Here and Here - Monday 6/23/2009

Mom made graham cracker cookies! Okay, just one.


Stopped on the way to meet up with Pegerty to take a shot of Green Gables, at Big Lake. The first house my parents shared.


Breakfast at Bob Evans in Columbia City at 11 am. I waited till the last to have this, because it's seriously addictive and I didn't want to have it more than once. Pegerty was the voice of reason. We got two orders and a side of fruit for three people. Thank goodness.

It's soooooo good.



Drove to Indianapolis for the flight back to L.A. It actually felt kind of right to spend a couple of hours driving.

Somehow the Theme Restaurant looks even more futuristic during renovations.


The 405 was a mess, so we cut across town. Hydra drove, so I had time to take a photo of this pretty door along Highland Boulevard.

It's nice to be home, but as soon as I get here, the homesickness sets in. How is that?

Sailing the Corn - Monday 6/22/2009

B shares her freshly picked peas with me! She also pulled radishes for our lunch. Mmmm.



J aboard the Hasty Decision. Great name for a sailboat, huh? Seats six. When are they gonna give her a maiden run on the Pacific is what I want to know.


B in her kitchen. This is typical B, telling a great story.


View of the pond from the lovely newly enclosed front porch. Family wedding photos on the wall there.


Hoosier sunset, on the way back home...erm, to Mom's house.

Um, yeah. Gotta say, that's a little sad.

Commemorates three of Indiana's 5 vice presidents: Dan Quayle (Huntington), Thomas Marshall (Columbia City), and Thomas Hendricks (Shelbyville), all of whom lived along State Road 9.

You Don't Remember Me - Saturday 6/20/2009

...but I remember you.

Those are just song lyrics. We were a small class (90 graduated) and although sometimes it was hard to recognize people, we figured it out. I could usually get people when they smiled.

I've hashed and rehashed this on Facebook and Kodak Gallery, so I'm a little over it.

It was nice to catch up with people, but it's hard to talk about much more than job and kids. I really loved that we had it at a class member's house and it was all very casual.

Bonfire of the Sanities - Friday 6/19/2009

My sister feeds me weeds! And she always has.

She used to make a violet and nasturtium salad for me when I had a cold. The photos I took of the wild sorrel frittata she whipped up for breakfast didn't come out, but here are the original herbs as picked from Mom's yard. Served alongside freshly picked strawberries and chai. Mmm.



I met up with Mom after her line dance club and we went to visit Aunt Gertie. She'll be 100 years old in 4 months! She's delightful and interesting. I'm related to her both by blood (Dad's side) and marriage (Mom's side).

And they wonder why all us kids married people from out of state. Gotta dilute that gene pool a little every so often.


Lunch at The Nook in downtown Columbia City. Mom and I split a Coney Dog basket. Had chocolate Cokes to go with it. Used to get vanilla Sprites, but they haven't carried an uncola for decades now, they say.


Cool mural on the wall at The Nook. Painted by Kenny Allen in the early 80s.



The picnic table awaits our family and friends get together. Bonfires are our traditional way to celebrate, and it was wonderful to see a bunch of my cousins and their kids. Some friends from elementary and high school came too, so we got a jump on tomorrow night's reunion.

The un-flat version of Flat Brayden was there, and we had a group photo taken... Brayden, Flat Brayden, me, and the copy of Flat Stanley they brought for me!

The weather kept toying with us all night long. It finally really started raining around 10 pm, which broke it up. Except a couple cousins and I stood around talking in the soft warm rain. Guess we never did have enough sense to come in out of it, even as kids.

The Bug Island Trio Rides Again - Thursday 6/18/2009

On the way home, we drove down Groveland Drive, aka the backside of Big Lake. Wow, it is really gorgeous back there.


Mom stopped so I could pick some mulberries. These are a weird fruit. Not terribly flavorful, but there's something addictive (to me) about pulling them off the tree and eating them. About one in every 15 is really sweet and flavorful.



The road home. That's where I grew up, on the left. Lots of good old trees.


The barn across the road. Mom's been taking photos of this barn and drawing it for probably more than 50 years. It was intact when I was a kid, but no livestock was in it when I played there. There were stalls and a few pieces of interesting antiquated machinery inside.

I'm so glad we went over and took pictures. A couple of weeks later Mom told me that it was dismantled. So sad to see it finally gone.



