October 17th we headed to Mishawaka driving down the regular highways and sometimes getting off course.  But we made it to Mishawaka by about 9:00 that night. Aaron had tried a new soup recipe that was ready when we got there. It was very good.

Saturday morning was cool and rainy so we decided to tour the Studebaker Museum. It was very interesting to see electric cars that were produced back in the 1920’s and  car that had 475,000 miles on it and it still ran. Unfortunately I forgot my camera that day.  After the Studebaker Museum we toured the mansion that belonged to the Oliver Family.  This was another beautiful older home with many rooms, a huge open stairway, a back stairway and many unique points of interest. The last daughter to leave the house left almost everything as it was with all of the furnishings and personal items   We also toured the home of a worker and his family (a polish family).  A much simpler home but very interesting. There was another mansion there built by the Studebaker family I believe, but it now houses a restaurant called Tippecanoe. Later that afternoon we went to an antique store in downtown Mishawaka.  I found a wood file drawer that I’m going to use for all of my recipes.  I love it.

We went to church on Saturday evening so that we could get up Sunday morning and head to the Indiana Dunes. I did bring my camera that day and we also took a picnic. Here are my pictures from the Dunes:

I love taking scenery pictures.  The trees that weekend were gorgeous.  I thought this would make a good background picture for my computer.

At one point we got off the trail . . . probably just following a cow trail.  The boys had to check out the map to see where we needed to go.

I love this picture.  I call it the Lewis and Clark team.  Kalie is such a good sport and goes along with our silliness.

The camera just doesn’t do the trees justice. They almost glow.

After we finished at the Dunes, we had our lunch near the visitor center and then headed to the Round Barn Winery and Brewery.  Ken’s not a wine lover at all, but he did try a couple of wines.  One that he did kinda like.  It was a black walnut creme wine.  Aaron and Kalie bought us a bottle to take home with us.  Ken and I went over to the Brewery and tried a few beers. I’m not a beer lover (Bud light or Busch light are fine for me) but I did try a couple of beers, none that I really liked.  Ken really didn’t care for them either.  But we had some good laughs.

Since we were in Michigan, we went to an antique store in Niles. The prices there were a little high but we still had a great time looking through things and talking about older times.

On Monday we did take the interstate back home since it would have been a very long ride and we both had to go to work the next morning.