Saturday, July 4, 2009

Fourth of July - Lansdale & Boulder Woods

This was the first July 4th, that we have spend in PA in 5 years. The last time we flew home to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday, and now she has turned 85!

We had a nice quiet day, that ended with a great a great meal al Fresco.

Tara was camping overnight with my niece and her family, so Mom and I got up and headed out to the American Star Diner, in Lansdale. It was a beautiful day!

What better place to eat 4th of July breakfast, with the 4th of July birthday girl? I had not eaten here before, and the few (very few) reviews of any type I could find on line were mixed. What we found to be the case was a very nice, diner, breakfast dining experience. The prices were reasonable, the restaurant was clean, the staff that we encountered was courteous, and the service was good. I had my favorite breakfast when we go out, Eggs Benedict (two poached eggs, two slices of canadian bacon, on english muffin with hollandaise sauce) served with hash browns. I also had a great cup of coffee. There is something I find very satisfying drinking diner coffee out of the standard white diner coffee mugs! My mom had the special, two eggs, two slices of THICK french toast, and two sausages. These sausages were not those skinny little links you get so many time at diners, these were nice substantial sausages. Mom had cranberry herbal tea to drink. On the way out, I commented that it was Mom's birthday, and they gave her a cupcake!

After breakfast we headed to the market to pick up the things I needed to make dinner, then realizing that it was the first day of the new Lansdale Farmer's Market. Since we were driving right by we decided to stop and wander through. They had a nice turn out for the first week. Lots of local produce and some crafts, etc. Hopefully the area is not too saturated with these weekend markets, and there will be more vendors in the future. These were the BIGGEST onions I had ever seen, called Candy Onions.

In "Railroad Square" we have a Kugel Ball, A dark granite ball with slight shapes of the continents visible in it. It weighs 2,200 pounds and made of dark grey granite. (There is a Kugel Ball in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom).

On the way to the car I was distracted by some weeds wildflowers in the train yard, and stopped to take some photos. I have always loved the train station, even in disrepair, but I believe it has been renovated while I was gone. It was built in the mid to late 1800s.


We then headed to the market to get "fixin's" for dinner, then home to get cooking. Since those that were camping had been eating, hot dogs, hamburgers and such since Thursday, I decided to make a traditional 4th of July dish LASAGNA. Jerry loves it, and it is easy to transport. Problem was, we didn't have a big pot, so I had to cook 16 noodles, two at a time, 10 minutes each... do the math! I also baked an apple pie.


I did not bake these

We headed to the campground around 3:15. It's only about 30 minutes from home. We had a great meal together. It was nice to have eight of us together to celebrate my mom's birthday. Tara was tired and Tyler (13 yo great nephew) had had enough of camping, so we headed on home around 6pm. Tara went directly to bed, and honestly I was in bed before 9pm. No fireworks for us!


And this is why it is called BOULDER WOODS, there are boulders like these (and bigger) everywhere, left over from the days of the glaciers!


It was a great day!

5 comments:

Kelly said...

The lasagna and apple pie look wonderful!

What a beautiful day!

Leslie said...

I hope when I turn 85 I'm spending the day with family too! What a wonderful day it looks like everyone had...

James said...

I was about to say that it looked like a great day but you said it for me. So i'll say it looks like a wonderful day.

CTG Ponies said...

I'll have to check out the Farmer's Market one of these days.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Just stopping by to say "Thank You" for commenting on my picture!

Sounds like you had a wonderful
4th! Blessing Shi~