Met up with my nephew, the culinarily, musically and writingly talented Beans, in his apartment in downtown Columbia City. He served me this brew, which caused me to sing a capella with my mom and sister at an open mic later in the evening.

Yeah, the Bug Island Trio took the stage at Mad Anthony's (fka The Munchie) after Beans did a heartfelt, sometimes rollicking set of songs. We did our standard trio of a capella tunes in three part harmony : Music, Music, Music; Under the Bamboo Tree, and I've Been Workin' on the Railroad. Yeah, hokey old stuff, but we have some fun interwoven harmonies and parts and we actually got people's attention. A guy at the bar high-fived us all on our way back to our table!

As we left the stage, the host said, "Well, [Beans], this explains a lot."

I love my family.

Into the Woods! - Wednesday 6/17/2009

We started our day with our project of updating the oral history project we started in 1991. Nice view from the front of the inn.



Hiked through the woods toward the nature center. It was a big overcast, but really lovely.



A terrific ranger at the nature center showed us how to make our own twine out of cattail reeds. Cool!


We took a short cut back to the inn via the toboggan run. Looks like it must be a lot of fun in winter.
We discovered a great restaurant in Angola. The Village Kitchen on the corner of Maumee and Superior. Yummy home made food at incredible prices. Pie for $1.29 a slice.



All right then!



This, my friends, is a prime example of a breaded tenderloin sandwich. Mmmm. It was $2.79 and then you could add one side for $1.29 or two sides for $1.79. The pepper pot soup was amazing and the basket of fries were crunchy and great.


Back at the inn, we think about working off some of those calories by renting a kayak but... nah. We ended up in the inn's library, reading some interesting books we found there. Mine was a history of McCutchenville. Yeah, I know, but it was really well written!

Potawatomi? Hey, Potawato- YOU! - Tuesday 6/16/2009

Mom and I headed north to Pokagon State Park, where we'll spend a couple of nights at the partly historic Potawatomi Inn. Really nice hotel on a big lake in park. Lots of family stuff to do.



The inn from the woods.


Sort of sad little graveyard which is stuck between the road and a shopping center in Angola. Eek.

Elkhart - Monday 6/15/2009

Brain shows off some of Elkhart's more intriguing history. This little marker was made by a local dentist. He's gone now, and the marker has fallen over, but the new owners of the house had the good sense not to get rid of it.


Yeah. That's right. It's made of TEETH!


Brain doesn't have anything quite so grisly in his back yard, thank goodness. Wonderful house and yard.


Pretty little pool house.


There are a lot of lovely accents and different views from here and there. This is next to the pond!


Buddha likes poppies.


I got to meet one of the equine members of the family. Casey. What a sweetheart.


Sunny puts Casey through his paces. She's terrific with him.

Later, she talked me into staying the night, which was a great decision. We stayed up till 2 o'clock playing Cranium. Went to see Brain play tennis with his friends the next morning.

South Bend Chocolate Company - Monday 6/15/2009

My brother Brain maintains his dignity throughout our tour of the South Bend Chocolate Company!


Wow, it really is a lot like the scene from I Love Lucy! Love that it's such a small, simple operation.

We had samples from the box of imperfects. I chose yummy vanilla cream.



That's a lot of love in those boxes.


Arispa demonstrates the proper method for making chocolate dipped spoons. It's a skill we've been lacking in our family up until now.

The chocolate is really good. If you're in South Bend, you should check it out. We took the extended 45-minute tour, which is $4.00. The 25-minute tour is free.

Our guide forgot to give us our goodie-bags at the end, which Arispa realized after we'd left. Boo hoo!

B-Lite vs. the Wading Pool - Saturday

B-Lite meets the pool a few drops at a time.


Now he's getting the hang of it! (This is my sister's daughter's son. Sigh.)


Frog boy!


Kitty demonstrates the proper use of a garden hose. As a microphone, of course!



There's a little tune me and the band have been working on. I'd like to share that with you now.



"Oh the shark has--pretty teeth dear-- and he shows them--pearly white!"

Actually, what he said was "Buh buh-buh, buh buh" but I swear it was in the same key as Kitty sang in!




Back to you, Kitty!


Doing a show always takes it out of me.


Done with the hat now.


Mama's on her way to a friend's wedding, leaving Brody in the delighted clutches of Auntie, Grandma and Great Grandma!