Doing The Amish Country Things

​"TROPICAL DEPRESSION" BY PATTI LISZKAY IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER  

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​DOING THE AMISH COUNTRY THINGS

,...Continued from yesterday:      
     The following day, Monday, February 20, we discovered that breakfast at the Berlin Resort had been moved from its previous location in the lobby to the hotel ballroom, which worked just as well for us, and apparently for everyone else.

     After breakfast we headed out to town to find Amish Country re-opened for business (see yesterday's post, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/never-on-sunday-in-amish-country​),

...and the tourists returned to spend the Presidents' Day holiday despite the overcast, drizzly weather.

     Our first stop was at the 61 Surplus thrift store, a pair of buildings,

... located on a pretty country road,

...where all kinds of second-hand items are sold to promote a good cause.

   Amish bonnets.

      This set of dishes caught my eye,

...but I only looked then moved on.
       After the thrift store we then returned to the main commercial strip through Berlin where our first stop was an indoor mall called the German Village Center.

      We checked out the Gospel Book Store,       

... where I browsed through some of the fiction. Most of it was of the squeeky-clean romance variety, the heroines being mostly Amish school teachers ,

...who had their eye on Amish bad boys, whom they managed to straighten out  by the end of the book (as I learned by skimming through the pages from beginning to end).

      I concluded that the Gospel Book Store would likely not be interested in carrying my books,

...even though the core themes  - love and conflict - are about the same. 
​     We made the rounds of the other mall stores,

...including the hardware store where Tom bought a bucket,

...and where they also offered an array of inspirational tee shirts.

       We also looked around the grocery store.

     We then walked across the parking lot from the German Village Mall to Sol's Palace,

...a vast country crafts Mecca on three floors.

...where one can find a finity of ornamental hangings bearing good-natured messages,

...and some less so.

    In any case, at Sol's there's certainly something for every country craft afficionado, whatever their taste,

...or persuasion.

     While looking around the bargain basement,

...I even found something I liked: these solar-powered light-up lawn birds for $19.99,

...one of which now sits on my living room buffet while I contemplate the perfect spot for it in my yard.

     By the time we finished perusing all the nooks and crannies at Sol's it was time for lunch. We drove to the next town over, a place with the auspicious name of Charm, where we hoped to have lunch at our favorite of all favorite Amish Country luncheries, the Charm Family Restaurant, ​

whose veggie wrap and fries were to die for,

...not to mention their pie and ice cream.

    But when we arrived we found, to our horror, that the Charm Family Restaurant had closed. Permanently.
​       And so I suggested that we return to the Berlin strip and try the Troyer Market, which advertised Good To Go (and like everything else in Amish Country, Wholesome) food.

     We split a ham and Swiss sub which was definitely good.

  In fact, for a plastic wrapped ham and Swiss it was better than good, as it was very tasty and fresh, as if it had just been made, which it might have been.
     We shared our sandwich in the cheery little cafeteria (upon the wall of which hung a piece of cool retro-wall art),

 ...with the other folks who obviously knew how good the to-go food was here was.

     After lunch we had a look around the super market and bought nice some produce,

...while enjoying the free popcorn.

  We forewent the more tempting items,

...along with the not-so-tempting ones.

     After we finished our shopping we drove back down the strip to visit Loreen's Used Books,

...where the books were indeed wholesome family reading,

...except for a few of questionable rectitude.

     After Loreen's we strolled up the street, looking at the shops.   

       We stopped in the Main Street candy store, which offered a wide array of uncommon flavors of soda,

...most of them not particularly appealing, 

...some less appealing than others.

   The store also offered a 25-pound gummy bear that looked somewhat the worse for wear.

      Then we drove for a while around the pretty countryside that begins as soon as the main Berlin drag ends.

       When dinnertime rolled around we headed to the only restaurant opened in Berlin past 5 pm other than the Burger King and East of Chicago Pizza, the Farmstead, which stays open until seven.

        The menu reminded the customers to say their grace before their meal.

     As we dug into our hearty, tasty Amish buffet food, Tom and I pondered what it was that kept us coming back to Berlin, Ohio year after year, staying at the same place, spending all day moseying up and down the same tourist-trappy street and meandering through the same tourist-trappy stores looking at the same tourist-trappy stuff that we seldom have the least interest in buying, and the whole town closes down at 5 pm except for the Burger King and East of Chicago Pizza.
      Neither of us could say. But we started talking about we hoped that by our next anniversary the Charm Family Restaurant would be reopened and the nightly room rate at the Berlin Resort would still be $116.95.