Adventure Time!

It's the beginning of summer break which can only mean one thing...it's time for two crazy lovebirds to venture out into the world and enjoy time away. It seems like last summer was 3 years ago. I know we're not the only ones who feel like we've been through the wringer. But I feel like this summer's adventures are more exciting than any before. That doesn't mean we're going any place outrageously exciting. It just means this summer feels more relaxed than ever before. Drew still hasn't recovered enough from Covid for the doctor to release him to go back to work. That means instead of feeling like we need to stress over the weather and whether or not it'll be good for the one day a week we'd have together, we can just pick a day...or two or three to adventure. We can see which days have the best weather and plan accordingly. We don't have any sort of plan of what places we'll go or anything. This is our summer of spontaneity. Six days ago, I walked out of school to begin summer break. We spent the weekend caring for two of our grandchildren. We went to DeFries Calendar Garden, Krider Garden and Dutch Creek Animal Farm. We had been to both gardens with the girls before. But we had never been to Dutch Creek. It was outstanding! You can take a wagon tour where you get to feed animals or drive through in your own car. You can still see all of the animals from our car so we chose that option for our first visit. The girls loved looking for all the different animals as we drove slowly through. When we got to the end, we went into the walk-through petting farm. Both girls absolutely loved it! When it was time to leave (because they had closed for the day and were being incredibly patient), Clara's response was, "That makes me so sad we hafta leave. I wanna stay here with the animals!" I think it's safe to say she'll be glad to go back again...and again and again. In checking the forecast, today looked to be the best weather day of the week. So we decided we'd have this be our travel day. We chose one of our favorite state parks - Oubache State Park. It's about a 2 and 1/2 hour drive from home. We decided we'd stop at a couple other favorites along the way to stretch our legs. After getting iced tea and coffee for the trip, we headed to Warsaw's Biblical Gardens. It's a lovely little park near downtown Warsaw filled with flowers, plants and trees all mentioned in the Bible. It's a short walk through the garden but there are so many beautiful things to see. After stretching our legs for a few minutes (yes, I know it was only a 2 hour 30 minute drive to our main destination, but we're old and can't sit that long), we headed towards Huntington. Lunch was our next plan and we were hoping to go to Nick's Kitchen but they closed just before we arrived. So, we went a little farther down the road to Hoosier Drive-In. It was certainly worth the drive, even though we had to eat in the car. From there, we were on our way to Oubache. We've visited quite a few of our Indiana State Parks in the past couple years. But this one very well be my favorite. First of all, it's beautiful! Second of all, there's a 90-foot-tall fire tower to climb and get an amazing view all around the park. But my favorite part is most definitely the bison enclosure. I don't know what it is about bison. But I think they are one of the most beautiful animals! Yes, I know they could tear me apart in a split second. But they're so gorgeous! The park has a great trail that circles all around the enclosure. It's a beautiful walk with lots of spots to view the bison. After a quick stop at Kunkel Lake right across from the bison, we headed off for the rest of our trip. There were two cemeteries about 40 minutes away where many of Drew's ancestors are buried. Many are buried in the first one we stopped at so I walked row but row to find every one of them. His paternal grandparents are buried in the other one so we stopped by there and left a penny for Grandpa. After visiting the cemeteries, we stopped for iced tea and a bathroom break before one final stop for the day. We headed north to North Webster to check in on the Dixie Steamboat and see the beautiful lake. We'll be so ready to ride the Dixie again since it's been two years! It was a wonderful beginning of summer break. If the rest of this summer is anything like today, it's going to be amazing! But first, we need to pack up our home of 25 years and move. That's a topic for awhole different blog post. We've promised ourselves one adventure day a week until we get moved. I'm looking forward to what this summer has in store. Stay tuned!