92 County Tour: Kosciusko County

Before we tell you about our latest county tour, we pause to bring you a fresh round of podcast stories! Enjoy!

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Wow. It has been NINE MONTHS since we last toured a county. What in the ever loving world? It's true. Our trip to southern Indiana for our birthdays last May marked our last county tour. And in some ways, the one you're about to read about was very abnormal for us. But it felt good to whip out the chalkboards again and do something normal and Shaffery.

If you're new around here, you're probably very confused. County tours? What? Five years ago, Ryan and I began a project that is apparently going to take us the rest of our natural lives. We intend to visit every single county in the state of Indiana - and there are 92. Our goal is to find fun and unique things to do in each county, and of course: find a coffee shop. We've had such a blast visiting new-to-us places and seeing portions of our state we'd never seen before.

Because I spoke in Warsaw this past Saturday, we decided to officially mark its county off our list, but this one wasn't handled in a normal way at all.

First of all, I should tell you the name of the county: Kosciusko. Try saying that three times fast. Or spelling it fast.

I absolutely thought this county's name was probably Native American, because many counties in Indiana are tied to them in some way. But I was wrong! I learned (Wikipedia, you know) that it was named after a Polish general, Tadeusz Kosciuzko, who served in the Revolutionary War and then returned to Poland. And the county seat, Warsaw, is named after the capital of Poland. Something fun and different for state history!

It's actually one of the bigger counties in the state in terms of land, but even though it doesn't have a huge number of cities, there's much to do in this county. You know why? LAKES! Several of the most popular lakes in the northern portion of the state are located in Kosciusko County - including our beloved Lake Webster, where Ryan's family has a cottage.

That's actually what made it kind of tricky for us to visit. We've gone to North Webster, where Lake Webster is located, every single summer since we've been married. So it seemed silly to spend part of our day there, when we already have so many adventures and memories documented. And there are a couple of other areas we plan to visit in the county later this summer when it's...you know...NICE outside. So our time on the "official" documentation was spent in one little part of a great big county with lots to see.

But let me point you back to some of the fun we've already had at our lake! Here's a peek at our first summer visit to the lake. It was not a pretty weekend to be there, but we made the best of it, and Ryan got to barefoot on the lake, which made him so happy. And here's a year where the weather was actually nice enough to see sunsets! That same year, we visited Dixie Days, the town's claim-to-fame festival, and we also went to Dan's Pies, which was amazing. (Dan was the cook at the church camp Ryan and I went to growing up. He's retired from camp cooking and opened his own pie shop. I believe it's only open in the summer, but it's worth every penny. That was also the year we first encountered The River Coffee Shop, which quickly became home to us. We still love that place so much. And before we move on, here's another fun day with family, shopping, and walking around town, and here's the day we met our blog friends, Dave and Natasha and took them around North Webster!

As you can see, we have much love for and many traditions in North Webster. (And one day I will ride the Dixie!)

But our official county tour day began right before we spoke at the Warsaw First Baptist Church. Before we went there, we stopped by a franchise of one of our favorite Indiana donut spots: Rise n Roll!

We visited the flagship store (ha!) five years ago when we went to LaGrange County. This is an Amish-originated bakery, and my parents (who go to Amish country a lot) bring us treats from there nearly every time we go. It seemed wrong to NOT go for ourselves when in the area. It was a cute little store inside! They even had these adorable bikes as a nod to the Amish background.

Around here, the donuts are known as Amish crack, and once you have one, you understand why. So. Addictive. Ryan and I each got one to eat for our breakfast there in the store, and then we bought some to bring home to one of our friends who was having a birthday. (Okay, okay, we also got a box for ourselves.)

I think he liked it.

After we left the donut shop, we went to the church to speak and have brunch, and then we headed over to the little village of Winona Lake.

Winona Lake is quite possibly one of the cutest places in the state of Indiana. It's just adorable. I actually told Ryan that if we didn't live where we did, I would probably want to live in Kosciusko County, and Winona Lake specifically.

Here.

That's an old hotel converted into condos. They have huge ones and little studio ones. I mean, not that I've looked online to see them or anything. SO CUTE.

I'd first gone to Winona Lake back in 2008, with my friend Marie! That was a much prettier day than what we had, but we still had fun.

First, we took our official county photo. :)

Then we took a gander at all the little stores. They're set up in cute little houses along a canal, and they're as cute as they can be.

We also took a walk along part of the river. It was frozen over, but still OH so pretty.

Ryan was pretty hungry, because he hadn't been able to eat much at the brunch. He had helped the men serve the food and then he had to jump in and run my Power Point. So we went to a restaurant/café I'd picked out.

It's called the Light Rail Village Café, and it was REALLY good. Ryan had a brisket sandwich and I had a half salad. We shared a dessert and fresh brew. We loved the food and the atmosphere!

Winona Lake is also a college town; Grace College is located there. So there were a bunch of college students with textbooks and laptops hanging out in the main space of this café. Happily, they had made the porch dining area somewhat winterized, so we were able to sit out there and enjoy ourselves!

Fun fact (which you may have already heard about if you've listened to the podcast: I came to this same building for lunch with Marie the day she and I hung out at the lake. It was a different restaurant then, but we sat on the same porch, and I had my picture taken that day too! Two different days, two different restaurants, and in some ways, two very different Bekahs!

After we ate and did a little more walking around, we hopped back in the car to drive through the Grace campus. (Would have been great to walk, but the temp was dropping quickly!)

We had a fun day and were glad to have an official tour under our belts again. We'll look forward to the third segment of this county this summer!

And just for funsies, here's a peek at all our tour photos so far! 27 down, 65 to go! (I was very wrong on that count in the podcast.)

PS - To see all the rest of the county tours, take a look at the bottom of this page!