Lancaster is one of our favorite day trips from Baltimore.

Lancaster has consistently been a go-to place for my family throughout my life.

I grew up coming here for soccer and just coming to visit, picking up goods from the Amish. I hadn’t been for years, but when my sister said she was going to book a hotel for one night just to get away a weekend on October, I hopped right on it.

Day trips are a must for me in the middle of graduate school, or I would go absolutely insane if I had to stay at home and force myself to continue doing research sometimes. We’re not people who are meant to be constantly working, despite what capitalism often tells us we need to do.

Anyways, from our party of Baltimore, it’s about an hour and a half to drive to Lancaster.

We usually take the countryside roads and drive during the day in order to get the scenic views of the countryside, and you know when you’re about to hit Lancaster when the Amish use their horse-drawn buggies to get around.

The day we went up was full of terrible rain, and while it was good we weren’t doing the outdoor portions of what Lancaster has to offer, the drainage is absolutely awful.

Mainly, we went shopping at the Tanger Outlets and the local Amish stores.

Our first stop when we arrived to Lancaster is always the Kitchen Kettle Village. It’s technically in Intercourse and a bit farther down from Lancaster, but we always come here because of the jam store that’s located right near the parking lot.

That’s where we stock up on goods for the half-year. They sell the little versions of the jam for only about $2.50, and if you buy six, you can get all of them for $12. I loaded up on jam this year, my mother bought their Whoopie pies, and we all bought some of the tea.

The loose teas were literally only $5, which is so cheap! We then wandered around the village for a bit, then headed out because of the rain.

The next stop were the Tanger Outlets. Back in the day you could get some really good deals, but these days you find sales that honestly aren’t as good. I made a couple of purchases when I was there.

I picked up a new wallet from Michael Kors because it was only $60 versus the regular price of $200, then I got a red blouse when I was at H&M. I wanted to buy gradient crocs, but they didn’t have the ones I wanted at the Crocs store.

It took us the first day and a chunk of the second day in order to get through all of the Tanger Outlets.

We didn’t do it this trip because we wanted to get home in time for dinner, but typically there are a bunch of places off the road where you can stop to buy produce, fresh meat, and locally grown goods and jams.

In the past we typically buy whatever is in season and the cheapest, and it usually tends to be really good quality. The Amish and farmers around the area know what they’re doing.

An excellent dinner at LUCA.

I’m a foodie, so I’m particular about what I eat when we travel. I saw LUCA had rave reviews so when I confirmed with my family that it was a good option, I booked the reservation about a week in advance.

When I was booking through Resy at this time, we could only do the 4PM time slot (which worked better for us anyways), as that was the only one left. I was reading that reservations go fast at LUCA, and after eating the food, I can see why.

We were the first ones in at opening, and they sat us in the upstairs loft. More on this in a bit, but it was such a strange experience.

Our waiter was so knowledgeable about the menu, then we started out with the prosciutto and fruit, which were figs this day, and then ordered the spaghetti (they were out of the bargatta that day), and two orders of the tagliatelle bolognese. The prosciutto definitely wasn’t enough for three people, but it was good meat.

The pastas also weren’t big portions (my sister and mother were still hungry), but they were so delicious and full of flavor.

I’d highly recommend the food despite the smaller portions, but what bothered us the most was what we noticed when we were seated.

We were the first ones in, and they seat us in the upper loft all by ourselves. Everyone who came in after us was seated in the nicer main dining area. For awhile, about twenty-five minutes, we were the only ones up there as they kept seating people below and we kept commenting to each other about how strange it was.

But when they did seat people with us, we noticed they only were seating people of color at the top. Everyone on the bottom visually appeared white to us, and there were open tables at the bottom.

I don’t want to make assumptions, but this was such an odd experience to have. We were talking about it for days after because for some, they would make that assumption.

I’ll give LUCA the benefit of the doubt, but it seemed so weird to us that we were the only ones seated up there—when 2/3 of us were people of color—for so long (again: there were open seats on the main floor) and when other people are brought up, they’re also the only other people of color in the establishment.

Otherwise, the food came out pretty quickly and was delicious. We didn’t spot any micro-aggressions, just how weird that seating situation was.

Driving around is an experience in itself.

I wish it wasn’t raining, as I would’ve busted out my professional camera, but I think that driving around Lancaster and the town can be such a scenic drive. This was the first time we had been to Historic Lancaster, or the downtown district, as we had to head down there for our reservation to LUCA.

It reminded me a bit of Baltimore with the rowhouses, but it was also a bit more of a rundown industrial vibes in certain sections of the city.

But outside of this one area, the entire region is surrounded by farmland and rolling hills full of changing leaves in the fall, as well as corn and crops growing in the fields.

Anyways, I love going to Lancaster, and I think that I’ll continue to be visiting in the future!

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