ROCK LITITZ PENTHOUSE - GENERAL SUTTER INN!

We recently celebrated my husband's birthday in style - rockin' it at the "Rock Lititz Penthouse", a recently renovated top floor (top of all 3 floors) at the General Sutter Inn (GSI) in Lititz, PA.

Three internationally known companies easily recognized in the music industry: Clair Bros., Tait Towers & Atomic Design reside here in Lancaster County and collaborated with the GSI to create one groovy floor of 6 rooms where their clients and GSI customers can hang while in town.  After reading this article in the Lancaster New Era: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/572604_Bedrock-decor.html I knew it was the next birthday experience my husband had to have. 

After a fun dinner with friends at Annie Bailey's (who unfortunately removed their Lobster Mac & Chz from the menu), we cruised back over to the GSI to have a few spirits at the Bullshead Inn. Then upstairs for the night feeling like rock stars!  Here's why:

Upon entering - there's a sweeeeet wall mural
of various rockers spanning two walls 

Creatively lining the hallways are staging tools including

these replicas of Elvis era microphones

Behind the mics is the timeline of Clair Bros. and Tait Towers

from their simple start - through their partnering up

and following their amazing journey to today.

Of course my favorite quote is by Roy Clair, one of the

two brothers who originally founded the company -

and a pretty rockin' guy too!

Framed photos throughout halls & rooms reflect the scope

of concerts and events brought to life by these

innovative masterminds!

Stage equipment painted bright - Fun!

A view from one hallway - notice the

fabulous track lights!

Time to Rock!

Another angle in the hall...

The green room? Actually a guest lounge
with a 3-D tv; and an insanely cool
coffee table. 

A soundboard with moving lights doubles as

the lounge coffee table.

Moving on to the kitchenette where Continental

breakfasts are served for everyone on this floor -

Yep; guests of all 6 rooms. There were only 2

in use this particular Saturday. Shameful.

The table top is covered with original

backstage passes - hard to capture

a great shot under the glass top.

And a cool wall shot of various concert shirts

captured in a frame as well

The laundry - available for guest use too

Each room has a different stage entry - Penthouse is Onstage

Microphones hold the robes in the bathroom - clever!

Of course, I loved the sinks!

Simple, but fuuuuuuunky penthouse bedroom!

Tres' Chic

This would look great in our house!

Again, very cool track lighting & by

far wall a suitcase rack made from

unidentifiable stage gear!

And in case you felt inspired to compose some tunes...

Sadly my camera battery ran out, so shots of the penthouse sitting room, bar area and insanely beautiful shower are missing.  Guess we'll just have to go back.

Sidenote to the General Sutter Inn -- all 6 rooms should be booked every weekend!  You are blowing it on your marketing of this miniature Hard Rock right here in LanCo. 

Christmas Visitor



Look at this beautiful visitor we had in our backyard wetlands today!

Just a wee little guy - hopefully he'll come back to visit again.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The first snow of the year...pre-Halloween! 

These shots were taken mid-day October 29th,

with beautiful flakes rapidly spiraling downward from up above. 

Forecast says 6-10". 

Soccer games were cancelled...

 - but -

Happy kids sledding everywhere!

Eek - power just went out mid-post. 

Keepin' my fingers crossed!  

This tree pictured below hasn't lost its leaves,

making the snow fall heavier on its limbs.

Drive-thru Zoo

Venturing out of Lancaster County...about 4+ hours drive over state lines (MD, WV & VA) and through the gorgeous Shenandoah Valley, our family found ourselves back for our 2nd annual feeding frenzy at the "drive-thru zoo" in Natural Bridge, VA.  Aka the Virginia Safari Park. At the risk of sounding like an info-mercial, it's a 180 acre park that is home to over 1,000 exotic animals from 6 different continents.

The park consists of two experiences in one.  First, a fun walkable petting zoo where there are miniature goats, potbelly pigs (this year w/lots of babies) and llamas to feed. Snakes and other scaly creatures to look at, as well as sloths, deer, tigers, kangaroos, exotic birds, monkeys and even giraffes that eat out of our hands!



Yes, this is a little slimy.  But kids love it & parents fight

for the perfect photo opp.

The park is well-maintained, and well-staffed with frequent hand sanitizer stations.  The staff are very knowledgeable about all of their animals and love to answer questions for all of us with "inquiring minds".

