Tromping Around Amish Country

We just got through with a glorious round of rain a couple of days ago, and another round of storminess is due here in a couple of days, but today is a gorgeous spring day here in western Oklahoma. The sun is shining through high, hazy clouds, lovely temperature out, slight breeze, birds singing, just a beautiful day.

I got to thinking that this would've been the kind of day, in earlier times in Kansas, that my folks and I might've made a run up to Hutchinson for an outing. I was into old-fashioned things at the time (haha, still am), and we got to regularly visiting some of the businesses in the Amish area just to the southwest of Hutchinson. This was also kind of Mom's "old stomping grounds," as she'd been born in rural Reno County, and she went to business college in Hutchinson, and had stayed out in this area somewhere while she went to school.

Anyway, we'd leave home in time for our first stop to be dinner (that's noontime for us country-raised folks) at the Dutch Kitchen. Mom always liked the "Dutch Burger," which was a patty that was half beef and half sausage. And she always had to have a piece of chocolate pie. Dad would usually get the special or something like that. I varied a lot, sometimes the special, sometimes a chef's salad, sometimes a burger. And maybe pie. It was always fun to ask the waitress what-all pie they had, and hear her rattle off I-don't-know-how-many kinds. Later on, Dad sold some of his copper wire work (usually windmills) in their gift shop-lobby.

The Dutch Kitchen, Pleasantview, Kansas.

http://www.hutchmarketplace.com/marketplace/businesses/dutch-kitchen/photos/1271/



Then after dinner, we'd usually go next door to Stutzman's Greenhouse to look around. Mom loved trying to make things grow in the yard. I thought she did awesome for having to deal with gyp soil. She enjoyed looking at some new plants and flowers to try to get the yard looking pretty. I liked moseying around in the humid, pleasant environment, looking at plants I WISHED I could get to grow. I DO NOT HAVE A GREEN THUMB. ha ha But I enjoyed looking around.

Stutzman's Greenhouse, Pleasantview, Kansas.

http://www.stutzmans.com/



There was also a small strip of stores to the east of there, with a bulk foods store, furniture store, fabric store, and a few others. We usually hit the bulk food store for some good, inexpensive food items. (Later times after I was married and we had our boys with us, they always liked the toys!)

Then at one point, another restaurant opened up in the nearby town of Yoder, which is an Amish settlement. We went there a few times as well in later times. I still remember once we sat at a table where I could see back into the kitchen. An Amish girl was just all over the place doing various things. (There were several girls in there.) She'd stir this, check that, then in the back, there was a grill or something, and she'd FLIP something and the flames would fly up, then check something else, then stir something else, dish up something, go FLIP something again and the flames would fly up again ... it was fascinating. I watched and watched. :)

Carriage Crossing Restaurant, Yoder, Kansas.

http://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g39156-d407110-Reviews-Carriage_Crossing_Restaurant-Yoder_Kansas.html



So whether I ever get there again (though Hubby and boys and I did get to eat at Carriage Crossing once since all this other time), I've got a lot of happy memories of these places, being with my family and enjoying the day.