October found my family and me on a little adventure. Abraham Lincoln's birthplace, Virginia Beach, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Mount Vernon, Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon - these were the sites that filled one week of our two week long vacation. The next week found us in Lancaster County, PA. There we helped sort and pack humanitarian aid at Global Aid Network's large distribution center along with many friends from our mission trips to the Former Soviet Union. Though aid work was our main goal in Pennsylvania, we did take one day to do some touristy things around the area. Joined by our friend, Joey (the one responsible for the pictures below - didn't she do a great job?) we visited the Ephrata Cloister. Now a beautiful park with original and reproduced rustic wood buildings, aged tombstones and trees dressed in autumn's colors, this was the busy home of an unusual sect in the 1700's. The "brothers" and "sisters" that once roamed these grounds took the biblical concept of being in the world but not of it to an unbiblical extreme. Long hours of work, one daily meal and sleeping on narrow, wooden benches with blocks of wood for pillows were only a few of the unusual practices of these confused people. Heretical though they may have been, these people left behind one of PA's beauties.
Maren, me, Mom, Dad, and Hannah - Ephrata, PA
It was one of the few days planned for school children to visit the cloister. That meant that many of the buildings had artisans dressed and demonstrating (or explaining as is the case in this picture) the different trades of the cloister folk. Here we are at the bakery where a very delicious bread was made not only for the cloister natives but also for a prominent government official who fell in love with their bread when visiting the area. The secret ingredient - olive oil.
Manning the brot shib (not sure of spelling, but it is pronounced something like "brote - ship" - literally "bread pusher"). I can't even get away from baking on vacation. :)
It was one of the few days planned for school children to visit the cloister. That meant that many of the buildings had artisans dressed and demonstrating (or explaining as is the case in this picture) the different trades of the cloister folk. Here we are at the bakery where a very delicious bread was made not only for the cloister natives but also for a prominent government official who fell in love with their bread when visiting the area. The secret ingredient - olive oil.
Manning the brot shib (not sure of spelling, but it is pronounced something like "brote - ship" - literally "bread pusher"). I can't even get away from baking on vacation. :)
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