Today we visited the Choo Choo Barn. The Choo Choo Barn is a museum of miniatures and trains. It was similar to Roadside America, but less campy. There are more photos on my fickr.
The photo above was probably my favorite part of the whole place! This house catches on fire and then a fire engine comes and puts it out. Little people get out of the fire engine and there is real water coming out of a little hose. It is unbelievable! We watched it twice!
The really cool thing about the Choo Choo Barn was that it was like a miniature Lancaster county! There was a miniature Dutch Wonderland! Miniature Turkey Hill. Miniature Amish Farms. Little miniature Amish men working on a roof!
A lot of it was in action, too. We just stared and stared to take it all in. We went around the entire place twice and we saw things the second time we didn't see the first time. I am sure there was much more we missed, too.
I loved the baseball field, too!! The players are in action!
They also put down the lights every so often so you could see everything lit up. That was cool.
For some reason, there is always something gigantic in front of miniature museums! Here's the a Turkey Hill cow that was in front because of a new feature....a miniature Turkey Hill store! (I have photos of in on flickr.)
After the Choo Choo Barn and miniture trains, we went drove by the Red Caboose Motel.
I have driven past before, but forgot how cool this motel truly is. It is actually in Weird Pennsylvania. Apparently the owner placed a low bid on the train cars never expecting to win the bid. He won. Then he had to figure out what to do with them. They were placed on the land to keep out of the way. Then he had the idea to make them into a hotel. They have plumbing and electricity and are furnished. I must stay there someday. Or at least eat at the restaraunt.
Our next stop: Dutch Haven. I am so sad that I didn't take a picture. Honestly, I was slightly overwhelmed. However, there is a photo from the Choo Choo Barn of a little miniature of it (on flickr.) It is a big, yellow windmill building.
Many of you know that I live in Lancaster, PA. I am not, however, a native. I think this is sort of unique because basically I have never met anyone living in Lancaster who has not lived here their entire life.
I have been here about 8 years and I love it here. I love the city. I love the country. I love all the crazy Amish tourist crap along Route 30. I feel like I am in an entirely different world, even though I haven't left the county that I live.
So, today while we were on our little adventure, I decided I had to have a Hex Sign. Now, we got the small 8 inch size and have no intention of placing it outside of our house. Plus, I am not sure that our landlord would appreciate it. Nonetheless, I just had to have one to hang inside.
So, we search through all the Hex signs for sale. My favorite one aestetic-wise was the Fertility sign. Uh, we didn't get that one. We narrowed it down to the "Daddy of all Hexes - Good Luck all year" or "Unicorns - Peace and Contentment." The "Daddy of all Hexes" was a little too colorful for my tastes, we we got the unicorn one (seen below). Oddly, I used to collect unicorns as a little girl. Sometimes life comes full circle.
Here's the Hex Sign:
We got to sample Shoofly Pie at Dutch Haven....America's Greatest Shoofly pie. Now, I must say, I actually don't like Shoofly pie. I tried one bite.....it was delicious. So we bought a Shoofly Pie. (By the way, the little marks are from shadows and not actually on the box itself.) You can order the pies online, too on their website. (It is much less expensive in person.)
It was a fun day that came to an end at the Strasburg Creamery.
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