Last Saturday I took a trip out to Shoppes at Kissel Village in Lititz, Pennsylvania. When I go out on Saturday or Sunday afternoons to work on my novel, I eat at the cafes I’m working in. However, the cafe I’d planned to visit doesn’t serve food (probably because it’s in a grocery store and that would compete with their deli), so I stopped at The Philly Pretzel Company first, which is just across the parking lot from the cafe.

When I walked in, I had a quick look over the menu and then ordered the Pretzel Dog, since it was the closest thing to a meal I saw. There were stacks and stacks of dipping sauces, such as mustard, cinnamon, and other things I didn’t recognize by sight. I was sorely tempted to try one (or several), but having not eaten yet, I thought I should stick to the dog.

I asked if I could take a photo, and the man in charge (who I think was the owner) said I can take a picture of anything I want so long as I don’t put it on the internet. However, he was picking on me for several minutes before hand, so I’m working on the assumption that I won’t be banned from the premises for posting this.

I thought the decor was really quite nice! I didn’t really know what to expect, having never been to a place like that before, but the whole place felt open, clean, and… well, nice. The girl working the counter was very friendly, and as I said, the guy making the pretzels was picking on me!

Before I left, the man asked if I’d had a pretzel yet. I said that I hadn’t yet, and he gave me a fresh, hot pretzel. How nice!

Since the Pretzel Co has no indoor seating, and it was in excess of 90 degrees outside, I chose to eat in my van.

I was halfway through both the pretzel and the pretzel dog before I remembered to actually take a photo!

They were both very good. The pretzel dough was heavy and soft with a nice crust on the outside. A co-worker used to bring pretzels back from Philly for my husband and myself, and the overall weight and flavor were very similar, which makes me think that the water used in the dough was actually imported from Philly.

The dog was big! Not a foot long or anything, but it was thick, and it felt like a meal. There’s also a bit of cheese that drips out when you bite in. I’m not a huge fan of cheese dogs, so this didn’t do much for me, but I’m sure others will love it.

All in all, I’d say The Philly Pretzel Co in Lititz is a great place to stop off for a snack. I hate to admit it, but I don’t remember what the price was. I think my dog was $1.75, and the pretzel was free, so I think you’ll find everything quite reasonable. And when you’re done, just walk across the parking lot where you’ll find the best coffee in Lancaster County (and I don’t mean Starbucks!).

This post has been brought to you by Travis Erwin’s My Town Monday series. For more of My Town Monday, scroll to the bottom of his post for links to everyone participating, or click my My Town Monday tag for more of my posts on Lancaster Pennsylvania.

Those pictures were all about the mansion itself, and were taken just before dark at the end of winter. Now, we’re in summer, and what a difference a bit of green makes in Stauffer Park.

My last MTM post was on Cibo’s, and those pictures were taken the same day as these.

As soon as hubby and I approached the mansion, I noticed a difference between the seasons. Of course, the big construction areas where they’re working on the mansion was part of it, but the other part was all the flowers!

Hubby and I walked around the back of the mansion and towards the formerly creepy tree, which was now lush and green.

As you can see just to the left of the tree, there’s a fence. We’d never noticed this before, and were very pleased to find a new area of the mansion/park to explore. So, we walked through the now-open fence into a courtyard of sorts.

How cool was this? And I fell madly in love with that tree in the background. I never managed to get a good picture of it, but I thought this photo turned out rather nice.

While I was drooling over the tree, my husband was flipping out over “is that a beaver? No, it’s an eagle! Wow!”. I, of course, had no idea what he was talking about and couldn’t figure out how he could mistake an eagle for a beaver, and what the heck was an eagle doing in Stauffer Park anyway?

Until I stepped around a particularly bushy tree and saw that awesome carving. Totally in love. And it’s in the middle of no where! A garden-y area that I think Jane Austen would have referred to as a small wilderness.

Nearly right across from the eagle was this great little sitting area. Isn’t it charming?

If you’re facing the benches, just turn to your right and look straight on to see the top of the mansion through the trees. While I ran around taking pictures of everything I saw, hubby was standing stock still and simply staring at this scene.

