A Fun Morning with Bria and Cali!

All of us were up by 7:30 and the girls wanted to watch 102 Dalmations while Ken and I got ready.  We did give them a bowl of their favorite cereal, Pops, to munch on til we made breakfast.

They had fresh blueberries and pancakes while watching their movie.  After getting dressed they wanted to play UNO until it was time to go downtown to take a tour of the Sturgis Pretzel Bakery.  We planned to walk to the bakery, but it started to drizzle when we were ready to leave, so we had to drive. 

The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery here in Lititz was built in 1861 and it was America's 1st commercial pretzel bakery.  More than 150 years later, the Sturgis family is still making pretzels.  It was a very interesting tour and the 4 original ovens are still in the building.  In the summer when they baked the pretzels there, it would get to about 80 degrees warmer than the outside temperature in the building.  I can't imagine working in those conditions!

Bria and Cali outside the Bakery!

Giving them some info before the tour!

One of the original ovens!

This is the inside of one of the ovens!

We were taught how to twist pretzels and even got a certificate to proof we are official pretzel twisters.  It is interesting that children used to be taught to cross their arms over their chests when praying and that is the shape of a pretzel.  The 3 holes in the original pretzel shape stand for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Bria and Cali did a great job twisting pretzels!

There are 4 ingredients in pretzels - flour, malt, water, and yeast.  We got to see how they stored those ingredients and were told that when the Sturgis children were 4 they helped to knead the pretzel dough.

The big box held the flour, the water was in the barrel, and
the malt was to the right of the flour box.  You can't see
the container for the yeast!

We did go to Candyology, a cute candy store here in Lititz before returning to our apartment.  We had about 45 minutes to continue playing UNO.  What fun!

We took Bria and Cali to Lancaster to meet Jamie and Dane to go to a baseball game at Millersville Collage with some other families.  One of their close friends is the coach of the team!

Ken and I made a stop at Target and then enjoyed lunch on our deck.  He decided to take a short nap before leaving for his leadership class for Celebrate Recovery.  He helped me get into my SAS outfit and I went for a 30 minute walk.  The walk went well, but when I sat down at the computer my back did that "spasm" thing again and it was rather miserable.  After a shower, I sat back down at the computer and the pain is so much less when sitting, but not so great when I got up!  It took until 6:30 for it to get better, but only when I sat. Still hard to walk!

Fred and Doloris arrived around 7 and it was so good to see them.  Our last time together was in Florida in February.  We took time to chat and then played a very loooong game of Haus.  The women were victorious.  They left around 10:30 and we had such a good time together.  Good friends are special!