Shopping and Such...Heavy on the And Such

My mom and I have many things in common - and the love of a schedule is one of those things. But I was so proud of her...for our family vacation, she didn't schedule ANYTHING other than dinners. We were free to get up when we wanted, eat breakfast and lunch where we wanted, and do whatever we wanted all day long. And so...we did! :)

So Friday morning, we got up to have breakfast at the hotel. I love a hotel with a good hot continental breakfast. This one had biscuits and gravy...sausage...waffles...THAT is how breakfast should go. Except it should be a lot later in the day.

My parents...

Ryan...who is training for retirement...

And me. I really do hate mornings.

{Although getting up at 8 a.m. on vacation is considerably better than 4:30 a.m. on work days. I will give you that.}

After breakfast, we got ready and headed back into town to do some shopping. This is when Ryan and I did our coffee date you read about earlier this week in the county tour post. But here are some random glimpses into our shopping day.

I don't know if you're noticing a THEME or not....

...in the afternoon, my sister thought it would be fun to go on a bike ride. My niece had wanted to kayak with Ryan and me, but there were threats of storms and rain showers and party-pooper-Bekah did NOT want to be in a foreign body of water if that materialized, so biking seemed safer. {Keep that in mind, if you would.}

So Lori, Jeff, Cassie, Ryan and I rented bikes from a little shop in downtown Shipshewana and got directions to the Pumpkinvine trail just outside of town. We had to bike about a half mile from the rental shop to the trail - and that part was on a highway. No biggie.

{Also keep in mind, if you would, that I broke my leg on a bike at age 11 and have ridden one exactly TWO times since. Once in November of 2010 in Kansas and once {on the tandem bike} on our honeymoon in December of 2012. So it was about time again.}

So here we are at the start of the trail:

Couple quick things. Yes. Ryan is riding a girl's yellow and pink bike. It's because there was only one guy's bike at the shop and I knew Ryan wouldn't care if Jeff took it, so I gave that one up to Jeff. Ryan also carried my Vera Bradley backpack the entire trip - because it was heavy with the camera and tripod and he's a classy gentleman that way. He's rather bike through Amish country wearing a Vera Bradley backpack than make me get a sore neck carrying it. Husband of the year award.

The trail was GORGEOUS. It was scenic and smoothly paved and pretty much a straight shot. We went about seven miles before turning around to head back.

Some pics from the trip:

Right about the time we arrived back at the trail head and turned onto the road to bike the half mile to the shop...those storms they mentioned? SHOWED UP. Thankfully it was a rainstorm vs. a thunderstorm. I would have just keeled on over in a dead faint if there had been thunder and lightning.

Ryan took off the Vera bag and carried it like a football to protect my camera and my phone {which he had used to take all the above pictures.} Everyone pedaled like crazy to get back to the shop.

Except yours truly.

Apparently I am broken {in one of many ways} and in weird Bekah trivia...I cannot open my eyes in rain. Can't handle the water on my eyes. So there I was, even with sunglasses on to shield my eyes, trying to BIKE DOWN A HIGHWAY, with traffic and horse poop abounding, in the pouring rain, with my eyes shut.

True. Story.

Yes. I was crying. Everyone was so far ahead of me, they were almost out of sight and I was pulled over in somebody's driveway, trying to figure out how to get home. My clothes were soaked. I looked like a drowned rat. And I couldn't see.

I managed to catch up with them and the rain let up slightly and we got everything back and returned.

And we got our after photo:

Oh. And did I mention next up were family pictures??

Also a true story.

Despite the debacle, I had a BLAST biking with the fam. And I am gaining confidence on a bike again too, which is also exciting.

So that was that day!!! :)

92 County Tour: LaGrange County

This past weekend was a first for us in the 92 County Tour...more than one day in one county! As you might have seen yesterday, our whole family converged for a vacation to celebrate my parents' upcoming 60th anniversary {yes, that was a SIXTY in there}, so Ryan and I decided to turn the outing into a 92 county tour for ourselves as well!

So...without further ado...

LaGrange County is in the far north section of Indiana - borders on Michigan on the north, actually. It is best known for having a large population of Amish people living there, and Shipshewana, the town where we spent our time, is a tourist attraction built around the Amish community. The county name came from the French hometown of Revolutionary War hero Marquis de la Fayette.

Shipshewana has a HUGE flea market, and I've been to it before, but it's only open Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we didn't get to see that this time. We rolled into town on Thursday.

Since starting our county tours, we've never spent the night in any of them yet. We did this time...stayed at the Farmstead Inn, which is a large hotel and conference center at the edge of town. This was Ryan's first time to the Farmstead, but I've stayed there 3 times before, and I've always, always enjoyed it. It's clean, safe, and has a variety of room amenities and a really nice breakfast with hot food.

So many people are fascinated by the Amish lifestyle, thanks to the books, TV shows and movies made within the last few years. I could never be a hard enough worker to pull off what they do, but what LOVELY, lovely homes and yards they keep! Here is a sample of some of the life we captured through our lenses throughout the weekend.

Biking...

Horses and buggies:

Immaculate gardens:

Tiny schoolhouses:

It's beautiful country, for sure.

We didn't take the whole tour, but much like Marshall County had a barn quilt trail, LaGrange County had a flower garden quilt trail. Gardens of flowers fleshed out to look like quilt squares. I couldn't get tall enough to fully capture this one, but you get an idea:

Downtown Shipshewana is made up of all kinds of tiny shops - like the kinds that inhabit regular houses - and at the end of town one HUGE building called the Davis mercantile. It had a ton of stores inside - and some other fun features, too, like a tree that they left when building the place...built the stairs right around it:

The building also has a carousel inside. If those things didn't make me so blessed dizzy, I'd have tried it:

Of course we had to have a coffee date while we were in town, and my niece accompanied us on that one! We went to the Hitching Post frozen yogurt and coffee shop!

