Pennsylvania Part Two: 11-11-11 wedding, trying to eat Amishly - November 10-13, 2011

Babe's baby sister Alicia and her long time boyfriend Randy planned their wedding date to fall on November 11, 2011, which should be an easy anniversary to remember, it being 11-11-11!  (Next year's favorites would probably be 10-11-12 or 12-12-12, though they fall in the middle of the week)  The chance to visit Babe's hometown area of Lancaster County, PA had arrived.

We had flown into Baltimore (BWI) two weekends ago for the Penn State game...here we go again, flying 11 days later, though these tickets were bought back in April when there was an unannounced Continental fare sale, just under $200 inclusive per ticket.  I was lucky to stumble upon the fare as the wedding plans had solidified and I looked for tickets at that particular time.

Once United and Continental merged, I had my frequent flyer status on United matched on Continental, so I was able to participate in their unlimited elite upgrade program.  There were a few BKM's for doing this...if flying on Continental metal ("operated by Continental" flights), you must use your Continental OnePass account number.  (I learned this from religiously following the United forum on Flyertalk.com...all those hours of reading paid off!)  If you use your UA number on a CO flight, you are lower in priority than CO flyers, even though the levels are the same. Confusing, but go with the flow.  I had seen this in action on a recent business trip to Austin, as my co-worker and I booked the same flight on CO.  We both had Premier Executive status on UA, but I used my CO number and he his UA number, and I had my upgrades clear and he was #3 on the waiting list.  Another trick I learned was to buy a ticket separate from my companion if on an "operated by CO" flight, at least until sometime end of Q1 2012 when UA and CO finish merging everything and companions are automatically upgraded with the elite flyer, space permitting.  CO follows a rule where the companion can only get on the upgrade list 2 hours before departure.  This pretty much reduces the chance of anyone getting any upgrade as all individual elite flyers are upgraded first and the first class cabin could be full by 2 hours before flight.  By buying separate tickets, I would be in the bucket of individual flyers to get upgraded.  This also means the other person would be flying in the back.  Of course I couldn't leave Babe back there (though he said he wouldn't mind); I had 2 one-way upgrade coupons that were to expire January 2012, so I used them on his ticket.  I seated him in the last row of first class so when it came time for elite upgrades, I'd have a chance that the seat next to him would remain empty, as people tend to select seats further up front.

I got upgraded on the first leg to BWI and was able to change my computer-assigned seat to be next to Babe's.  The second leg was upgraded less than 24 hours before departure and the computer conveniently assigned me the seat next to Babe!  I hadn't flown CO first class in 10 years so I was curious if the quality was as good as I remembered it. (That time, the flight was about to depart and the purser walked into coach and called out my name; I was upgraded even though it was my first time flying CO!  No joke!)  The seats were the same deep navy blue, but upgraded with DirectTV, which was a nice touch.  The flight departed at the wee hour of 5:50am, so we got breakfast, which was better than United's.  I thought I would catch a few zzz's, but I was riveted by satellite TV and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  The economy section also had DirectTV, but passengers had to pay $7.99 for the duration of the flight, whereas first class was free.  I had decided to save a movie for watching on the second leg, but found out not all planes were equipped with satellite. :(  We got lunch on the second leg, also better quality than UA, but there were no warm nuts served, just a foil bag of cashews. (I know..."just"!)  There was a snack basket passed around later in the flight, but the quality of the selections were not as good as the UA snack basket, so thumbs down.  (boo hoo, I know ;))

free DirectTV in first class

controls were built in to the armrest

breakfast of egg and cheese biscuit, yogurt, fruit and warm cinnamon roll

no warm nuts for lunch, UA had cups of warm nuts

warm chicken wrap with corn chowder, fruit, and Milano cookies

the other lunch entree was a shrimp salad

We arrived into BWI with no issues, and the weather was sunny but brisk.  No snow at least!  The rental car shuttle came quickly this time and we were able to get out of the airport in good time, using Hertz again.  It was almost a two hour drive into Conestoga for the wedding rehearsal.  I finally saw my first Turkey Hill and Sheetz convenience stores since I heard about them from Babe and my co-worker Eggy who hails from New Jersey.  I don't think we have any of these gas stations in California, though we do have stores that sell Turkey Hill iced tea.

didn't get a shot of Sheetz though, but Sheetz was VERY brightly lit!

When we arrived at the Conestoga Country Club for the rehearsal, I saw that the altar and tables were already set up for the next day.  Babe didn't have to worry too much about memorizing anything as he was an usher.  I got to meet Alicia the bride and Randy the groom, Babe's parents Steve and Sue, Babe's brother Jarrett and his girlfriend Kate.  The rehearsal dinner was a potluck at Randy's mom's home, with the moms contributing as well as other members of the family.  I didn't take any pictures of the food, but it was Italian-themed, consisting of minestrone soup, salad, lasagna, chicken wings, and many desserts (the peanut butter pie was most yummy and sinful of the bunch, made by Kate).  After dinner, we headed back to Sue's house, our hotel for the weekend.