After we’d looked at everything in the wilderness, we followed the walking trails as is our usual. Since they’ve been clearing up the shrubbery, and we’ve had decent sun and rain, this spot looked particularly picturesque.

This is actually part of the wilderness area, where it opens up into a small meadow area. I just thought it ended the pictures nicely.

What I like best about Cibo’s, is that they make a rockin’ white pizza. They always seem puzzled when I order it, usually asking if I want the garden white pizza which has broccoli and tomato on it, and still sound puzzled when I say that I don’t want the garden white pizza, I want the white pizza.

What makes their white pizza better than the competition? Well, instead of big dollops of ricotta, which does not melt and spread out like other cheese, Cibo spreads the ricotta evenly over the crust. Then comes the mozzarella (or blend- I don’t ask, just eat), and then it’s topped with- not garlic and oil like other places- but garlic oil. The result? Full flavor with each bite.

White pizza isn’t all they do well here. My husband swears by their calzone’s. In fact, while we have a different favorite pizza place for regular pizza, hubby will often tell me that he’s in the mood for a calzone, and why don’t we go to Cibo’s?

I don’t eat calzones, so I can’t say anything about them. However, I have tried their turkey club panini, and it’s lovely. I didn’t order it on this trip, so I can’t show you a picture of it, but it’s quite large and gooey (oh yes, they melt that cheese!). It’s a shame that they don’t offer half sandwiches since they don’t reheat well, and I hate to waste half of a good sandwich.

The one thing that I don’t recommend, however, are the subs. It was quite a long time since I ordered a sub at Cibo’s, so I can’t say whether they make them the same way now. But, when I ordered a sub there, it was made with a single, large, chunk of cheese rather than slices. At first, I thought it was brilliant. Unfortunately, the cheese had such a strong flavor that I couldn’t taste anything else in the sub except the vinegar, which I had asked to not be put on. I couldn’t finish it and haven’t ordered them again since.

The staff inside tends to be split between very friendly and very unfriendly. Luckily, the unfriendly ones tend to be in the back working on the food, leaving the friendly ones to work with the customers. There’s one in particular, who I think is the owner, who has this very gruff, growly bear type appearance. I say appearance, because he’s actually quite nice and a bit of a jokester.

This picture didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked since I was trying to keep people out of the photo (I don’t like posting people online without their permission), and took the picture too quickly. I really wanted a picture of the floor since it’s just really cool looking, but they thought I was weird enough already, and taking pictures of the floor would surely label me as a nutso.

So after walking through the park for an hour or so and working up an appetite, we got home with this.

Not a bad end to a Saturday, huh?

This post has been brought to you by Travis Erwin’s My Town Monday series. For more of My Town Monday, scroll to the bottom of his post for links to everyone participating, or click my My Town Monday tag for more of my posts on Lancaster Pennsylvania.

I haven’t been able to find much information on the Wilbur Chocolate Company online, and I refuse to shell out for a book about the company. So, I’m going to go with what I personally know about the place.

Wilbur’s Chocolate Co. has a factory in Lititz, PA. Until I started researching the company, I thought that this factory was the only one in existence. It’s convenient, if a bit disturbing, how many candy companies exist in our little section of Pennsylvania. You have Wilbur’s- which produces the best chocolate en masse in the United States, the Twizzler factory, and Hershey’s- which produces the most popular chocolate in the United States. BTW, Hershey’s original factory was right here in Lancaster, but that’s another post altogether.

In addition to actually making the chocolate, the factory houses a miniscule chocolate museum, only part of which is devoted strictly to Wilbur’s chocolate, and a shop- which was too crowded to get a picture of.

I took a lot of pictures of their display pieces, but because they’re behind plexiglass, most didn’t turn out very well. I love that venetian chocolate mask, though, so I had to include it.

Also behind the plexi-glass is a troupe of women making these designer treats in full view of anyone who’s interested. I asked if I could take a picture of them and the one I asked responded with (now this is from memory, so it may not be totally accurate) “If you want. We’re done though. We’re cleaning up now.”

