Although I haven't read the book, "Eat, Pray, Love" or seen the movie, I think K could do her own version of this for the kindergarten set.  Every day, the two questions she asks me without fail are, "Where are we going today?" and "What are we having for dinner?"  Her entire life seems to revolve around food and travel.

Since my husband and J are at band camp this week (brings back fond memories for all you former bandies, right?), I needed to find some things for K and me to do together.  I also had errands to run.  My mom suggested taking her to Sturgis Pretzels in Lititz for the tour, which was a quick and nice diversion.

Sturgis Pretzel Bakery is located at 219 E. Main Street in the quaint downtown section of Lititz (www.juliussturgis.com).  Driving through this section, I wished downtown E-town looked like this.  I would love to come back just to shop the cute stores, but that's going to have to wait for a time when I can be without children and have no distractions.  The tour of the oldest pretzel factory in American costs $3 for adults and $2 for kids, a great bargain.  I was surprised how many folks were there for a Monday morning, and clearly many were tourists.  The tour allows each visitor to make their own pretzel out of playdough, view the brick ovens, see a pretzel twisting machine, and hear about the history of pretzel making in this country, as well as the origins of the pretzel itself.  As it turns out, pretzels originated in France, where they were given to children as a reward for learning their prayers.  The twist of the pretzel can represent folded hands or the binding of marriage.  The ones developed in France were soft, but Sturgis discovered that if you accidentally left them in the oven too long, they got hard and crunchy.  He liked this variation, and set off on his own to perfect it.  Now the Sturgis pretzels that you see in stores are made by Tom Sturgis, a descendant of Julius, the founder, in a plant near Reading. 

K and I both enjoyed twisting our own pretzels, even if we didn't get to bake and eat them.  We even got a pretzel twisting diploma for our efforts.  We also each got a small bag of pretzels at the end of the tour.  The tour is very short, probably only 15 minutes in duration, perfect for those with shorter attention spans.  They even have stools for little ones to reach the countertops where you make your pretzel.  There is a gift shop that sells merchandise as well as other pretzels, although we did not stop in. 

Then we had errands to attend to, including a stop at the pet shop.  This time it was PetSmart on the Fruitville Pike.  I'm always amazed at the amount of time we can kill in one of these places just looking at the different animals.  We saw lizards, turtles, snakes, guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, birds, cats, fish, and dogs being groomed as well as some lucky pups just walking with their owners in the store (all must be on leashes).  Finally, we stopped at Old Navy.  Psst moms:  kids jeans are on sale right now, starting at $10!  My advice--take your kid and have them try them on.  It astounds me that I can buy 3 pairs of the same size, style, and length jeans and they all fit differently.  The same goes for jeans for J, which is why I had to return a pair today. 

So squeeze in a trip to Sturgis next time you're in beautiful Lititz.  We're going to have to return, since I realized after the fact that we could have also gone to the Wilbur Chocolate museum, too!  How could I forget about Wilbur buds, seriously?  Ah, chocolate. . . the perfect reason for a another visit.