Good and Plenty: Lancaster, PA

Lancaster, PA doesn't pretend to be other than what it is - a mecca for shopping, touring, and eating without pretensions of great sophistication. It's a busy, friendly place of country décor shops, outlet malls, all-you-can-eat smorgasbords, and special attractions. Good and Plenty is a catchphrase of the Amish to describe their outlook on life. It's an apt description for Lancaster, too.

Getting there is easy. Lancaster Airport is the third busiest in Pennsylvania, and is equipped for any approach. Airways Aviation is the full-service FBO. Shelby Keller is the concierge of the air. Call ahead, and she'll have your car waiting, reservations organized, and lineboys ready to refuel you and tie you down.

If you want to land right in the heart of things, Smoketown Airport is another option. VFR only. Glick Aviation has the fuel pumps and can help you with logistics.

The Amish are the reason Lancaster became a tourist center. The Plain People run their farms and live theirs lives without tractors, electricity, CDs, cars, or the Internet. You'll quickly get used to the horse-drawn buggies trotting down the streets in town and along the country lanes. They even use the buggies at the drive-in teller. I don't know if they do McD's.

There are a lot of myths and confusion about their lifestyles, and there are several places that explain the Amish way of life. One of the most comprehensive is The Amish Experience. It starts with a multi-media dramatic production called Jacob's Choice that explains the origins of the Amish and how and why they live they way they do now. You then tour an Amish home and see how you can, indeed, live without electricity in the house or buttons on your clothes. There's also an optional buggy-drawn ride along the back roads with an Amish guide who answers your questions with a lot of patience and wit.

The other, and less commercial of the two, is The People's Place. Run by a Mennonite couple, it also starts with a multi-screen documentary about the Amish. The "20Q" Museum sensitively answers the 20 most asked questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Puzzles and games for children keep this from becoming a tedious educational exercise for them. The book store and art gallery are good additions.

The Amish are generally very courteous to genuinely curious people, but they do get a little tired of being treated like actors in Disneyland. Please respect their homes and their aversion to being photographed.
If you are into the 'country' look, you will overdose in Lancaster. This is the place for quilts, wooden accessories, baskets, and other necessities for a country-style home. Most of the shops are clustered in the villages of Bird-in-Hand, Paradise, Intercourse, and Strasburg. After a while, the handicrafts all begin to look the same, but that's not the case with the hand-stitched Amish quilts. Each one is painstakingly designed and sewn by hand. They are not cheap, running several hundred dollars on average, but you are buying a one-of-a-kind work of art and something that's going to become a family heirloom.

This is also a popular area for discount outlets. They stretch out along Rt. 30 from Strasburg to Lancaster. The monster is Rockvale Square, with 18 buildings full of discount deals, plus banks and ATMs to help you pay for it all, and the occasional eating oasis, so you can keep up your strength while you're on your shopping safari.

Amish home cooking is legendary, featuring big meals for hard workers. This is good, basic, home-cooked comfort food. Damn the cholesterol; full plates ahead! The all-you-can-eat smorgasbord is the staple here. Miller's is the place you'll see advertised everywhere. Frankly, for the price and selection, there are better choices. Hershey Farm Restaurant and Motor Inn is a family-run place with particularly friendly service. Yoder's and Willow Valley also have good reputations. The locals, however, get away from the heavily touristed areas and recommend Shady Maple Smorgasbord. A 140-foot long buffet of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking - more food than there are FARs! Don't plan for an early take-off after eating here; you'll be over-gross.

There's no way to categorize the other attractions in Lancaster. You can wander along the back roads and find all of the covered bridges. Several maps highlight them, and they are good places for picnics. Another relaxing way to see the countryside is by hot air balloon. The dawn and dusk takeoffs from the grounds of the Historic Strasburg Inn by Balloon Flights Across America give a new meaning to 'slow flight.' The third tour is on the Strasburg Railroad, a steam train operation that has a daily excursion schedule. The adjacent Red Caboose Motel is just what its name implies - a caboose. A series of them, actually, all converted into motel rooms and sitting on a railroad track.

Living Waters Sight and Sound Theater is a local phenomena. To call it an interactive experience is an understatement. Let's put it this way: for the production of Noah's Ark, the audience was seated inside the ark, with the live animals surrounding them.

If museums are your thing, you'll be culturally advanced with visits to The Landis Valley Museum of Rural Life, The Pennsylvania Dutch Folkcraft Museum, The Americana Museum (a diorama museum of 12 turn-of-the-century shops), The Ephrata Cloister (an 18th century religious commune), and Wilber Chocolate's Candy Americana Museum.

Maybe the best thing about Lancaster is that there are so many different things to do. You can drop back in for a day trip or a weekend and it'll be a long time before you start revisiting anything. What a great excuse to go flying!
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