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A Road Trip To Lancaster, Pennsylvania

We recently had a multi-generational family reunion, and decided this year it would be in Lancaster, PA, because it’s close to Dutch Wonderland, the Kingdom for Kids. We have so many little ones and the grandparents love them, so we decided this year’s family reunion would focus on making sure they had a blast, because honestly, that is fun for all of us.

Saturday in Lancaster was predicted to be drizzly, so we opted to start our day with a buggy ride at Abe’s Buggy Rides. They took us on a tour to enjoy the lovely countryside, and we stopped in a very small Amish town where a cute little barefoot girl and her mother sold treats from a lemonade stand (she is peeking out in the background in the photo of my son with horses) and nearby was a store filled with beautiful, high quality homemade goods such as wooden trains and jam.

horse buggy

horse buggy ride-2
lemonade stand
wooden trains
hidden friend
meeting horses
meeting horses-2

We later enjoyed some play time and a ride on the Strasberg Railroad, where there was so much to do…small playground trains and ridealong trains, a real old-fashioned working train with a dining cart and first class cars, and a nearby train museum (we are train aficionados in this house, something I always knew about my sons, but I was surprised by how much my husband loved it too). Our entire family drove on the various Strasberg train cars and we enjoyed gorgeous countryside views while relaxing.

strasburg train-5
strasburg train
strasburg train-2
strasburg train-3
strasburg train-4
strasburg train-6

We passed an area known as Paradise, where we stopped to enjoy a play area for just 10 minutes when the predicted rainstorm finally hit, chasing us away, back into our cars, and back to our hotel. When it cleared we headed out for a fun family dinner and then rested up for the next day.

paradise park pennsylvania
paradise park pennsylvania-2

Finally, on Sunday, a beautifully sunny day, we hit the focal point of our trip: Dutch Wonderland! Our only mistake was thinking we could come for one day. You need to devote several days to really enjoy to many attractions of this park for all ages. There were rides for wee ones (my 2 year old is an Aquamarine and rode his first amusement park rides- and he did really well!) and of course my five year old was able to ride pretty much everything.

dutch wonderland sunoco turnpike-2
dutch wonderland horse
dutch wonderland sunoco turnpike
dutch wonderland flying trapeze
dutch wonderland water rides
dutch wonderland show
dutch wonderland sky fighters

We even instagrammed (@DutchWonderland) and tweeted (@FunAtDW) some of our fun:

dutch wonderland instagram

Dutch Wonderland is really directed at making sure children of all ages can participate and have fun, even though adults have a blast as well, and I was worried about putting a 2 1/2 year old on some rides, but he was sooo happy, safe, and loved it. It’s the perfect place if you have very young kids soo. In fact, many things were just for kids, no adults allowed 🙂

dutch wonderland logo

There was a lot to do, and since we visited as media my immediate family received complimentary tickets to enjoy DutchWonderland. You can visit DutchWonderland.com to learn about everything there is to do and ticket prices- and consider getting a two day pass, because they have over 40 attractions, water rides, coasters, and more folks! Here is some of what we enjoyed:

– Wonderland Special Train
– Merry-Go-Round
– Ampitheater Bubba Bear show
– Sunoco Turnpike
– Bumper Cars
– Sky Fighter
– Space Shuttle

…and more, but by this point our two year old fell asleep. The poor thing really fought it, he was so engaged, but it was a sunny day and after so much excitement and running around, he gave up and conked out on my husband while sitting on his shoulders.

dutch wonderland

It was a blast!

We are taking a break for the rest of summer until back to school, so this is our last post this month…we hope the rest of your summer is wonderful!




  • Such gorgeous pictures! I’d love to visit Pennsylvania someday.

  • Your photos are so AWESOME! I want to go to Dutch Wonderland now.

  • What a fun place to go and spend the day! We live near a small Amish community, and you can go into their store and buy bulk items for cooking, and they have baked goods as well. They have some of the best food ever! We love shopping their!

  • Penelope, your photography is amazing! You captured so much in your photos that it told a story. I can’t decide which photo I love most!

  • Penelope

    Wow, thanks Liz!

  • What a great place to visit and how adorable that he fell asleep on his shoulders!

  • You may have answered this already, but I would love to know what camera you shoot with. Your photos are fantastic. I am looking to replace my camera. I would to love to know what your shooting with.

  • These photos are amazing Penelope, I’m kind of jealous 😉 Anyways. We would love to visit Lancaster County, It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.

  • These pictures are amazing, Now I want to visit.

  • Penelope

    Thanks :)These days I use the Panasonic Lumix G5 (it’s an older model I reviewed a couple years back here: http://penelopesoasis.com/2012/panasonic-lumix-g5-photography.html when I first took up photography) and it’s so light I ditched my Nikon dSLR and went back to it. Because I run around a lot with my kids I need something light or I never want to put it in my purse.

  • Wow, your photos really captured everything so well, like they already told the story. Love it.

  • When we visited Pennsylvania a couple years ago we did a buggy ride as well. I loved it.

  • Your pictures are so inviting, I feel like I’m right there. I bet those homemade treats taste amazing.

  • That party of the country is SO beautiful. I spent a couple of weeks doing some training in Lancaster back in the early 90’s. Where I was staying they were right by an Amish Pretzel making place, and they would send over all of their broken pieces for us to munch on 🙂 I remember being so giddy over seeing the horse and buggies on the roads because I thought it was so quaint!

  • Penelope

    That was very kind of them, why be wasteful? A corporation would have tossed the broken pieces because giving them to you meant you wouldn’t have to go over and buy whole ones. I wouldn’t mind a little more of an Amish mindset around the country 🙂

  • Your post with all of its beautiful pictures took me down memory lane. I miss going to Amish country!! I can remember going with my both of my parents there many times over.

    I’m still trying to figure out how to get real maple syrup for review when the companies I really want to work with aren’t on the Internet.

    I’m glad you all had a great time!

  • Penelope

    Oh my gosh, isn’t New England maple syrup the best? I have a friend who brings me some from Vermont and it’s awesome!

  • Looks like so much fun! And I agree with Liz, Penelope… you are an amazing photographer!

  • Wow, beautiful photos. Lanacaster is on our list of places to go. I’ve seen tons of articles on it and it looks great. WE love Amish communities since we live in one:)

  • This looks like a wonderful place to visit. I love all your pics!

  • Wow, you really wore them out! Looks like they had an amazing time with train rides and amusement park rides!

  • It looks like such a wonderful time so peaceful and fun!

  • My kids would love that amusement park. I think their favorite part would be the no adults allowed part. I appreciate that there are things that are age-appropriate outlets for fun.

  • I would love to visit Lancaster some day… I’ve heard things about this part of the U.S. but your photos really bring it to life. I know my son would love Dutch Wonderland!

  • What a great family getaway and (as usual) beautiful photos! I can not get enough of your little boy’s up close and personal encounter with the horse.