After the hustle and bustle of DC and 10 lanes of parking lot traffic, we drove 2 hours to a small town in southern Pennsylvania called Strasburg. It was founded in 1733 and has about 2,500 people. I had seen an article on this town in Family Fun a few years ago. It is a train town. It has a 150 year old rail road with a running steam train you can ride, train museums, and a hotel that all the rooms are cabooses! When I saw it years ago, I thought, "Someday we need to take Mr J there." So about 6 months ago when I started planning this trip (I am a planner) I discovered we were going right by this town on our way to Erie and points north, so I knew we had to stop. I am so glad we did. It was a welcome change, and we felt much more in our element. This first picture below is what surrounded our caboose hotel. We were in the heart of Amish country, and it was beautiful! Big, huge farms surrounded the small town, and horse and buggies were everywhere. It was neat to see them plowing their fields today just like they did hundreds of years ago. Amazing.
We went from the crazy city to this, and I much prefer this!
At the train station getting ready to board the steam train.
All aboard! The train was not crowded at all. We were the only ones on our coach car.
The steam engine.
Our train boys. Everyone loved him in his hat. Super cute.
The outside of our coach car. It was a 45 minute train ride through beautiful Amish farms through the Pennsylvania countryside. Beautiful.
The Pennsylvania Railroad
We ate at the Good and Plenty which serves Pennsylvania Dutch food family style. So yummy! So much food! They served 5 desserts! My kids were in heaven. When the waitress told us not to get too filled up and to leave room for dessert because there were 5, Ben thought she was kidding. She wasn't. Oh. my.
This was our room at the hotel. We had the Santa Fe red caboose. It was really fun to stay there.
These bunk beds took up one part of the caboose, then the bathroom was in the middle and then the "master" bedroom was on the other end. The kids loved the bunk beds. It was a really fun place to stay. The hotel was actually located on an Amish farm. They had their big barn on the property, and had a petting area, their chickens were all over the place. It was great. So, if you ever are in the Lancaster county area of Pennsylvania, make sure and stop in Strasburg! Ride the train and stay in a real caboose! You won't regret it!
We went from the crazy city to this, and I much prefer this!
At the train station getting ready to board the steam train.
All aboard! The train was not crowded at all. We were the only ones on our coach car.
The steam engine.
Our train boys. Everyone loved him in his hat. Super cute.
The outside of our coach car. It was a 45 minute train ride through beautiful Amish farms through the Pennsylvania countryside. Beautiful.
The Pennsylvania Railroad
We ate at the Good and Plenty which serves Pennsylvania Dutch food family style. So yummy! So much food! They served 5 desserts! My kids were in heaven. When the waitress told us not to get too filled up and to leave room for dessert because there were 5, Ben thought she was kidding. She wasn't. Oh. my.
This was our room at the hotel. We had the Santa Fe red caboose. It was really fun to stay there.
These bunk beds took up one part of the caboose, then the bathroom was in the middle and then the "master" bedroom was on the other end. The kids loved the bunk beds. It was a really fun place to stay. The hotel was actually located on an Amish farm. They had their big barn on the property, and had a petting area, their chickens were all over the place. It was great. So, if you ever are in the Lancaster county area of Pennsylvania, make sure and stop in Strasburg! Ride the train and stay in a real caboose! You won't regret it!
that looks so fun!! love family fun magazine :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't Amish country gorgeous? I want to retire there (I think). We've eaten at the Good n' Plenty as well - and loved it! I cannot get enough of their homemade rootbeer you can buy along the roads. Also the homemade pretzels and shoo-fly pie. We had such a blast there. Looks great from your pictures...
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