During a recent trip to Pennsylvania Dutch Country we spent a night on a train at the Red Caboose Motel in Ronks, PA.

The area offers some fun things to do with kids like visiting a farm, taking a ride on a steam train and a theme park called Dutch Wonderland.

While looking into something fun to do with our kids, I had an idea to visit somewhere fun I had visited in Lititz PA as a kid and again years later.My kids love their snacks so I figured a visit to the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery would be a real treat for them.

The factory is the first commercial pretzel factory in America. (The property in Lititz, PA was bought by Julius Sturgis in 1861.)Before heading inside, I had to get a photo of Lucas and Theo with the giant pretzel outside.

I have a photo with the pretzel with my two brothers from a visit when we were kids. (And, around 10 years ago we reenacted the photo as adults.)We went inside to book a tour and while waiting around, we enjoyed one of their delicious hot pretzels.

Some history about the old factory was explained to us as well as the process of how pretzels were made. If you look closely in the grid above, the bottom right photo shows  the original ovens.While it was fun learning about pretzel history, the kids favorite pat of the tour was learning how to roll their own pretzels! I also had fun rolling and twisting my own pretzel. Check out my handiwork above.

It’s too bad that we don’t get to bake these pretzels. I am not sure if this is due to COVID-19 or if this is always the case.

At the end of the tour we were each given a small bag of delicious pretzels. We also bought around 5-6 bags of a wide variety of pretzels at the gift shop when the tour was over.

The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery is located at 219 East Main Street in Lititz PA.