Lancaster, PA

M and I had a good time at Lancaster this past weekend, although I am in a lot of pain now, reasons for which I will go into later. We started our day early on Friday morning, taking a drive down to Nottingham, PA to make it to the Herr's Snack Factory Tour, which I made reservations for at 11:00am. We took the scenic route with our trusty old-fashioned maps at hand and got there right on time... it took a lot longer than it should've (about three hours), but that's the price we pay for avoiding tolls, even if it means driving down local one-lane roads with lights for 100 miles. The tour was pretty interesting. Herr Foods is a family-owned business since the 1940s, and employs about 1,400 people at their factory. What I found really admirable is that they have a no-layoff policy... if someone's job got eliminated as a result of automation (or anything else), they'd find a new position for that person elsewhere in the company. It gives me a whole new respect for when I see their potato chips on the supermarket aisles now. At least this is one item that is truly still made in the USA.

We stayed at the E.J. Bowman House bed & breakfast, which I absolutely loved. This is probably one of the better B&B's we've been at, and was very reasonably priced. The owners, Alice and Murphey, are very friendly, and Murphey has a sarcastic sense of humor that can be interpreted as snide and rude if you didn't know better, but both were very helpful and knowledgeable in the town's history, things to do, and restaurant recommendations. Murphey also gave us a lesson on the differences between the Amish and the Mennonites. I'd probably stay there again if we were ever back in Lancaster.

On Saturday, we went downtown to the Central Market in Lancaster, but it was a bit disappointing. It didn't seem like anything actually came from a "farmer's market" so we ended up not getting anything. We walked around downtown for a bit, and came across the Heritage Cultural Museum. The sign "FREE" caught our eyes, and that was all the convincing we needed before going in. There was one floor dedicated to the history of the Amish, which I really enjoyed. I'm amazed at the simple lives these people lead, content with what they have, the constant focus and priority placed on family and their community... If only more people shared their values, we'd be in a more peaceful world.

After downtown Lancaster, we went to the town of Intercourse (M kept making fun of its name the whole drive there), where I did find my yummy mushrooms at the Intercourse Canning Company. But ironically, I ended up not getting it. It was kind of expensive, and I figured I can get something similar at BJ's for half the price. Besides, I'd rather maintain the memories I have of how good it tasted years ago; I'm sure if I had gotten the jar of mushrooms this past weekend, it would not have been as delicious as I remember it to be.

On our way back, we stopped for a game of mini-golf (our weekend trips are never complete without one). M must've been having a really off-day b/c his performance was lacking its usual luster... he even hit the ball into the middle of a pond at one point. There were no nets around to fish it out, so he had to go back to the main office and ask for another ball. He lost by so much that I felt bad and didn't even take advantage of my bragging rights. After our game of mini-golf, we spent the rest of Saturday outlet shopping. Sunday was more shopping (at another outlet) before the long drive home.

Now onto why I am in so much pain... I think pregnancy does make one more clumsy and injury-prone, as was demonstrated by my actions this past weekend. At the start of our mini-golf game, my foot took a misstep a couple of inches too far past concrete and landed on the grass lower than the ground we were on, almost resulting in a near accident. Then about five seconds later, as we were descending down some steps to our first hole, I placed my foot on a step that was uneven, and my flip flops went one way while my ankle twisted another way. Ouch! I couldn't move my ankle at that point. I did manage to hobble over to a nearby bench; M spent the next couple of minutes massaging it for me, and it felt better. I was able to get up and walk without limping, so I didn't think much of it until that night when we were having dinner. I looked down and saw that my ankle was twice its normal size, and the pain had started coming back. It got progressively worse throughout the night, and I kept waking up in the middle of the night b/c it hurt so much, but I just dealt with it.

That was the least of it. On Sunday, we stopped at Ruby Tuesday's for lunch before heading home. There was a small wait, so we went to plop ourselves down at the waiting area. I chose some booth-like seats by the window, and apparently, the actual seats were smaller than I had expected, b/c I went to sit my butt down full-force, and smacked right into the wooden window ledge. That hurt even more than the ankle! And that is the main reason why I am in so much pain right now. The foot seems to have gotten better after soaking it in Epsom salt last night, but my tailbone - that is one area that is hard to treat. I don't even know what I can do for it. The pain is constant... it hurts when I'm not moving, and it just hurts more when I do move. I heard that there was a special on Dateline where they said woman lose about 8% of their brain cells when they become pregnant. In my case, I'd be lucky if I still had 8% of my brain cells functioning!