Exploring Adamstown, Pennsylvania

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When we visited the area, we spent the day with friends exploring downtown Lancaster, and even went on a coffee crawl. But we were actually in the area because a friend gifted us a free night at Amethyst Inn, a bed and breakfast in Adamstown, about 20 minutes outside of Lancaster. It was so cute, with a fireplace inside the room and even a jacuzzi in our bathroom! The owner was so nice and left us snacks when we checked in. He served us the best breakfast (and coffee!) the next morning.

We didn’t know it, but Adamstown is known as Antique Capital, USA - more than 5,000 antique dealers! We went on President’s Day Monday so a lot of the shops were closed but there were several still open! There are so many different antique shops that it was hard to choose, but we decided on the Mad Hatter because we heard great things about it. It is located in a huge warehouse, an old hat factory. There was so much there, we spent over an hour walking around, and even then, there were still parts of the store that we didn’t see! We loved how colorful the retro furniture and kitchen appliances were. It was also so cool seeing the old labels on soda bottles, cookie tins, and more.

We heard about Uncle Henry’s pretzels and were excited to go! The GPS took us to a Mennonite Farm, where the pretzels were sold from the back of their house. It seemed sketchy at first, because we thought we were in the wrong place, but we followed the signs and it worked out just fine. We didn’t take photos inside, as there was a sign on the door asking for no pictures. There were several different types of pretzels, but we got a bag of chocolate covered pretzels and a bottle of birch beer. If you go, just know that it is cash only!

We stumbled across Stoudtburg Village Shops, but they were closed for President’s Day weekend. We were so bummed! It is the cutest area, and we took some time walking around there, even though it was freezing! We can’t believe people really live there in the bright colored houses. We definitely hope to be back when it’s open!

- Nick + Jess