Midwest Road Trip - Day 5 - Indiana to Michigan

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 :)

Midwest Road Trip - Day 4 - Another Day in Noblesville

We were up, had breakfast and were to Dan and Sarah’s around 10:30 on Labor Day. We visited for a while, then Mark, Dan and I took the kids to the park to give Sarah a little more time with baby Eli. The kids had a great time climbing around and throwing their little balls around. Hannah really enjoyed the swing. Dan and Mark tossed around the football a little bit.

After the park, we headed home for some sandwiches for lunch, and took a little nap afterwards. Mark and I went for our long run from Sunday that we missed, which was a pretty rough one. It was pretty hot and humid out, and we should have probably gone earlier in the day. If we made it 4 miles, I’d be shocked, and with all the walking we did, it wasn’t very impressive. Hopefully we do better on our BIG run, less than a week away!

We got back and visited with Dan while the kids napped and Sarah was busy with Eli. It was fun reminiscing about days back at our old house in Warsaw, which we found was actually up for sale! Mark and I toyed with the idea of calling to see if we could get a showing for the next day, but decided against it.

Mark and I headed back to our hotel around 4:45 to get showered up and ready for supper with some old friends of Amy’s from high school in Warsaw. We stopped at the mall in Castleton for a few minutes before we met at Buca di Beppo with Mel and Joe, Karen, and some of Karen’s good friends from her college days. We had a wonderful time catching up, and hope it’s not FIVE more years inbetween visits again!

After supper, we stopped back at the mall to Dick’s Sporting Goods and picked up a couple clearance tubes and rafts for next summer on the lake! We then went back over to Dan and Sarah’s to visit a bit more, and decided to come back the next morning to help watch Eli and Hannah while Sarah took Jacob to his first day of preschool.

We had such a nice visit in Noblesville, but are also looking forward to a fun day in Warsaw, and the rest of the week up in northern Michigan at Mackinac Island!

Midwest Road Trip - Day 3 - Lazy Day in Noblesville

After sleeping in a bit, we got up, had some breakfast, and then relaxed a bit before heading over to Dan and Sarah's for the day. We stopped at the store on the way over there to pick up supplies for meatloaf for lunch, and I put it together and in the oven when we got there. While it was baking, we visited with Dan and played with the kids for a while.

We all enjoyed lunch together (Jacob even ate all his meatloaf!), and then took turns taking naps for the afternoon lol What can I say - traveling and parenting is hard work!

After naptime (which everyone except Jacob participated in), we visited a while before deciding on some Little Caesar's for supper. I went to go pick the pizza up, and we gobbled it all down pretty quickly (napping apparently also makes us hungry), then visited somemore before getting the kids ready for bed. I read some stories to Hannah and put her to bed, then Mark and I went for a walk while Dan and Sarah got the other 2 kiddos off to bed. We visited for a couple more hours before heading back to our hotel for the night. It was a nice, relaxing day to get caught up after two long days on the road. We're so looking forward to another day with the family, and supper at Buca with some of my friends from Warsaw days!