Doing what’s right today means no regrets tomorrow.
– Amish proverb

A horse-and-buggy cruising down a busy road.

When I was a grad student at Syracuse, my friend Laurel Kallenbach and I ventured to Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for the Labor Day weekend in 1989. I was taken by the simple lifestyle and the beautiful carpentry, quilts, and other handiwork, and when I made my way back to California, I hoped to one day return. I was excited to have that opportunity come up not only for me but for my two children. I wanted them to see another part of our country and appreciate a different culture and religious denomination.

When not walking or riding in a horse and buggy, the Amish use these really cool scooters. This shop had them in rainbow colors.

My one mistake in planning our trip was to book two nights at a Days Inn in Lancaster –  a serviceable, inexpensive hotel chain. It never occurred to me to look up B&Bs, which dotted the region with inviting red-brick homes and charming front-yard gardens. Furthermore, it never occurred to me to seek out an Amish B&B. We ended up doing the Amish buggy farm tour the morning that we were leaving for Baltimore, which was when we met Ben, our driver, who runs a B&B with his wife. He invited us to have a simple Amish dinner that night. Drat! If only Ben were at Aaron and Jessica’s Buggy Rides (3121 Old Philadelphia Pike, Ronks, PA 17572, 717.768.8828) when we swung by the evening before but missed the last round of wagons and buggies hitting the road.

Isabella gets to know one of the horses before our buggy ride.

Ben was a wonderful guide and he tortured us with what could have been. Had we stayed at their B&B, Isabella could have ridden his horse, collected eggs from the hen-house, helped milk the cows, and play with the goats. This experience alone would have made me, the mom, ecstatic for my daughter. Alas, we talked about sending Isabella next summer for a week – well, it sounded promising at the time. If you are interested, you can call the Amish Homestead (231 Turtle Hill Road, Ephrata, PA 17522, 717.859.2403, Ext. 0), run by Ben and Emma.

Ben, our wonderful guide.

We chose the private, hour-long farm tour as opposed to the wagon ride, which would have crammed us in with other groups of people. Ben was born and lived his entire life in the Lancaster area and happy to answer questions. I’m sure for some Amish people tourists are nuisances, but Ben was really happy to share his world and let us catch a glimpse of the Amish lifestyle and the Pennsylvania Dutch country.

Getting a glimpse
To date, some 50,000 Amish live in the Lancaster area, while there are approximately 250,000 living in the U.S. Lancaster boasts the largest concentration of Amish, which is a Protestant denomination – closely related to the Mennonites. They are descendants of immigrants who left Switzerland in the 18th century, following a schism within the Anabaptists. The Amish follow the teachings of Jacob Ammann, a 17th century Swiss citizen. One of the main distinctions of the Amish is that they do not use modern technology. If you see a house with simple clothes strung on a line and no car in sight, it is no doubt an Amish house. While Ben said they can use solar power, they don’t use electricity and don’t have phones. The men usually have beards and males often wear hats. The women wear a white cap and simple dresses that are fastened with straight pins instead of buttons. I’ve read that they do not take oaths, vote, or serve in the military.

Our horse at rest while we tour an Amish farm.

We learned more on our tour, which included stopping at an Amish farm and being treated to homemade cookies and homemade lemonade and root beer. Amish homes are built to scale to accommodate large families, weddings, funerals, and Sunday services, which are rotated among the community. The youngest son inherits the farm and the grown children take care of their elderly parents, who live in an addition to the original house.

Pregnant cows are kept separate from the rest o the herd.

Amish schools consist of one room and one teacher for all students up until the eighth grade, which is when schooling ends. Afterwards, if they don’t become farmers, which Ben told us is a difficult calling because of stiff competition from agribusiness, they take up an apprenticeship and hone a trade, including landscape designers and carpenters.

Examining the bones of this old 19th century barn on the property, which are held together by wooden pins instead of nails.