Maybe not the friendliest, but she seemed more confused as to why I’d want a picture than upset at having her picture taken. As you can tell by lack of photo- it didn’t turn out well.

Also, after the first flash, 3 of the women who had not heard me ask panicked and searched for the source of the light. When the other woman explained it to them, they also had “WTF” expressions on their faces. It was kind of funny, actually.

Did you know that Wilbur’s invented the Kiss? It’s called a “bud”. Wilbur’s invented it first, and Hershey copied it, adding his own design.

The Wilbur’s Buds are slightly more rounded, do not have the curly cue at the top, but do have a sort of swirled pattern on the bottom. Hershey made his flat on the bottom, more conical, and added the curly-cue. Wilbur’s is also creamier and richer- a fact that hubby and I argue about constantly even after a special on tv that talked about how Hershey created his chocolate to be more bitter and so on. I have proof! And he’s wrong! Aaaaanyway.

Wilbur’s Chocolate factory is located along Route 501, just off the Lititz Square (where Main Street meets 501), and is right next to the Lititz Park. Parking is atrocious, so I recommend parking in the park’s parking lot unless the weather is foul (then park across the street in the flower shop’s lot).

My personal recommendations? Wilbur’s Buds, or Wilbur’s Almond Bark. Or better yet. Do what I did, and ask for the chocolatier chocolate and make your own at home.

And so, I leave you with a short video that I found that pretty much describes life in this area. Minus all the work and restaurants.

The cafe (which is not really a cafe in my opinion since they don’t have coffee on the menu- false advertising!) is one of the first businesses to lease a space in the brand new Bloomfield Center in Lititz, PA, along with a children’s gym. I have to say, after seeing the menu prices, they’re certainly situated well for their target clientele. Hello? Anyone who would and could pay for a gym membership for a 3 year old, both has the dosh for their prices, and the inclination to use said cash on healthy food and smoothies.

I actually really like their decor, aside from the hideous floral tables. It’s bright, and cozy, and comfortable. And relatively quiet which is perfect for concentrating on your novel… um, I mean, food.
And I freaking love the carved seats. Yes, I’m easily impressed. But if you want more privacy, or dislike small children, there’s extra seating behind that counter. I only saw that there were seats and people when I walked over to take a picture. Very private.

The Tropical Smoothie Cafe uses Boar’s Head deli meats, and Boar’s Head soups. I’m not certain how they make the smoothies, but they have all sorts of options for supplements that you can add to your smoothie.

I ordered a combo, and chose 1/2 a Tuscan Turkey gourmet sandwich and a cup of chicken noodle soup.

The total was $6.49, but I paid only $5.50 since I’d gotten a 20% off coupon at the nearby Penn Cinema (that post’ll come later). Technically, I also ordered a Blimey Limey smoothie, but the poor scared-because-some-strange-lady-is taking-pictures-of-chairs teen behind the counter forgot to ring it up or make it.

I’ll tell you what, I really do think it was a little over priced, but I’m not going to quibble about $1′s worth- but the food was really good. The Tuscan Turkey was so good that I’m still hungry for another 3 weeks later. The focaccia bread was crispy and light, and had a very rich, almost buttery flavor. And herbs… definitely rosemary, but I’m not sure what else. Naturally the deli meat was excellent- it is Boar’s Head after all, and the lettuce was fresh. The pepper jack cheese added just the right amount of spicy kick to the over all flavor, and the tomato tasted fresh, and was a nice red. It may have been a hot house tomato, but it was passable for fresh if not field fresh. I ordered the sandwich without balsamic vinaigrette, but they won me over with the quality, so I may let them put it on next time.

The soup was another matter. Yes, it was good. It tasted home made if a bit salty for home made. The chicken was lovely- just like fresh cooked. However, the carrots were over powering. There were just too many of them, and it threw the balance off. I wouldn’t say that the chicken noodle soup was worth the money, but I do want to try the cream of broccoli.

Just before I left, I ordered a Blimey Limey smoothie (again) for $3.89. It’s strawberry, pineapple, orange, and lime- and is very, very good. However, it tastes very similar to Sonic’s strawberry limeade, so if you’re near Sonic and don’t care about the other stuff, take the cheaper option.

