This is my home turf, where I grew up. Seriously, trust me on this--the region has been over-exploited and over-commercialized. It is no longer the rural, old-fashioned haven of my childhood. If you cannot fit this into your itinerary, you won't be missing anything. Don't make it a priority over something else, say, Cape Cod, example.
I'm sorry if this seems a bit of a downer. I'm sure you and your family will have a wonderful trip, wherever you decide to go. 
I was hoping to hear your point of view on this ,Jeff. I've already visited a few websites dealing with rural Pennsylvania and I have to agree that some of them had a bit of a Disneyland feeling about them. 'Come join us for a real Amish buggy ride' and that sort of thing.
Having said that, I don't mind doing some real touristy things, as long as you know that what you're getting is a touristy version of things. We stayed at at the Rafter Six Ranch in Alberta in 2007, which of course was a 'hotel with lots of horses', the 'cowboys' who accompanied you on the trail were of course also working in the tourist industry (although they looked like the real thing of course). I didn't mind. Frankly, I'd be more worried about feeling like an intruder, going to watch 'the strange Amish people'.
We'll see what we'll do. But thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's information knowledge like this that can really make a difference. We'll probably be travelling by car from Washington to Cape Cod and wouldn't like to do this in one day. So Pennsylvania looked like the state to visit next.
