"Country Kitschin"

Matt and I spent an absurd amount of time during our trip to Amish country at a complex called Kitchen Kettle Village. I visited this place when my parents and I went to Amish country earlier this year, and I have no idea why we went back. Truly, it's kitsch personified.

The saddest part about our trip to Kitsch-en Kettle Village is that we went there not once, not twice, but three times. The first time, we wandered in and out of the stores, sampling meat sticks, fudge and other usual Amish-food suspects. We made ourselves feel better about being sucked into a tourist trap by pointing at and mocking the other tourists around us. The highlight of the trip was the horseradish cheese we sampled, which really says something.

But later that day, while eating at Lancaster Brewing Company (what vacation with Matt would be complete without a trip to the local brewery?), we read that Kitchen Kettle Village held a holiday party every Friday night. "Maybe that's why no one was there earlier today," we said. So, like the wayward tourists we mocked mere hours earlier, we returned to the scene of the kitsch. Unfortunately, the advertised "carolers" were from a choir that looked and sounded like they just stumbled off the bus from the local senior center; the "cookie decorating" was actually s'mores assembly over a modified hotplate; the "family fun" was the presence of the Village's mascot, a 7-foot gingerbread man named "Yummie." The less said about Yummie, the better. He's the stuff nightmares are made of.

The next morning, while driving by Kitchen Kettle Village once again, we decided that we needed to take a picture, since it had become such an infamous part of our trip. When we pulled into the parking lot, we got distracted by shiny objects in store near the Kitchen Kettle Village, so we stopped...again.

Through our Kitchen Kettle escapades, we did realize that we'll never be able to commit to that "country charm" look that Matt's mom does so well. "This country stuff is an all or nothing proposition," Matt observed during our third trip to the tourist trap. Nothing, it is.

Check in again soon for photos and a little history lesson from our trip to Gettysburg.