On Friday morning, Babe and I got up, had leftovers from dinner for lunch, and drove over to Steve's house to visit as we found out the bridesmaids were gathering at Sue's and we wanted to get out of the way.  I met Steve's girlfriend Mary Ann there.  Steve gathered a bunch of old pictures of Babe when he was little for my perusal, so that was fun. (for me, not for Babe!)  They showed me around the property and we walked over an adjacent old metal bridge that locals and Amish buggies used to cross the river before the state shut it down due to needful repairs.  Time flew and we needed to get ready for the wedding, so Babe and I drove back to Sue's, got changed, and headed to the country club.  It was nice to be just a guest!  I got to meet other members of the family, including Babe's grandparents, aunts, uncles, plus Sue's fiance Gerry.

decorative lanterns

escort cards

men's boutonnieres

tiered wedding cake

these were bags that were later used for the dollar dance

there were two betta fish that were kept in separate vases; the stained glass was done by Jarrett's girlfriend Kate

our table, numbered 11

minty favors

the altar in the middle of the room; tables were along the sides

saying "I do"

After the wedding, there were some light appetizers and a hosted bar in the back room.  We were later seated for the bridal party introduction, followed by a plated dinner, which started with a salad, then entree.  Babe and I decided to go with beef as a safe choice, though I heard that the fish was very tender.

got the end piece

The first dance was announced, then the parents danced with the bride and groom.  My camera sucks at dim light plus motion, but it'll take a lot to make me break down and buy an SLR...

the new Mr. and Mrs. Walker

father-daughter dance

A "dollar dance" was announced and both the bride and groom participated.  It was a "contest" to see whether the bride or the groom would collect the most money.  I had never seen the groom participate before, as I was familiar with the dance where money is pinned to the bride's dress.  This version was also different in that the money was collected in separate bags and $5/$10/$20's were requested, hehe.  Dancing was then open to all, though I had expected the DJ to play more current songs as much of the music was surprisingly 70's/80's.  Later on in the night, cake cutting and bouquet/garter toss were done.  Alicia and Randy looked like they were going to feed each other nicely, but in the end, there was some cake smearing.

There were actually wedding crashers, though not the kind you'd expect.  I think they were club members who were having drinks at the bar in the next room and they decided to come in for some dancing.  When the night was over, Babe helped put the gifts in the car and then we headed back to Sue's house.  Congratulations to Alicia and Randy!  They would leave on their honeymoon a couple of days later at an all-inclusive resort in Barbados.  (It would be Randy's first airplane ride...fun fun!)

Saturday morning, we picked up Steve and Mary Ann and went to breakfast at George's in the nearby town of Willow Street.  It was your usual breakfast fare, though I had a chance to try a grilled sticky bun and scrapple, which is sort of like Spam, made Pennsylvania Dutch style.  The scrapple was all right...at least I tried it.  Maybe I didn't have the best version, as I really like Spam.

grilled sticky bun

scrapple (looks appetizing huh?)

I had a mushroom and cheese omelette

On the drive back, we saw an Amish man driving an open buggy...my first Amish sighting!  After dropping off Steve and Mary Ann and picking up a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies that Steve baked (so good!), we returned to Sue's house as Babe's friends Tony and Brian were stopping by to watch the Penn State game (without Joe Pa!).  Gerry, Alicia and Randy also stopped by.  Penn State barely lost the game to Nebraska; surprisingly there wasn't as much drama as people feared after the scandal broke out.

The boys were having so much fun catching up that the time slipped by and we were too late to head out to Amish country to buy baked goods at Bird-in-Hand Bakery and eat smorgasbord at the Family Cupboard since they closed at 8pm.  There was an Amish country store still open nearby, so we headed there first to buy some whoopie pies and shoo-fly pies.  Amish folks don't like their picture taken, so I respected their privacy, but pictures of food are must-haves.  Babe joked that even though I may have been excited to see Amish people, the Amish people were probably tickled to see a Chinese person in their store!

yummy baked goods

these were really good

they lit the store with gas lights

Dinner was at the only restaurant in town, the Conestoga Wagon.  I tried their liver and onions with lima beans and "homemade filling" (aka stuffing) while Babe ordered the fried chicken with mashed potatoes and apple fritters.  It was a lot of food; I don't know how people can eat the whole plate, plus the bread basket that comes with it.

We were so full, we didn't order any dessert, but Babe said I still had to try some renowned ice cream at the Pine View Dairy.  Their ice cream is made from scratch with no chemicals or preservatives.  They call scoops "dips", so if you want a single scoop, it's called a single dip.  I thought they meant dipping the ice cream in chocolate or something!  We shared a double dip of chocolate peanut butter and pumpkin flavors.  I had a kick out of seeing bags of orange juice and milk being sold.  Apparently it's cheaper to buy the liquid in these bags and put them in special pitchers to dispense the product.  I had never seen this before.

bulk bagged beverages

We returned to the house and Sue had made some chicken pot pie for us, since I had been on a mission to taste Amish food, if you hadn't noticed already.  We were so full but I had to eat some, and it was tasty.  We then dug up old home videos of Babe when he was young.  I had such a good time watching them, though I think Babe felt otherwise. ;)

Sunday morning, Sue's fiance Gerry stopped by; Sue made a wonderful sausage and pancake breakfast for us.  I'm not usually excited about pancakes, but these were so fluffy and tasty that I had to have two of them, which surprised Babe.  ("You don't eat pancakes!")  The sausage was good too, locally made.  After spending some time showing Sue and Gerry photos from our previous Hawaii trips to prepare them for their trip in mid-January and sharing travel tips, we packed up and drove back to Baltimore to catch our flights home.  I did not get upgraded from BWI to Houston (though I did get upgraded on the second leg), but I didn't mind as I was in a bulkhead window seat, plus no one was sitting in the middle!  Babe offered to give me his first class seat, but there was DirectTV on the flight, and I knew that he would appreciate it more as the football games were on.

I had a great second outing to Pennsylvania, and looking forward to next time and experiencing more Amish culture and food!  In the meantime, 11 days later, Babe would be coming to my home for Thanksgiving, followed by a trip to Napa.  Until then...