Weekend Shenanigans

We got away for the weekend. Whatever that means. Not sure I can get away from what's plaguing me since it seems to follow me everywhere I go. Nonetheless, it was a really wonderful weekend spent with my amazing husband. There aren't really enough adjectives to describe how much I love this man. For that I am thankful abundantly.

The weekend started around 3:15 on Friday afternoon when Ray surprised me by coming home early! He said I needed to have my bags packed as the bus was leaving at 3:30. We were out the door around 4:00. We're pretty good at meeting our goals. Hah.

Off to Amish country we went! We dream of new bedroom furniture. But considering we bought a house, spent a load fixing various issues and renovated and furnished about 6-7 rooms all in one year, we know it's probably a pipe dream to purchase right now. But since all we have are dreams right now, we added another one to the list: Amish-made bedroom furniture.

Here is one of the contenders:

Our desire is to own furniture that will last us a lifetime and be strong enough to pass through generations. No particle board allowed! We're looking for a king bed, two nightstands and a long dresser without the mirror.

We drove the 2ish hours to Shipshewana, Indiana and had dinner at this fine establishment in South Bend. The main reason we ate there was because 1. the pickings were limited  and 2. two of my friends were joking about this place the other day as we waited in line for our $1 Jimmy Johns subs. I'd never seen nor heard of this place before, so we had to give it a go. Cheap, acceptable Italian food. Not raving about it but satisfied the need. I'd give it a 3 on Yelp. I'd go back, but I won't be knocking down the doors for another taste. Chipotle, yes. Fazoli's, no.

After being completely lazy resting Friday night, we set out Saturday morning with plenty of energy. Until. we. got. to. Amish. country. We drove about 15 miles to get there and realized that we didn't fit the bill for usual visitors. We either needed to completely change our eating habits to that of country fried steaks and biscuits, or we needed to drive a buggy like the Amish. Don't even get me started on being a vegetarian in Amish country. I have no photos of them as I feel weird about photographing people who don't even believe in technology. We saw a good 50 buggies while we were there.

We found a place for lunch which was a huge tourist trap. We knew it going in, but with limited options for me, I conceded. Das Dutchman Essenhaus it was. Here are some photos of this homely lovely establishment.

This was my husband telling me to "smell the bread" to which I replied, "I will be photographing this!" Look at that nostril flare!

This happy husband grew up just a short drive from Amish country, Pennsylvania-- the Pennsylvania Dutch region. Apple butter runs through his blood.

We walked the shops, bought a very large and delicious pretzel to share from a very Amish lady, read about the Amish in their "People's Exchange", biweekly publication, and scoped out furniture. These slow, small towns are just not typical Wilson favorites. The pace is too slow for us and we just aren't chachkie hoarders. As a matter of fact, we can't stand "things" to clutter our house. That's the same reason most of our souvenirs from traveling the world come in the form of Christmas ornaments so they are stored away all year and only come out during December. We'll see about this Christmas. December will forever be changed for us.

We vetoed the idea of watching an Amish love story play for like $25/person! They're simple people but sure know how to make a buck out of the tourists. We headed to downtown Elkart on Sunday afternoon and experienced something special. They had a street fair and boy was it eventful. Every stereotype was present at this lovely event. Not only was every single unwed 16-24 year old girl pregnant, but she also (likely) had a kid in tow! Nothing irks me more than seeing girls who, oops... were knocked up and weren't even trying! Evidence #8647 that the world is not fair. Perfectly respectable, married, educated, family here just waiting for a freaking miracle and these girls are eating funnel cakes and shacking up in the back of pickup trucks just populating the freaking country. Super. No photos of this totally trashy experience. We did not purchase sand art, have our faces painted, or buy cheap Hawaiian dresses in the middle of the Midwest... but we did do this really classy thing:

Walk through a drive-up ATM!

What happens when you parks blocks away, the fair requires a $1 entry fee, you have no money in your wallet and the closest ATM only has a drive-up ATM? Why this, of course!

Off we went to find dinner. The problem was finding something in the heart of the Midwest I could eat. I wanted something more substantial than empty carbs. That eliminated Olive Garden, Applebees, Texas Roadhouse and most other diner-ish places around our hotel. That was as classy as it got in this area. I wanted Mexican food. Per usual, I was disappointed with the pickings. Two restaurants came up after a quick Google search but neither were acceptable for vegetarian options. So that meant we drove about 12 miles to the nearest Chipotle to suit my needs. I have a very patient husband. And I <3 Chipotle. It seriously might be my favorite meal on the planet.