Once the walking tour is over, we hop back in our car where the real fun begins!  Upon entry to the park we had purchased 4 buckets of food for $10.  Since I'd read many online comments prior to our first trip, we ask for additional buckets (camels like to steal your buckets) and I bring along an extra plastic bag to dump all the food in to - then divvy it into smaller amounts so when you lose your buckets (and you will), you don't lose all your food at once.

Here's a shot of the beginning of our 3 mile drive-thru zoo.

Where the deer & the antelope play...

As we continue, various exotic (and a few not-so-exotic) animals come to be fed.

A nosy Watusi (one of the few we're not supposed to feed) thankfully doesn't tip us over!

The ostrich don't mess around and their hard pecks are a little intimidating.

Llamas are another fav; though they stalk cars and can sneak up on you!

Oh yeah, sometimes they bat those long lashes at you

 and then spit food on you.  It's not pretty.

This is what a hungry camel looks like:

And this is what a camel that steals your food bucket looks like!



But then they blow you kisses...

And look all cute for those special Kodak moments...



Can you say you've pet a zebra?

Okay...in actuality, that's a park no no,

but we had serious lack of impulse control when they got in our face!

By the end of the 3 mile drive, we ran out of food.

Luckily we didn't make this guy mad.

Though he did give us the stink eye.

Notice how quickly my husband rolled up his window!



Though the purpose of this blog was to highlight LanCo...this is such an

awesome experience, it just had to be shared. 

Here's their link:

http://www.virginiasafaripark.com/geninfo.html

and here are my last bits of wisdom for this outing:

• Drive your husband's car - it gets messy. 
• Don't wear white - llama spit, bison drool...need I say more?
• Ask for more buckets - we lose on average 3 each trip.
• Drive your husband's car. I cannot stress this enough.
• Buy 4 buckets of food - it's worth it.
• Take your camera.

Take me out to the ballpark

The Lancaster Barnstormers - Clipper Magazine Stadium

The perfect way to spend Labor Day weekend - a night at the ballpark!  Okay, we can all think of other places we'd rather be (Nordstroms) than pretending not to be sweating while in high humidity with the sun beating down on us, but since our family was there and we had such a great night...it just seemed like the fair thing to do.

Just to set the record straight...normally I would never think about blogging about a baseball game.  Nothing against baseball; I just wouldn't.  However, something very important came to me while at this game...something very important.  These were hands-down, no contest, the CLEANEST public restrooms I have ever been in.  Sparkling clean.  Not a spot on the floor, no toilet paper on a seat, no overflowing garbage cans, no droplets of water on the counter clean. 

Now, everyone likes a clean bathroom (except maybe those people on that "Hoarders" show - eew).  However, as a mother, the cleanliness of the bathroom gave me pause.  A pause that made me take even more notice of my current environment.  (For the record, by then my pause had taken me back outside the restroom.) 

Let me explain.

The "experts" whoever they are, claim that women make 80% of all household decisions.  From what a family eats, to what they wear, the decor of a home, the brand of detergent, what toys are purchased, and so on.  They generally have the final say of any major item, appliance or car a household might purchase right down to where a family dines out, vacations and the entertainment they see.  That said - why aren't more businesses marketing to Moms? 

I digress; back to the pause.  I pause.  I look around. I had noticed in the restroom that while it was sparkling clean, it also had a good-sized section cordoned off with a diaper changing station; was pleasantly cool (highly unusual in many sports stadiums), and had a crisp fresh scent to it.  Nice and appreciated touches to any mother.

Mental mommy notes (pun intended) are flying around my head at this point. Reread that Mental mommy line again, it's kinda funny. Anyhow some of the voices that were singing in my head would be highlights for any Mom who visits Clipper Magazine Stadium:

 

• Lots of kiddie entertainment.  Several playgrounds (free) that were fenced in for security.
• Carousel, bumper boats, bouncy slide and several baseball style games at a reasonable cost - good throughout the night as many times as a kid wants and a parent will tolerate.
• Plenty of seating for the adults - oh, and in a place you can still check on the ballgame periodically.
• Cute, clean area by the kids entertainment for Birthday parties.
• Multiple food stations with more options than just a hotdog! Yes, one even had Caesar salad.  They were clean, food was cooked on the spot and was relatively tasty, 3 condiment areas in each location with lots of napkins around (amen); kids meals with cute Lancaster Barnstormer buckets to take home (plz don't let us be hoarders...) and best of all - cups with lids.
• Cylo, the Barnstormers' mascot comes by for pictures and autographs in the kids area every game.