Look at that! Outdoor seating with fans above and a cute trash can {it's in the silo in the middle}. Anytime a place has a cute TRASH CAN...that's pretty amazing.

This was the inside...

Ryan liked the horse sticking out of the wall. :)

They had a full frozen yogurt selection. Cassie got the birthday cake flavor, and I got salted caramel pretzel:

 And their topping selection was pretty wonderful. :)

 And this is what makes a good appetizer to lunch on a Friday: yogurt and French Vanilla Fresh Brew. Man it was good.

Ryan got a latte - and it was peanut butter and marshmallow creme - and it tasted like liquid Amish peanut butter. If you've never had that, it tastes like fudge. Also like heaven. I had a taste of his latte and it was SO GOOD.

 Here are the two of us with our yogurt. {If you've not met her before, this is my niece, Cassie.}

 We ate outside, because it was a nice day. But they had tables inside too, including these two nestled in Amish buggies! Of course we had to do a little photo shoot!

We were happy to again find a place with great character and good coffee!!

This post is long and I'm going to spend a few more days telling you about our family vacation, so I won't go into HUGE detail about the rest here, but just to be sure to have it in the official LaGrange County post, here were a couple more things we did for fun in this county!

Bike Riding on the Pumpkinvine Trail:

{That's my sister and brother-in-law with me}

Lunch at the Breadbox Cafe:

And dinner at the Blue Gate Restaurant. {Basically we ATE.}

Thanks, LaGrange County, for keeping us entertained for a few days and for being so driven with character!!

A Honeymoon Thursday

So I think you might get a chuckle or two out of this post. Hang with me!

Thursday was our last full day in Florida {sigh of deep sadness}, so we started as anyone would: drinking coffee.

Okay just kidding. I mean not about the coffee. But about that coffee maker. We borrowed that from our church so we had a way to make coffee for our guests at the reception. We thought it would be funny to have our picture taken with it. :)

And then...you know...went down to the pool for a while. It was seriously such a rough life.

And I actually got IN the pool. This was major for me. I wasn't really in to getting all frizzy headed in front of people I didn't know.

As we left the pool for the last time, we read the rules for the first time. Let's go through them, shall we? #1. Shower before entering. WOOPSIE! #2. No food, drink or glass. WOOPSIE, WOOPSIE and no problem!

We did manage to leave our animals at home and as far as we know, the pool itself did not break the rule of becoming hotter than 104. {Seriously - how is that a rule?? Do people pour great quantities of boiling water in the pool while laughing the evil laugh and watching the temp climb over 104??}

After we left the pool, we headed back to the store where we'd rented our kayak earlier in the week.

And oh my dear people...this time...this time...we fulfilled Ryan's dream of tandem bike riding.

Read: RYAN'S dream.

This man was so happy in this particular moment that you just can't even possibly understand. See that smile on my face?

I really meant this:

See, I broke my leg falling off a bike when I was 11. I did not get on a bike again until a year before the wedding, when I rode my sister's bike very slowly around her neighborhood for about 20 minutes. I'd never been on a tandem bike. And I. Was. Freaked. Out.

We took a few laps around the parking lot to get the feel for the thing. It's weird to be on the back of a bike when you can't see much in front of you except the back of another person. Then we got in a bike lane {and let the record show, I think my PERSON was wider than the lane} and rode right next to the cars.

I had a literal death grip on those handlebars and as we pedaled down the road {much faster than I would have liked} I was chanting "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. Psalm 56:3." Anytime I quote Scripture WITH REFERENCE, it's serious. Ryan called back over his shoulder, "What are you saying?" I said "I'M QUOTING SCRIPTURE."

They say opposites attract. They would be right.

En route, we found some decorations for our first yard together.

We rode our bike down to the Siesta Key Village {about 3 miles away from our hotel} and had a late lunch/early dinner together. Then we took a tour of town, where we found this:

WHY, OH WHY didn't we stay there??? Why are we back in the snow??

It was almost time for the sunset, so we rode the bike down to the beach and walked through that amazing sand for one last sunset....

We. Were. Here.

Just thought I'd throw this one in so you could see that self-portraits don't always go well for us.

We'd failed to bring our tripod, so some nice lady took pity on us and took our picture.

Ahhh....waterfront sunsets...how we miss thee.

After the sun went down, we headed back to the road and so carefully followed MORE rules.

And if you're going to break one...why not break them ALL?

We rode back to town and found a little local coffee shop to have a date. Parked our bike. {Cracks me up.}

Very yummy date and then we had to leave....

On the way home, we decided to ride the bike on the beach. The bike didn't have reflectors and our clothing wasn't bright, so we hated to be on the main road. But let me tell you about riding on the beach after dark.

There were NO people on the beach AT all. And that beach was really, really dark. Not a lot of stars, no moon...and the tide was much higher than we expected. We were trying to see how much space we had...avoid holes in the sand...and worst of all...

...I had watched Sleeping with the Enemy right before we left. The worst thing for after-dark beach riding is a recent exposure to that storm scene. I was very nearly in tears by the time we arrived back at our resort.

So to console me...we walked around to enjoy the sights one more time.

And this is how we felt about saying goodbye to our precious wedding/honeymoon trip.

And it's also how Ryan felt about saying goodbye to his tandem bike.