We woke up early, got ready, packed our things, ate some breakfast, and then headed over to Dan and Sarah's in time to say goodbye to everyone, and to watch Eli and Hannah while Sarah took Jacob to his first day of preschool. It was nice to have some snuggle time with the newest little Ropte, and we were able to say "bye bye" to Hannah, who was sound asleep when we stopped by the night before.
We were on our way to Warsaw shortly before 10am, and made it there in time for lunch with an old friend of mine from high school - Shawna (Jackson) Harshman and her little man, Owen. We lunched at Penguin Point (where I worked for a month shortly before we moved to Iowa in 1998). After lunch, we went over to Center Lake park for a while so Owen could play on the equipment. Was so great to catch up with Shawna after so many years!!
We drove around a while after the park to see a few sights in the area, but needed to find some wireless internet to check our route for the next leg of the trip, so we made a trip to my old favorite place in the world - Courthouse Coffee :) We spent a good hour there, me enjoying a yummy white-chocolate hazelnut latte; Mark enjoying a junky conversation with Jamie about hunting and fishing.
After the coffee shop, we drove down by my old house growing up, checked out the old neighborhood, and went for walk down to the tressel. Of course, we were living dangerously by walking on the train tracks, and were warned by the little train truck guy that this was "not a smart move", but we pressed on anyway. Of course, it was drizzling by the time we got to the tressel, and we were being eaten alive by mosquitos, so we gave up and walked back to the car.
We drove around the block a time or two, down to Kelly Park, back around by the schools, and then out to our old church out in the middle of nowhere before a short stop at Kohl's on our way up to Middlebury for supper at Das Dutchen Essenhaus. It was so delicious!!!! We ate entirely way too much and had to take our dessert with us.
We checked into our hotel in Kalamazoo around 8:30pm, and hurried to get our workout clothes on and down to the fitness center down the road to log our 5 mile run for the night. Treadmill running is pretty awful, and I am not at all looking forward to the winter months of running inside :( We got back, gave away half our dessert to the girl at the front desk, and split the other one, then showered, and off to bed.
It was a wonderful day, and fun to see all the changes in Warsaw, and fun to experience a bit of the Amish countryside: We passed a couple horse-drawn buggies. Beautiful trip all around, and cannot wait for tomorrow to make the final leg of our journey up to Mackinac Island...and lunch with my cousin and her little guy :)
