92 County Tour: Delaware County

Our quest to tour all 92 counties in Indiana continues! Guess what!?!?! Only 78 to go! It may not be the quickest project we've ever done, but we are having a blast doing it!! {To see the rest of our tours, scroll to the bottom of this page.}

I'm admittedly not great with geography. I knew Ryan and I had an appointment in Muncie, Indiana last Saturday, but I was just certain we had already toured the county where Muncie sits. I would have bet more money than I have that it was in the same county with Anderson and Alexandria, and I knew we'd gone there last summer. It turns out {PSA here} that just because towns are on the same interstate sign does not necessarily mean they are in the same county. Take a moment to let that sink in!

I finally realized my mistake about 10:00 last Friday night and flew through the pages of the internet to assemble what I hoped would be a proper tour of Delaware County, the actual home of Muncie, Indiana.

Delaware County was named for a Native American group that used to live in the area where the county is located. The county had a huge economic boom after the Civil War, because natural gas was discovered on the land. The county is also well known for its glass industry, and it was the home of the Ball brothers...of Ball jars. This may have also had something to do with the naming of a little university known as...Ball State.

We went to this county because we had a photo shoot scheduled there. Annual photo time!!! {We told that whole story in yesterday's podcast, so I won't rehash it here.} The photographer suggested doing our photos at Minnetrista, so that's where we began our day! The word "Minnetrista" means "a gathering place by the water," and the land originally held the home of the aforementioned Ball brothers. There are beautiful grounds that are free to explore, and there are also indoor activities, many educational, that we did not explore the day we were there. {Workshops, classes, farmer's markets, and much more.}

Our pictures are currently in editing, so I can't sneak peek any of those to you, but the photographer certainly picked an enchanting location to serve as a backdrop! When we were done with the shoot, we went back through the grounds and snapped some pictures just to have, reminding us of the natural beauty and the architectural beauty of this area:

By the time we had explored this area {twice, really}, we had worked up an appetite, so we made our way over to Cammack Station, just west of Muncie, near the little burg of Yorktown, to eat lunch. The photographer had actually told us about this place; she takes pictures there sometimes, and it was definitely a cool place. The restaurant is housed in an old fueling station, and it's completely loaded with character. The decor is themed around old station memorabilia, and they play oldies music, which makes it so fun. The food is classic diner food - burgers and ice cream sundaes and shakes.

It was actually SO NICE the day we visited, we were able to eat outside. They pipe the music outside, too, so it was just a fun day to soak up some sunshine, eat a delicious {clean-eating-contraband} burger, and listen told old tunes. For the record, I did not eat ALL of mine. HUGE!!!!

After that, we definitely needed to walk around for a bit, so we went to Ed's Glass and More Factory Outlet. I'd been there several years ago with my mom, and I remembered it was just a fun, quirky place to find a deal if you wanted one. We ended up not buying anything, but it was fun to poke around and look at all the glassware and candles and see what they had!

I had seen online that one of the Muncie McDonald's locations had a vintage sign, so even though we didn't stop to get anything, we had to swing by and see it! Apparently this sign was put up when the location was built back in the 50's. Did you know there was a different McDonald's mascot before Ronald? His name was Speedee, and he's on the sign!

I had also been told, over the years, that if I ever went to Muncie, I shouldn't leave without stopping by Concannon's bakery. They have a couple different locations, but we went to the pastry shop, which the nice lady inside told us was the older of the two locations. Oh. My. Word. Bakery overload in the best possible way! Cookies, pies, cakes, donuts, the whole bit. Oh! And candy! It was hard to choose just one snack for later, but we powered through.

Concannon's is a family-run business, and that was one reason I wanted to stop by. I love seeing establishments that have a long history in any given town and still have family ties keeping them strong.

We each got a donut and ate them later. They were delicious. Ryan said his was so huge, he should have divided it and eaten it in two sittings. I had no problem with mine! HA!!!

Of course, we can't leave a county without trying out a coffee shop. I figured Muncie would be overrun with coffee shop options, given that it's a college town. But when I hunted online, the list wasn't incredibly long. Once I weeded out the chains and the gas stations {are those REALLY coffee shops???} I settled on a shop right near campus called "The Cup." 

It was quite a different atmosphere from the coffee shops we normally visit, and I was really thankful it was a nice day outside, or our experience might not have been so great. It was a super tiny shop, and navigating our way in and through the line was interesting. Not great for claustrophobics.

It was very simple inside - black chalkboard walls with the menus written on them, and the counters for the baristas to work. That was about it!

Ryan got fresh brew and a muffin, and I got a frozen cappuccino, and we took them out to the courtyard, and that was lovely. It sat right by a sidewalk, and we watched college students and parents strolling around, people walking their dogs, and we were under a collection of mature trees that dropped leaves...so pretty. Plenty of space out there, and we felt a bit like we were on a movie set, drinking our coffee and watching the crowds walk by. We were also painfully aware that we are not really close to college age anymore. {Though closer than the old guy in a complete sleeping coma behind us, mouth gaping open!!}

After our coffee, we made one last "stop"...through the Ball State Campus to view Shafer Tower. It just seemed appropriate. :)

The tower is 150 feet tall and has a chiming clock. Though it normally chimes through remotely programmed computers, there is a way for a person to climb into a control room at the top and play something live. I saw how tiny the stairway must be inside the tower. No thanks! BUT...good to know we have our own tower. :)

And that concluded our visit to Delaware County! A fun day...and I can't wait to see the official photos when our shoot is edited! :)