Effie Oh!

Weeknights during the winter are not quite the busiest time of the year for The Artist’s Inn, so it’s a perfect excuse for Bruce and me to try new restaurants. We had heard about Effie Ophelia’s last summer during our Wine Camp, but couldn’t remember the name!

When talk of the restaurant surfaced again, and we found that friends of ours, Lynne and Bob Griffin of the Australian Walkabout, also wanted to eat there - and when they were able to get a sitter at the last-minute - well, it just seemed like fate that we should go.

Named for Eric Howton’s (the owner) grandmother, it’s a tiny bistro of about ten tables in downtown Lancaster. One of the rare, “bring-your-own bottle” restaurants, Effie Ophelia’s is a great place to enjoy the German Riesling that the Griffins brought. Our bottle of a French blend – even though it had a great looking label (my test of whether or not to buy a new wine) - fell short of expectations.

But the food did not. I could have dived into my appetizer - sweet potato gnocchi with sage cream and candied pecans. It was a heavenly mix of textures and sweetness. The roasted root vegetables, chevre gratin with spinach cream, tasted as wonderful as it was beautiful. It’s featured on the home page of their website and pictured here.

We all liked our main courses as well, the pan seared trout with herbed spaetzle and shitake leek cream, lime-ginger roasted chicken with carrot and golden raisin mostarda, and the chiles rellenos, with citrus and white bean puree and tomato coulis. I had the seared diver scallops with cilantro crisped hominy and pickled pepper pot – the portion was quite generous. The spicy bite of the scallops danced so well with the sweetness of the peppers. We sipped tea while our friends polished off a serving of cream brulee. It looked yummy and next time I hope to try it.

I thought I had a small kitchen, but Eric does very well in what little space he has – the “kitchen” is open to the restaurant and about the size of a broom closet, albeit a stainless steel one. No matter, people still like to go up to him and talk while he is whirring around. Hey, I know what that’s like!

You can bet we’ll be back and will certainly recommend it to our guests….although they don’t take reservations, so there may be quite a wait. But it’s a nice neighborhood to window shop – they are on gallery row.

We have the menu here at The Artist’s Inn, though entrees change frequently. Now, if we can just remember the name!