Indiana Vacation

My family had a reunion in Middlebury, Indiana where I grew up.  We left Wednesday night after Zac got home from work and drove through most of the night.  We stopped in Eagle, Co. for a nap.  We took I-70 East.  This route let us see some cities we don't normally see when we go to Indiana.  We usually drive I-80.  We stopped in Kansas City, MO and ate at Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue.  I feel like since we have a BBQ concession stand that eating BBQ in Kansas City has given us some street credit.

We drove on spending the night in Independence, MO.  Sadly we did not take the time to visit some LDS historical sites (I'm saving that for our next trip out).  We did stop in St. Louis, MO and had BBQ at Bandanas. I loved the country decor of this place.  We visited the arch taking the tram to the top.

We drove on to Indiana arriving at the cabin about 2am.  There were 19 people staying there, but surprisingly we all got along fine.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the Essenhaus.

Then we did some sightseeing in Shipshewana.  We got back to the cabin for some reunion talent show and games.  Sunday we went to church and visited Elkhart I and II wards.  My nephew was baptized that afternoon.  Then for dinner we went to an ice cream supper at my uncle Tony's.  From there I met up with 2 friends, Rachel and Jennifer, at Rachel's house.  We had a nice chat with her parents and my brother.

Monday we went swimming at Lakeside Park in Syracuse, IN.  I got sunburned.  We got some nifty pictures of my parents napping.

And Zane flashing things.

That night we had an Amish Dinner at Uncle Leo's. After dinner more family showed up and there was a comedy routine performed by Professor Schnitzel (my dad's cousin Merv or Merf as I heard him called).

Tuesday we did some more sightseeing/visiting in Middlebury/Shipshewana.  The kids got buggy rides at Cousin Susie's.

I went to Davis Mercantile, I got to chat with my cousin Heidi at her Red Wagon Toy Shop.  Eat lunch at cousin JoJo's Pretzels.

We ate so much food during this vacation.  I'm sure I've gained at least 6 lbs.

Then we went to Cedar Point where we rode some serious roller coasters.  We went on Mantis, Millennium Force, Iron Dragon, and Top Fuel Dragster to name a few.

Wednesday and Thursday we drove back along I-80 for home.  Our van started breaking down so we stopped in La Porte, IN.  The van spent a couple of hours in the shop.  It had a broken rocker arm at cylinder 6 (if that means anything to anybody).  But we got to check out a cool store, The Co-Op Shoppe and have dinner at Martin's Pizzeria where they have delicious cheese rolls.  We spent the night in Davenport, IA and Laramie, WY.  We arrived home Friday about 4pm.