Weekend in Lancaster

This past weekend Chris and I drove to Lancaster, PA to visit his family! It was a 4.5 hour drive, but it wasn’t too bad! The drive through PA was pretty scenic!

We arrived pretty late Friday night so we didn’t do much. We stayed at Chris’ cousins’ house. Saturday morning we had an 8 mile run planned. We got a later start than we wanted and it was getting hot pretty fast so needless to say the 8.0 didn’t happen. We made it a slow 4.0 miles around his other cousins’ neighborhood. At least we got out there, though!

However, we did have big plans for lunch on Saturday.

Ever since Chris’ cousin told him about this buffet, Shady Maple Smorgasbord (I think smorgasbord says it all) he had been dying to try it. So myself, Chris and his cousins all met up here for lunch after our run.

The place was HUGE! It had tons of dining halls and seats 2,500 people! And they had every food you could ever. want. It was seriously overwhelming.

The line to get in was outrageous (but it moved fast!)

Soon I was faced with station after station of food and more food.

Most people come in here with a plan: to eat as much as they can. I, on the other hand, was too overwhelmed. I didn’t want to go overboard! This kind of place is not for people watching what they eat! I was surprised they did have a massive salad bar and lots of cooked vegetables. I first went to the fish station to check things out and ended up with this.

I was really surprised with the fish! It was great. I hit up the seafood because I hardly ever eat it and I figured I might as well get some since most of the other entrees were meat. I can’t remember the last time I had fried shrimp, so I went with a few of those as well.

Time for round two!

I was getting pretty full, so I ended up eating half the salad, a bite of a pickle, and only two of the onion rings since they were not good. I did however devour the cornbread and the mashed sweet potato. They were both fantastic. Can you tell I’m obsessed with carbs?

Now, for my favorite part. Dessert! It included a chocolate fountain. Need I say more?

What I chose for dipping…

I resisted going up for  more since there were TONS of other desserts to try. I had to go with ice cream! I chose vanilla with peanut butter topping! You only live once.

I also may have nibbled at some carrot cake, but it was a bit too chunky with carrots for me. But the frosting was great…

I was full after lunch, but not overly so. I think the ice cream is what filled me up the most! Its SO filling!

Chris on the other hand was stuffed! 😉

We weren’t hungry again until about 8:30 that night!

After lunch we went to play mini golf, but took the scenic route! I told Chris since I was in Lancaster county I had to see some Amish!

There were farms everywhere! The views were gorgeous.

We drove straight through Intercourse, PA, the heart of Amish Country! There were tons of horse and buggys out too, so it was really cool to see. There were also tons of shops and villages but we didn’t have time to stop. Chris promised me that next time we can stop and check it out!

After a patheic round of mini golf (the course was SOOO challenging!) we headed back to rest up, followed by a late dinner at Chris’ Aunt’s!

Sunday before we left we visited Chris’ grandma and then drove back home. It was a nice relaxing trip! I was glad to finally meet some more of Chris’ family. We had a great time!