Skip to main content

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 I did take pictures of other people, but unfortunately, they asked that these pictures not be published.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

Popular posts from this blog

That Sinking Feeling - Real Talk From Your Mother

Also found at Letters from the Nest:   https://open.substack.com/pub/lettersfromthenest/p/that-sinking-feeling?r=48qui&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Dear Nestlings, I hope you don’t mind a little stream-of-consciousness letter today. I don’t know if I have anything specific to share, so let’s see what floats to the surface. It’s a bright fall Friday morning. These last few weeks in central Pennsylvania have been lovely, sunny, and warm. I know winter is coming, so I try to be outside as much as possible to take advantage of the sun before it hibernates. I just completed the forty-minute round trip to drive one of you to the high school. You know who you are, but maybe in a few years, when you read this, you won’t know because every one of you has missed the bus sometimes and has endured lectures about planning better and showing your respect for my work by not requiring forty minutes of my life for your convenience. Anyway, everybody is at school and work except...

Gavin in a Million Words or Less

 Way back when Emily was in 6th grade, her teacher, Ms. Grey, asked parents to write about thier children in a million words or less. I posted what I wrote about Emily on our blog. I wish I were more organized and tech-savvy to find the link to that post and put it here, but I'm not. It's a nice idea that maybe I'll do later. Anyway, you get to read what I wrote to Gavin's fifth grade teacher who made the same requests of parents: Gavin is the youngest of seven children. His three oldest siblings have flown the nest, so he talks to them on the phone and looks forward to holiday visits. This summer, his oldest sister had a baby, so he’s an Uncle! He has three older brothers, who sometimes make life tricky for him, but are also sources of wisdom, rides to the store to get candy, and annoying TikTok phrases. He sometimes wants to be more grown up than he actually is. This little guy is academically oriented. He loves to read BIG books. He rarely reads a standalone nove...

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...