The next day we set out to the Michigan "beach" lakeshore. The only problem... the weather. We switched our plans and decided on the next best alternative: wine tasting. We found ourselves at the first winery, Tabor Hill in Buchanan, Michigan. In case you're keeping track, we crossed over to Michiana (what they refer to as the areas bordering Michigan and Indiana). We arrived early because we're ambitious boozers.

We took a wine tour and had 6 tastings. We purchased a bottle of their Grand Mark and carried on our way to the second winery, Round Barn in Baroda, Michigan. It was located about 1/2 mile down the road and was indeed located inside a round barn. Rather than taste more wine, we were much like sniffing dogs drawn to the large BBQ underneath their brewery! That lured us in and we both had a glass of beer-- myself the IPA and Ray the German Kirsch. Along with those came their veggie burger (yes, I love these people) and a bratwurst for the husband.

A beautiful 65-70ish day in Michigan.

After drinking our beers and finishing lunch, we headed to a small town on the coast, Union Pier. It was mostly a private beach but we were allowed access to the shore. We took advantage although donning bathing suits wasn't in the cards for the breezy day.

What a relaxing weekend with the husband. We've been trying to get away when weekends permit just to take the edge off this no-baby sting. It works for minutes at a time and I'm thankful for whatever I can get at this point.

It's Monday. Oh joy.

Anniversary weekend!

We celebrated our anniversary early since it lands on a Monday this year. Since Elliot had recently been to South Haven, Michigan a few times for work purposes, we decided to head that way so that I could experience the quaint town, too. We left Saturday morning and drove along the coast through Indiana and into Michigan. We stopped off at the visitor's center (we're such tourists-- we did this all the time on our road trip last summer) to grab a map and learn more about the state.

We then headed straight to South Haven and had a late lunch at an awesome restaurant called Clementine's for lunch where we sampled a very tasty sarsparilla with our sandwiches. We walked around the little town, walked through a farmer's market, and then off to the car for more adventures.

Our next stop, blueberry picking. We chose DeGrandchamp Farms for the U-picking and headed out with our bucket. There were some serious pickers out there! I was hearing others say, "We've got two full buckets... I guess that's enough" -- enough for what? A football team? Our intentions were just to experience the picking and to grab enough for a snack. We only picked about a pint and paid our 75 cents before heading on our way. It was just perfect, though, because we were able to pick only what we deemed suitable for our tastes. This meant that no mushy berries were chosen and there were a lot of reddish (under-ripe) berries because I like them sour, as I do most of my fruits. We hadn't been "picking" since we headed out a few years ago in the California fall (feels like summer) to pick apples with our friends Nik & Solange.

Then we were off to South Haven beach. I'm a Southern California beach girl, born and raised. You can see how I might have been apprehensive about this idea of a "beach" in the Midwest. Well, I thought it was wonderful! The sound of the beach that I love so much of crashing waves was present, the sand was soft and not silt-like as it is in the Florida gulf, the water was relatively warm, and the water was fairly clean. Some differences I noticed were that the water is without salt (it's a lake, after all), the sand area is a bit more shallow, and people brought floaties with them! Though there were waves, people still thought that if they blew up a floaty that they'd be able to lay leisurely and float. Not with those waves!

Most importantly, we felt that this is just as good of a "beach" experience (despite it being a lakefront) as it could or would be in Manhattan, Hermosa, or Redondo Beaches. I guess the most important thing was how family-friendly and unpretentious it felt being there. There were just a bunch of families spending the day together. We pictured bringing our own children there and renting out beach condos to stay for the weekend with friends and their kids. It's becoming clear that our lives have just barely scratched the surface of excitement. Soon we'll get to share this gorgeous world with our own little one.

This is the pier at South Haven. There isn't much to it, really.

We're now at the end of the pier for this lighthouse photo. You can find these lighthouses at many popular lakefront "beach" piers in Michigan.

Pretty nice, right?

We walked in the water for a bit and it was so nice!

