2011 Pedal to Preserve

I mentioned last weekend that Joe and his sister and future brother-in-law did a 32 mile bike ride in Hershey! Well, they continued their journey in Lancaster, PA this weekend with the 2011 Pedal to Preserve bike race.

I didn't go the previous week, but I have been itching to get out of the house and spend some much needed time with Joe before the baby arrives. I decided to hitch along for the ride and see what these races were all about. Let me just say, there are a LOT of people that showed up for this race. They weren't quite sure what the turnout was going to be due to the torrential downpours that we hit on our way down. When we showed up, there were TONS of bikes and cars. The race was split up into three races: 51 miles, 20 miles and a 4 mile race. The purpose behind this race was to preserve the farmland in the area mainly that of Amish farms.

Joe, Cristin and Brian took off on their race and I spent the time in the car taking a nap and finishing up some thank you cards. When they returned, they said it was such a nice trip - seeing all of the farmland, all of the little Amish kids waving to them as they drove by their homes and just all in all, they felt like they donated to a great cause!

Lancaster is such a beautiful location. I took my best friend Melissa when she visited one time. The people are so friendly and to see all of the horses and buggies integrated with the fast-pace of our civilization is definitely a sight to see. But..the one thing I more than anything were some fresh baked goods. We spotted a small farmers market and came out with some delicious goodies: cookies and apple dumplings! Let me just tell you that will probably never have an apple dumpling that tastes like that...too bad I didn't take a picture before we gobbled them up!

After the race, we grabbed at bite to eat at a local brewery, the Lion Hill Brewery which I would highly recommend to any one in the area! The food was fantastic and according to the other three...the beer was great too :) Thanks to one of my co-workers for the suggestion!

Lastly, we made our way down to Philly to the Baby Supermart to pick up our Ottoman. Unfortunately, they forgot to load it when Joe went down to pick up the furniture and I wanted to make sure we had it before the baby arrives! This made for a pretty long day! I know we definitely got a good night's sleep that night! Just hope we can get a few more of those in the next couple of weeks.