With the sky being so blue, and the new grass being so green, my seat by the window was a great place to work on my novel. I mean, just check out that view.

This post has been brought to you by Travis Erwin’s My Town Monday series. For more of My Town Monday, scroll to the bottom of his post for links to everyone participating, or click my My Town Monday tag for more of my posts on Lancaster Pennsylvania.

I don’t know why, but my mother in law refers to Barack Obama as “Obama mamma”. It’s cute, so I’ll go with it.

Anyway. Despite the fact that Obama and Hillary are fighting over Pennsylvania, I didn’t think we’d be getting either one in Lancaster. I figured, if anything, we’d get Chelsea and Michelle. And yet, as I was watching the news yesterday they announced that Senator Obama would be making a stop off here in Lancaster, PA. At the train station of all things! And on a Saturday, at 6pm. I couldn’t very well pass up an opportunity like that, now could I?

So, today (I’m writing this Saturday), I headed out and parked at my job’s parking lot (luckily, nice and close, and free). Small groups of people were all making their way towards the train station, and once I reached the street the train station was on it was practically a party atmosphere. Not quite, since Lancastrians are known for not being particularly party people, but music was pumping out (“Celebrate good times, come on!”), and I really expected someone to haul out a beach ball. No one did, but it’s their loss.

The line to get in was pretty long, but it moved pretty quickly. This guy was standing by to make sure no one jumped the security fence.

There were a few merchandise tables set up at the end of the line and people walking up and down the line asking for donations (my favorite was a funny guy explaining to people that you get to donate to the Democratic party and get something for it), and volunteers. I made a kind of friend from one of the ladies asking for volunteers- every time I saw her she’d start waving and yelling “hi” to me.

And then we were violated. I mean, searched. Purses, phones, cameras, and keys were passed through and inspected, and we walked through metal detectors. I’m not sure what the point was, since everyone was wearing jeans and the detectors went off every time someone went through them, and then we had to be stick swiped just to make sure we were clean. Why not just stick swipe? Oh well. My inspector was kind of funny and teased me about my “pirouete” when I walked the wrong way and literally spun on the spot to get my stuff (minus the pair of scissors that I forgot to leave at home- now I gotta buy another pair).

We filed through the inspection lines and around the multiple stages. I really wish they’d set up seats since once the speakers came out, only the closest people could see them at all. I did get a few relatively decent shots by holding my camera up and then guessing through the viewer based on tree lines and other markers. Unfortunately, no good pix.

First came a Lancaster boy who was in Iraq. Then Senator Bob Casey (one of the PA senators), and then Barack Obama. The speeches were nice, but more of the same. So, really, if you were going to hear Obama speak, it was pointless. I just went because I’ve never been to a politcal rally before (talked for a good half hour with another guy who’d never been to one before either), and I didn’t see how I could pass up the opportunity to see history at work and get a MTM post when they made it so convenient for me.

Senator Casey is in the white shirt, Senator Obama is in the blue.

So, after some nice speeches, the crowd dispersed. I was a bit surprised that they didn’t shake hands and such, so I hung around. I was right- they were making a circle around the stage and winding back toward the station, but by the time I could see them, they’d passed by and I still couldn’t get a good picture. It was nice though, because I caught a glimpse of Obama’s face a few times, relatively close. That’s the point, isn’t it? A face to face (sorta) with the man running?

I think that says something about me that I was more excited about the press than I was about the politicians.

After the crowd left I found loads, and I mean loads of half full water bottles just scattered over the grass. I made a statement that I thought the Democratic party was the environmentalist party, but that didn’t go over too well. But seriously! I expected better. Though, I admit that half the crowd was under the age of 18, and there was even a young amish family in the crowd.

On the way back to the van I eaves dropped on the people around me. A group of older people behind me were parroting back everything they’d heard in the speech. This bothers me, and it’s my main issue with Obama. He’s very charismatic, and that tends to make people follow blindly. I never advocate that, but it’s not like he can help being charismatic.

There was also a younger couple- mid to late 20′s, who were discussing how much better they understand the campaign process and why candidates make these personal appearances. I wanted to keep listening to them, but I figured that following them all the way to their cars might seem a bit intrusive.