After leaving South Haven, we got back in our hot car (thank goodness for air conditioning!) and set forth to Holland. We've been to the real Holland, so we weren't expecting to be blown away or to pay for any replica we'd already seen at the real deal! Well, we weren't blow away. It is a relatively large town north of South Haven along the Michigan coast. We did see that they advertised a "windmill island" of which was indeed a... windmill. It was closed and I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay since we'd seen windmills in so many other countries of the world that were authentic and often still used! While we saw some in Germany, most of them were seen in Amsterdam and the surrounding areas and countries. There are many that exist all over the world as well as in the U.S. Here's a photo of the one I took in Holland, Michigan.

I don't have photos to share, but our next stop was to our hotel-- then to Grand Haven. It's a bigger (and less quaint) version of South Haven but in the north. We drove there just to check it out and have dinner in a new city. We parked, walked around the waterfront there, gazed at everyone's ice cream cones in envy, and sat down for dinner at a restaurant overlooking the water. I generally do not believe in having Mexican food at a restaurant that serves all genres of food, simply because it's never as good as a restaurant that specializes in that type of food. Well, this was no different. Mediocre, but filling. I did enjoy drooling over the mojitos at other tables as I drank my club soda with lime. December will come.

We began to walk back to our car at 10 p.m. (they are on eastern time zone-- a bit hard to get used to for only a night's stay) and saw a very large area of bleachers overlooking the waterfront. The bleachers were packed with people! We walked down and read that they had light shows from Memorial Day until Labor Day, ever night. The light shows are done to the sound of popular music and the water fountains change colors and arrangements. I attempted a photo, but I won't bother. I'll just link you to a better place to see the spectacle. We stayed for only one song as we felt that the trillions of mosquitoes were eating our insides. At some point, the bugs do win. 

On a complete side note, I must mention something that disturbed me. For those who have ever experienced a Rite Aid drug store... this is speaking to you. Growing up in So Cal, we called these "Thrifty" stores. Thrifty served ice cream by the scoop in a strange cylinder shape with a tiny hole in the top from where the scoop extracted it onto the cone. My favorite flavors are (in this order): Chocolate Malted Crunch, Mint Chocolate Chip, Pistachio Nut (though I love pistachios, I hate them in ice cream. I pick them out), Chocolate Chip, and Sherbert. Every Thrifty carried this divine ice cream. And when Thrifty was purchased by this strange sounding name of a store called Rite Aid, they carried on the Thrifty ice cream name... as they should. On our recent trip to Cali, I attempted to purchase a lovely scoop of my ice cream delight... but they were all out of the CMC. Though feeling defeated, I opted for my second choice and stuck with the Mint Chocolate Chip. Fine. Well, there are no Rite Aid markets in Illinois. But, as we drove down a street in Michigan, I saw the lovely sign, assuming I was about to indulge in the best ice cream! We walked in. I see the cashier, photo lab, pharmacy, a bunch of overpriced drugstore items down the rows, but no ice cream. Ugh. Fine. I'll just buy some from the freezer section. None. to. be. found. NONE! Isn't that tragic, my dear west coast friends?

Now completely off topic, I'll continue on to what is today, Sunday. We woke up at our hotel in Holland, Michigan and decided what we wanted to do for the day. We decided to check out another beach at St. Joseph. We headed south past South Haven and to this beach town. Much like the others we visited, they all had waves, lots of people...

We walked the beach for a bit and headed back up to the car. Before we got there, I took advantage of what seemed like a good wash facility for my sandals. Kids were playing in this splash park that was entirely funded by the Whirlpool company, whose world headquarters are located in St. Joseph.

Then, off to another place I'd never been-- Notre Dame University. We left Michigan and headed southeast before arriving in South Bend, Indiana. We drove through the sleepy town to check out the campus. Ray had been to Notre Dame during his Air Force Lacrosse days when he flew in on private military jets to play ND. We parked the car and took a walk through some of the campus and on to the Basilica and Admissions building. As we walked, we listened to a few high school juniors being given a prospective student tour of the campus by a current ND student. Since we're joining the parenthood population, it's really wild to think about our future summers and the campus tours we'll take with our own kids when the time is right.

Here's the Basilica.

This fancy building is actually the admissions and main office building for the university.

We had a great weekend. Life couldn't possibly be more exciting than sharing it with my wonderful husband.

Cheers to two years and a lifetime of more!