At some point we convinced the kids to actually watch some of the game, so we sat.  More mental mommy notes popped up:

• Every seat seems to be a great seat and aisles were roomy enough for my husband's very long legs.
• A fabulous, but not obnoxious sound system.
• Kooky games and entertainment or giveaways at the bottom of every inning.  
• A beautifully maintained grassy knoll to spread out blankets and watch the game for those who don't want to spring for higher-priced seats.

They (them again) say in marketing that if a person has a good experience, on average they'll tell 4 others about it and if it's a bad experience, they'll share their horror story with 10 others.   I want to share with the world the incredible job the Lancaster Barnstormers are doing at making moms' lives easier - they really, truly know how to "Market to Moms".  

Great job Barnstormers - we'll see ya next year.

Makin' Lemonade

Mother Nature handed my husband and me a few lemons this past weekend; actually a whirlwind of them we begrudgingly are referring to as "Irene".  Our fabulous plans to celebrate 10 years of marital bliss together in NYC (sans kids) came to a screeching halt when Hurricane Irene decided to encourage Amtrak to cancel their schedules and the city to be cleared out.


Babysitters were in place, so not willing to give that up, we moved on to Plan B: make lemonade. 

Destination: Lancaster, PA. 

Pretending to be in Manhattan, we only went to new places we hadn't yet discovered - here are some highlights.

First stop; lunch at "The Brickyard".  Great food, great beer, great service and a supercool jukebox that looks like a giant i-phone in the bar.  Note for future trips: bring the kids, they eat free w/adults.  They may change that policy once they see how much our kids can consume. Scary.

Second stop: An amazing new "go to" place for must have decor (and gifts for people we really like) Radel & Stauffer http://www.radelstauffer.com/aboutus.html. 
Throughout our wonderful and personalized tour of the store, the co-owner Daryl, took notes on everything I oohed & ahhhed over and handed the list to my husband on our way out as a ready to go Christmas list.  Gotta love that kind of customer service.  Did I mention their outstanding "Alessi" collection?

Next stop: Details on Queen St. http://www.detailsandpappagallo.com/  Wonderful boutique for home accessories, stationery, candles, etc.  Pappagallo is their trendy clothing store, which I'd been to before and didn't drag my husband into.  I can get in more trouble without him there.

Home for the evening was the contemporary and eclectic "Lancaster Arts Hotel":



This unique art-filled boutique hotel is definitely a (the) hidden hot spot in Lancaster County.  With just 63 rooms, the historic building is intimately set with over $300k worth of artwork by 36 different local artists.  The building was originally built in 1881 and the hotel architects should be showered with praise on how they maintained the building's integrity and brick walls while converting it from a tobacco warehouse to the hotel.  The rooms feature individual artist's work with descriptions and biographies, a sketchbook for guests to doodle on, a wonderful book describing this and other historical hotels, handcrafted furniture and the most comfortable hotel bed we've ever slept on.  And that's been quite a few. Seriously, seriously comfortable.

Sadly I didn't bring my camera, so all pics shown are from their website and don't do the angles, the artwork, the architectural design justice.  The nice staff did promise me entry to photograph the hotel anytime I want, so I will be back.  Check out these uber-cool & comfy chairs in the lobby:

After a romantic dinner next door at Lancaster's trendy "Fenz" restaurant, we wandered/teetered back and enjoyed a few spirits at the Arts Hotel's swanky bar:



Overall, we couldn't have asked for more memorable lemonade. 

Happy Anniversary Honey!

You say tomato...and I say "is it?"

Look at these little beauties found recently at the

neighbor's produce stand...teeny tiny "pea-sized" tomatoes. 

So cute, so adorable and so yummy!

I've been throwing them into tacos, pastas & salads -

adding to veggie sides and eating them one at a time. 

Just too cute not to feature on the blog.

To give more perspective, this is one sitting pretty 

next to a little spice jar.  Sure glad I'm not the lucky girl picking them. 

They grow like any other tomato, not in clumps,

so lots of picking one after another, after another, after another...