Last weekend was somewhat somber as straight after work on Friday we headed out to Pennsylvania for Aunt Jean’s memorial service in Lancaster County.
As it was all very last minute planning, it went well with us being able to get a decent Zipcar and also accomodation without fuss.
We decided to drive there over the Verazzano Narrows bridge and through Staten Island. A first for both of us. The Verazzano is also where the start of the New York Marathon happens. Yes.. it is that huge bridge you see at the start of the race. We see the bridge every day while we have lunch at work so it was nice going a different way over something that seemed so familiar!
There was one hiccup – the traffic was really bad. I can only imagine the stress levels of the people that have to drive in it every day. I managed to snap some pics of how the bridge looks close up.
It was quite a journey of pretty much bumper to bumper traffic until we got to the Cracker Barrel in Clinton, New Jersey for dinner. We had a delicious dinner and ice cold lemonades – this is their summer special for this season – they should keep them! I could have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Cracker Barrel… I love it!
Here is the icy lemonade – it was so refreshing!
Every Cracker Barrel looks the same, without fail!
We eventually got to Lancaster at 9.30 – we were so tired! My loyalty to Marriott has paid off again as even though our reservation was made only a few days earlier, we were able to use a free bonus night to stay at the Lancaster Marriott which is close to the St James where the service was. This Marriott is stunning and was a wonderful place to stay even though it was such a quick visit. I don’t know whether it was just because we were exhausted but I had the best hotel sleep ever in the bed there. Here is how our room looked –
We opted to have a little sleep-in and get room service breakfast. Again, no complaints. We have yet to stay in a bad Marriott or have a bad experience. The breakfast was wonderful, as always.
That thing that looks like brown toast on the bottom of my plate is one of the best foods I have ever eaten. I first tried Scrapple when we were in Lancaster County last year. It is basically pork leftover mush. IT IS DELICIOUS!!! I know – pork scraps.. I am easy to please but as a side to a hearty breakfast, scrapple is just amazing.
Here is how Lancaster looked from our hotel room window –
Penn Square –
We walked to the Memorial service which was a wonderful celebration of Jean’s life and as it was in her own Parish, it was even more special. The church was beautiful inside and out. The pews had little doors and it was an intimate service and very personal. The hotel was so lovely to be able to give us a 1pm checkout. So that meant we were able to stay for a short time for the reception afterwards before running back to the hotel and changing to drive back to New York.
We stopped in at Miller’s on the way for some lunch and that was when I made an amazing discovery – real beetroot. I will talk about that more in another post! We drove about an hour out of Lancaster and made another stop at a Wegman’s supermarket. While Bill was there, I ran into the AC Moore craft store. This place is dangerous. If I lived near an AC Moore I think our place would be full with crafty bits and pieces. It is a craft supermarket! After getting some cheap cross stitch kits, we were back in the car before one more stop in New Jersey. Yes, time to see what Jersey roadside service centers are like. This one was like a trip back to 1986!
We made it home by 7 and there was no rest for us… as we had to finish getting our things ready for our European vacation!