Choo-choo!!

As I am on my mission for us to explore more of what Pennsylvania has to offer, we took a day trip to Lancaster County on Saturday. First stop was a favourite village of ours, Intercourse which is quite touristy but has a nice little shopping village called Kitchen Kettle and always has a festive feel about it. We have bought a number of pieces of furniture from a shop there called Lapps Coach Shop, which is full of lovely handmade Amish pieces. Lucy's high chair is from there for one, which we love. This time we were checking out rocking horse for Lucy and found some nice ones, but alas she wouldn't even try one! Not sure why but they didn't cut it!

We moved on from Intercourse to Strasburg, about 15 minutes away. It is a mecca for railway enthusiasts and full of museums, a working steam railway you can ride on, and a great place called The Choo Choo Barn where we headed. I had heard lots about it from my friend Christine, who has spent many an hour there over the years with her train-crazy son Owen. Lucy loves trains (particularly Thomas!) so we thought it would be ideal - and it was.

The 'barn' is actually a large room filled with a huge model railway. There are dozens of trains rushing around the tracks which pass lots of scenes from houses and Amish farms, to barn raisings (an Amish tradition), fire stations, a ski mountain, a circus and a zoo to name a few. The detail was amazing and it is so lovingly put together and maintained. We especially loved 'night-time' which came every 10 minutes or so - the lights went really low and each building and train had tiny lights that came on. The fire rescue of one of the houses was really impressive too.

It;s great place to go on a rainy day or mid-winter when you want something to do inside. The lunch at Isaacs deli a few doors down was a fun treat to add into the mix too, especially as we were sat next to a huge fish tank which Lucy enjoyed a lot.