So, while it was cool to have the Senators here in town, see them in person, hear them not on a recording, there was someone else who totally stole the show.

***Update*** After going through my photos again, I did find a very small pic of Obama’s face in the crowd.

Here’s a close up of Senator Barack Obama’s face:

Hah! Told ya I saw him!

This post has been brought to you by Travis Erwin’s My Town Monday series. For more of My Town Monday, scroll to the bottom of his post for links to everyone participating, or click my My Town Monday tag for more of my posts on Lancaster Pennsylvania.

I rolled out of bed earlier than usual on Saturday. Somewhere around 1pm. About 2:30 I headed out with camera, completely prepared to be soaked by the impending rain.

Luckily, by the time I reached destination #1, the sky had cleared and was a beautiful blue. Ah. However, I missed my turn.

Guess what? I now know where turning left on Airport Road goes! There’s a whole bunch of industrial buildings, and then it smacks into a yard. It’s a little odd… Industrial park, smack into residential area. But now I know, and the information may work to my novel’s advantage.

Eventually I made it back around to the Tropical Smoothie Cafe (and had fun terrifying the teenage boys who were working by taking pictures and jotting notes…. have a feeling they thought I was from “headquarters” or was a professional reviewer), took a few pix. Ate, took notes for MTM, worked on my novel, had more fun by questioning said employees…

From there it’s a short trip out to the local movie theater. Which is almost directly across from the local airport. So I took pictures of both, though I think I’ll need a second trip for the airport.

I didn’t stay there long, but it was fun watching people’s faces as they watched me taking pictures of the planes and things.

Then I headed out to Lititz park, which has the Lititz Railroad Station museum (it’s just a replica of the station), and is right next door to Wilbur’s Chocolate. Took a lot of shots in the park, and noticed that the train station would make a great spot to write… if only they served coffee.

After I satisfied my shutterbug yearnings, I headed out to Ephrata to visit my parents. Except, halfway there I ended up behind a bicyclist. Who was riding in the middle of the road. And refused to move over. Who was going 40 MPH downhill, which would have been impressive if the speedlimit wasn’t 55…. Eventually there was a big enough stretch that I could pass him, but would you believe the *&%^*@## pedaled faster? Is it just me, or is that incredibly stupid?

I don’t know what the rules are for bicyclists since I’m terrified of hills and won’t ride myself, but. Would you really, ride your bike in the middle of the road. Refuse to move over. And then think that you can actually pedal faster than a vehicle can accelerate? Really? I swear that guy had a death wish.

Aaaaanyway. Got to my parents who had promised to get chinese food for dinner. We did have chinese, but we went all the way to Reading (another 20-25 minutes from Ephrata) to get it! And then got lost in the parking lot (it’s a big shopping center). It was actually a lot of fun, and dad and I chatted quite a bit over dinner, and then later over some shows on TV. We usually don’t have anything to talk about, so it was nice just talking. Even if it was about food, and the Christian version of American Idol.

Yesterday I spent trying to figure out how to switch my Ebay affiliate stores over to their new affiliate program, and failed. So, naturally, I didn’t feel like doing much of anything else. Including uploading pictures to my laptop. So, no MTM today!

However, while many other cities can boast being the temporary Capital of the United States of America, we’re the only city that was the nation’s capital for one day.

I’d love to give you a big, interesting history of why the capital was here for only one day, but the truth is just that we were a temporary stop off on it’s migration from Philadelphia to York. By the way, here’s a list of all the capitals we’ve had, and when.

For all of the history that Lancaster has, it’s the “capital for a day” and “where Hershey chocolate got it’s start” that makes the… er… headlines. For some reason, this is all anyone latches on to, if they latch on to anything. I personally find something else far more interesting, but that’ll have to be for another post. That one’ll take research (more than fact checking, that is).

This post has been brought to you by Travis Erwin’s My Town Monday series. For more of My Town Monday, scroll to the bottom of his post for links to everyone participating, or click my My Town Monday tag for more of my posts on Lancaster Pennsylvania.