Family road trip (V): exploring Amish territory + Philadelphia
The last leg of our summer road trip took us to Pennsylvania, where we explored the Amish county of Lancaster as well as Philadelphia. Check out our itinerary below!
Lancaster County
After spending the night at Northwood Motel in Montgomery (PA), we started our day with a big breakfast at Kinfolk Restaurant in Selinsgrove.
Then, we drove to Lancaster County, known for its Amish community. Famous for their simple lifestyle and reluctance to use modern comforts and technologies, the Amish descended from the Anabaptist Christian movement. After being persecuted in Europe, the Amish accepted William Penn’s offer, then founder of Philadelphia, to settle in Pennsylvania. That’s how they arrived in Lancaster County around 1720. Nowadays, there are about 235,000 people in the Amish community, mainly living in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the United States as well as in Ontario, Canada.
When exploring Lancaster County, it seems as if time had not passed. Winding and narrow roads abound next to huge cornfields and Amish men and women ride their horse carriages.
Indeed, agriculture plays a very important role in the Amish culture, given their experience in cultivating the land for generations. The Amish Village is a great place to start your visit, enjoy a genuine Amish property and experience this community’s culture up.
The Amish clothing is very simple as they usually wear solid colors. Men often wear straight-cut, dark-colored clothing and black or straw hats. They can only have a beard once they’re married. Similarly, Amish women dress modestly too and they usually put on skirts, long sleeves, bonnets and aprons. Their hair is very long because they never have it cut although it is usually tied up. TIP: be mindful and respectful when photographing Amish people. They typically don’t like cameras, so if you’d like to take a picture, it’s preferable you do so when they’re facing backwards.
Philadelphia
From Lancaster County, we drove to Philadelphia, the capital of the state of Pennsylvania. As you might remember, I had visited Philly with friends during Memorial weekend. This time around, we just walked through the historic area of Independence Hall and ended up at the famous Rocky Stairs next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
After that, it was time to head back home to Washington DC and bid farewell to my family!
I hope you enjoyed reading this episode of my family road trip series. In case you missed one of them, you can find them all below:
