Trip to Valparaiso, IN

Valpariso, Indiana is located at the northwest corner of Indiana, sitting at the bottom of Lake Michigan (the gray in the left picture is Lake Michigan and the red is Valpo.) It is about a 15-16 hour drive from Baton Rouge. So Dale and I decided to make the trek to go and visit our son and his wife. We left BR at noon on Thursday when I got off work and drove to Southhaven, MS (TN/MS border) where we stayed the night. We left there about 7:30 Friday morning and landed on Jason and Chelsy's doorstep about 6:00 Friday night and walked a few blocks to downtown where we ate Italian. YUM!!

After a good night's sleep, we started Saturday morning with a good breakfast.

Chelsy and Jason fed us chocolate chip pancakes, eggs and bacon. Jason even warmed the maple syrup. Then off to the apple orchard. Jason and Chelsy had been there a couple of times and said it was a quiet place and fun. The fun was right, but the quiet wasn't. There were 3 (yes - not 1, not 2, but 3) buses there and tons of cars.

Jason and Chelsy in line to get lunch. They had hot dogs (big, fat ones) and we had hamburgers (also big, fat ones.) Are you beginning to get the idea we ate well while we were gone?

Then off to pick apples. We picked Granny Smith and Braeburn apples. Store bought apples will never taste the same again.

Above is downtown Valpo. I walked the downtown area on Monday and Tuesday. It was a lovely walk. I had fun browsing shops and my favorites were a children's shop (a little pricy for me but fun anyway) and The Chocolate Cafe. Yep - you guessed it. I did shop there and left with Turtle Fudge and some truffles. We ate on the candy for the rest of the visit. Too good!!

Here I am on the rail of their house Tuesday morning.


Wednesday was spent with Chelsy working (we missed you Chelsy!!!) and us going into Chicago by train with Jason. I loaded these pictures backwards so you are seeing the last first.

Deep dish pizza. Look at how thick that crust is!! The inside of the pizza is stuffed with cheese and pepperoni. The sauce is on the top. You can really hurt yourself eating this treat.

The picture below is a reflection of us in The Bean. (Look it up if you've never heard of it!)

Here we are next to Lake Michigan as we walked from the Natural History Museum to the Bean (above) and lunch (also above.)

Here is a picture showing the trees at the train station parking lot. The train ride to Chicago took about 1 1/2 hours. There is no way that pictures can show the beauty of the changing colors. I loved the trees that were in the midst of changing and had a mixture of green and orange leaves. Too beautiful to describe.

This is the front yard (right) and back yard (below) of a house that Chelsy likes because the decorations change with every season in the front yard. The owner saw us and came out to give us a complete tour. Her picture is at the bottom.

This is Kendra in front of her house. She was so kind to show us around her house and yard. She has a talent for decorating inside and out.

We had breakfast with Jason Thursday morning at a diner, dropped him off at Valpo University and headed home.

Thank you, my sweet children, for a wonderful visit!! Your father gained 6 pounds while he was with you but enjoyed every ounce!!