Our hour passed by all too quickly. We were Baltimore-bound, but we managed to squeeze time driving from Lancaster to Bird-in-Hand to Intercourse and stopping at will if we saw some shops to browse. We unwittingly stumbled into Kitchen Kettle Village (W. Newport Road, Intercourse, PA 17529, 800.732.3538), an open-air mall of Pennsylvania Dutch Country specialty shops featuring homemade foods, activities, and tours. It was a bit touristy, but we found fantastic furniture shops, including one I remembered from my time in Syracuse. Old Road Furniture Company‘s shop (3457 Old Philadelphia Pike, Intercourse, PA 17534, 717.768.0478) featured exquisite custom-designed dining room tables, chairs, cupboards, beds, and more. Our favorites were the tables of maple, walnut, and cherry slabs atop vintage, industrial bases. One of these days.

As usual, we could have stayed another day, but after noshing on pretzels, we hopped back into our rental car, bid adieu to our Amish experience and headed on to the next leg of our trip – Baltimore. I leave you with another Amish proverb, which sounds like it belongs in a cult movie rather than a book of Amish proverbs – “Remember that wherever you go, there you are.”

The Amish are known for their furniture-making. Saying good-bye to this awesome shop at Kitchen Kettle Village.

The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
– Abraham Lincoln, 16th President, from The Gettysburg Address

In early August, our family went to Philadelphia for our summer vacation. Back in February when we discussed destinations, my son, Jacob, had returned from his eighth grade 76’er trip to Washington, D.C. As predicted, he had a wonderful time, enjoying the traveling with friends and the freedom that goes with it, and learning and appreciating U.S. history. I presented two choices. The first choice was Moab, Utah, and the state and national parks in the region (Arches, Canyonlands, and Bryce National Parks and Dead Horse Point State Park) – gorgeous places I visited briefly when returning to California after getting my MA from Syracuse University way back when. The other choice I offered to Jacob and Isabella was Philadelphia for a further deep dive into U.S. history. (My goal is to give them a taste of major cities and national parks in the U.S. before they leave the nest.)

My first trip to Philadelphia was in June 2011 when women’s clothing retailer Anthropologie sent me and other members of a year-long consumer focus group to its headquarters. I spent three fun days with wonderful like-minded women and great hosts, but while a smaller group of us had a whole day to tool around Old City, I didn’t get to any museums or historical sites. I had an incentive to return. While there in 2011, we were referred to a great area of Old City with fabulous vintage and unique shops, so count that as the second incentive. Lucky for me, both kids voted for Philly. Our itinerary comprised a visit to Gettysburg and Amish Country (Lancaster, Bird-in-Hand, and Intercourse), Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and a game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and then on to Philadelphia and its historical sites and a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park. Characteristic of our family vacations, we packed in a lot in nine days.

Greeted by a statue of Lincoln at the entrance of the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center.

‘Three days in July’
David went to Gettysburg in 1989 while on a 2-month work project outside of Philadelphia. Upon his return this summer, he noted that the national military park was nothing like it is today. For starters, the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center (1195 Baltimore Pike, Route 97, Baltimore, MD 17325, 717.338.1243) was erected just seven years ago. It’s a beautiful 22,000-square-foot building that houses the museum, two theaters, a resource and education center, bookstore and refreshment saloon.

The 12-gallery museum houses numerous Civil War artifacts, interactive displays, and films that provide an enlightening glimpse into the three-day battle. We viewed the Cyclorama, a massive 377-foot-wide-by-42-foot-high oil painting by French artist Paul Philippoteaux, who spent months researching the battle to depict Pickett’s Charge, the Confederacy’s infantry assault against Major General George G. Meade’s Union positions on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, 1863, the third and final day of the battle. Philippoteaux and his team of assistants took a year to complete the painting in the late 1880s. Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s attack failed and it cost him more than 5,000 soldiers in one hour. Our guide pointed out that Philippoteaux had included Lincoln’s body being carried by two men – mirroring the president being removed from Ford’s Theater after his assassination.

