Amish Country Garden Tour

Last Saturday, I took my mom and daughter on a little day trip to Amish country in Northern

Indiana. We took part of the Quilt Gardens Tour, a collection of gardens that are made to

resemble quilt blocks, thus combining two of my favorite things, quilts and gardens. There were

other favorite things along the way, like exploring cute little towns, and eating in a cool retro

soda shop. Here are some highlights:

Mom and Mary posed inside the Nappanee library. The old exterior facade is now a beautiful interior wall in the renovated building. Breakfast consisted of coffee, and a chocolate chip scone at a local coffee shop. Yum!


This was the first garden we found in the small town of Wakarusa, IN. A cute little burg with a fun old-fashioned candy store, The Wakarusa Dime Store, home of the world's biggest jelly beans.



After a LOT of wandering around on the outskirts of Elkhart, we finally stumbled on the next garden, this lovely flower basket
pattern. It was right next to this grand home:
This is Ruthmere, an elegant 1908 mansion which is open to the public for group tours.

The final garden we visited was the prettiest:

It was located at a funny place called Linton's Enchanted Gardens, a garden and landscape center outside of Elkhart. I have to say I've never been to a garden store with a petting zoo before, but they had one. Too bad the boys weren't with us. They would have gotten a kick (or

peck) out of this guy:

His name is Philip Diller, and he's without a doubt the funniest looking chicken I've ever

seen.

My Junk Food Picks

For some reason, maybe because it's summer, I just feel like posting about something utterly silly, irrelevant and useless. Like
fast food. Now let me say, we rarely eat at fast food places anymore, largely because of the monetary cost, but also due to
the high fat content, and general junkiness. I AM NOT ADVOCATING A FAST FOOD DIET!!! Having said that, sometimes I have a yen for a Big Mac and fries like you wouldn't believe. So here are my picks for the best fast food restaurants, in several
categories, and I welcome anyone else's opinions on the matter.

Best Hamburger: Hardees' hamburgers taste like they just came off the grill. However, a Hardees restaurant can be hard to
find. We only have one in our town. As I already mentioned, I also have occasional cravings for

a Big Mac from McDonald's.

Best Fries: I have three favorites (although, as I said I hardly ever eat them). First place goes to Chick Fil A's waffle fries.
In second place are Penguin Point's nice fat crinkle fries, which I haven't eaten in years, but I just know are as
good as ever.
And the fallback third choice is McDonald's fries. Don't even mention those horrid french fries they have at
Burger King. Arby's curly fries are okay, but they have a nasty oily aftertaste. (Sorry, Burger King and Arby's!)

Best Chicken: Hands down, the best chicken anywhere is Chick Fil A. Please watch this video for a little musical
commentary.

Best Subs: Well, if you want a healthier sub, Subway is pretty good, but if you're splurging, and want something tasty,
Quizno's is the best I've had. I have to admit, though, that I haven't tried all the sub places out there.
Arby's Italian sub is okay, but the quality is inconsistent.

Best Shakes: Ooh, that's a hard one. Chick Fil A has great handmade shakes, but I also love Steak and Shake's.
And what about Dairy Queen? I've only been going there for ice cream my whole life. I still don't
think their shakes come up to Chick Fil A and Steak and Shake, though.

Best pizza: Pizza Hut has good pizza, but far and away my favorite is Pizza King's Royal Feast

pizza. It doesn't cost lots of money for nothing. Which is why we only eat it at other

people's houses.

I realize there are many other options now in fast food, but I'll leave those for someone else

to critique.

Now go eat some vegetables.

Birthday Boys

         It's Paul and Patrick's birthday today! How can it be eight years already since these two

burst into the family scene? Or rather, were snatched by the doctor into the family scene (I

had my one and only c-section with them because of medical issues)? 

Their birthday breakfast of choice? The seldom-eaten-at-our-house-and-therefore-a-treat Toaster Strudel of the blueberry
variety. Yum!

All Movied Out

I can count on one hand the number of movies we've seen in theaters this year. We've seen two. 

And both of them were today.  Normally, I wouldn't take my kids to see two movies in one day. Heck, normally I don't take them to see any movie. The Rave Theater shows a free kids' movie

every couple of weeks, though, and today's feature was "The Tale of Despereaux", which my boys and I

enjoyed greatly, what with all those creepy rats, a valiant mouse, and a princess. Okay, the boys

weren't all that impressed by the princess, more by the creepy rats and the humor, which was refreshingly not as gross as most of today's kids' movies.

Tonight we went to a local outdoor theater, and it was FREEZING. Well, actually, it was about

63 degrees, but there was a wind tunnel feel to the place, so it's a good thing we wore warm clothes. We saw "Kit Kittredge" for the first time. Yes, I'm aware that it came out a few years ago.

What you must realize is that we don't get out much, so to us, it was like new. It was also free.

I love free movies! Having read all the Kit books when Mary was about ten years old (she has the doll, too, thanks to my mom), the plot was very familiar. I really didn't expect to like the movie that much, but it was easily the best of the American Girl movies, and was very entertaining. Thus ends my exciting review of two older, though new-to-us, movies.