More Tourist Stuff - The Amana Colonies

Another place we visited for the first time with Rick's parents was the Amana Colonies (about 1/2 hour away from our house). Those who are familiar with Washington can compare this place to Levenworth (who knows if I spelled that correctly). The Amana Colonies are an old German settlement.

We only spent about 1/2 a day there. Many of the fun activities do not begin until April. A lot of shops and restaurants were open, but I think we will go back this summer or fall to get the full effect.

We started out with breakfast at the Brick Haus Restaurant. Most of the restaurants serve meals "family style" which means they bring out huge plates of food and you just eat as much as you want. The food was delicious.

Our favorite part of the meal was the peach marmalade/jam on toast. Everybody in our little group loved it. The chocolate milk and hot chocolate were really good too. After breakfast, we walked around town. We liked the clock shop and the toy shop. The Christmas shop was disappointing.

West Amana had the potential to be really fun for the kids, but again, there wasn't much going on there because we were there during off-season. There were a lot of cool wood carvings.

The "Largest Walnut Rocking Chair" is definitely a must-see tourist stop.

You probably noticed while looking through these pictures that Ricky is in every single one of them. I did take pictures of other people, but unfortunately, they asked that these pictures not be published. Ricky, on the other hand, LOVES to see pictures of himself.

Comments

Back To School Meanies

Letter From the Nest August 15, 2025 https://open.substack.com/pub/lettersfromthenest/p/back-to-school?r=48qui&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web One August, more than twenty years ago, at an evening book club discussion, my “older” friends (now I look back and know those women were the age I am now), were discussing the woes and triumphs of back-to-school season. One woman was anticipating her youngest child’s senior year of high school. She said, “For more than two decades, our lives have revolved around the school district’s academic calendar. I don’t know how I will plan my life without knowing about school breaks or holidays.” I remember her bittersweet tone as she anticipated freedom from school schedule constraints but also mourned how those constraints guided her choices. What would she do? Other women joined the discussion, wondering if their kids would have good teachers, if they’d be able to balance volunteering in the classroom, how to streamline school supply pu...

My Legacy Stinks

Letters from the Nest https://lettersfromthenest.substack.com/p/my-legacy-stinks Lately, I have been asking you, “What will you do to make Sunday special?” This is me encouraging you in your worship without giving you a prescribed list of things to do. One thing I do differently on Sundays is that I read a Sunday book that’s “different” than the fiction I read during the week. Usually, it’s a religious book, but sometimes it’s an inspiring biography or narrative nonfiction with an uplifting theme. My Sunday book for the past few months has been “Both Things Are True,” by Kate Holbrook. This collection of essays explores a range of topics, including faith, forgiveness, women’s roles, trials, history, and more. Each chapter contains a dichotomy that fuels the discussion. For example, the chapter on forgiveness explores both the concepts of forgetting and remembering. Last Sunday, I began reading the chapter entitled "The Weight of Legacy," in which she discusses the dichotomy ...

Lyme Disease??

Let me just preface this by saying that I am soooo grateful for good health insurance. I have been to the Dr. for the kids lately so often, that I am embarrassed that they recognize our family when we walk in the door. So, here's Ricky's story. A couple of weeks ago he was extremely sick. He had a fever for over a week, complained that he couldn't move his legs, and ended up with an awful looking rash all over his body. We went to the Dr. 2 times for this. The first time, she said, it was a virus and it should run its course. When Ricky was getting worse, instead of better, we took him back in to a quick clinic where the nurse diagnosed him with strep (even though the short test was negative). Well, after a priesthood blessing and antibiotics (which we discovered later that he didn't even need to take--and in fact they may have made him feel worse), he got better. Then, last week, I discovered a new, crazy rash on his legs which continued to grow, turn purple on the in...

The Mergenthaler Family

Search This Blog