The Cyclorama Painting is a 360-degree experience, with a diorama in the foreground, blending into the painting.

A close-up in which Lincoln is symbolically inserted into the painting.

We missed out on the battlefield tour with a licensed guide, instead opting for a two-hour bus tour. We made a handful of stops along the expansive battlefield, including the Eternal Light Peace Memorial, the North Carolina Memorial (states who sent their men to battle erected memorials where the men were stationed), and Little Round Top. States tried to outdo one another in the size of their memorials. Tennessee erected the last monument in 1982. The monument at the Eternal Light Peace Memorial features stone in the upper portion hailing from Maine and stone at the foundation from Alabama, symbolizing the reunification of the country. The dedication ceremony in 1937 was attended by Civil War vets who were in their 90s and 100s.

The battlefield is filled with monuments, cannons, and costumed guides.

Interesting stories
We had an excellent bus guide who provided us with more information than we could absorb. Here are some things I remembered. Despite the 51,000 casualties piled up on both sides, Gettysburg lost only one civilian to the battle: a young woman who was struck by a stray bullet while making bread in her kitchen. Our guide told us that parents of a 13-year-old boy who was watching the battle from his upstairs bedroom window yelled at him to get away. As he was heading downstairs, a bullet shot through the window he had just left. An effective cautionary tale for parents to share with their kids at opportune moments! Lee’s retreat was 17 miles long, mostly comprising his wounded soldiers. We didn’t take the Eisenhower home tour, which was nearby. Eisenhower retired to a farm and later died there.

Little Round Top – where Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren alerted Union officers to the Confederate threat and brought Federal reinforcements to defend this critical position.

New York State monument at Little Round Top.

By unfortunate chance, Gettysburg was the meeting point between Lee, who was marching his Army of Northern Virginia westward from Fredericksburg, VA, and the Union Army of the Potomac under Major General Joseph Hooker, who was following Lee. Because Lee’s cavalry, under Major General J.E.B. Stuart, was detained with a raid around the Federal Forces, Lee did not know Hooker’s whereabouts. The main battle began on July 1st. Although outnumbered, the Federal forces held their position until they were driven back south of Gettysburg. Overnight, the main body of the Union army, commanded by Major General George G. Meade, arrived to bolster their comrades.

On July 3rd, Lee’s artillery opened a two-hour “thundering” bombardment of the Union army on Cemetery Ridge on Cemetery Hill. The Union army held their ground. Lee ordered some 12,000 Confederate soldiers to advance across the open fields in the ill-fated Picket’s Charge. The battle was over, with, as I mentioned before, Lee losing more than 5,000 of his men within an hour. Our guide painted a gruesome picture of having to dispose of the bodies, many of whom could not be identified (they didn’t have dog tags back in the day), in mass graves and unmarked graves. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin got land commissioned for a proper burial ground for the reinterred Union dead. Within four months of the battle, 17 acres became the Gettysburg National Cemetery.

The national cemetery.

Lincoln gave his famous speech when the cemetery was dedicated on November 19th, 1863. Edward Everett, the principal speaker, droned on for more than two hours. Lincoln’s 272-word speech took two minutes to deliver. Everett later told Lincoln: “I should be glad if I … came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” Eventually 3,500 Union soldiers came to rest in the cemetery.

Monument honoring the spot where Lincoln gave his famous speech.

I must admit that I looked upon this part of our trip as a parental obligation to contribute to our kids’ history lesson. I figured that we would stay a couple of hours and hastily tour the museum and battlefield. We were there for nearly seven hours and we could have stayed longer. I was impressed by the museum and the presentation of information. The monuments were as sobering as they were majestic. The stories were vivid and stirring, allowing us to transport ourselves to the past, as we stared across the vast expanse of land. It was one of the highlights of our family vacation for Jacob, and I admit it was for me, too.

The massive Pennsylvania monument can be seen for miles, towering the many monuments scattered throughout the park.

Another look – one last look – at Gettysburg.