Heritage Garden Quilt Trail 2024

If you spend any kind of time in Elkhart, IN this summer, May 30th through September 15th, you really should check out the Heritage Garden Quilt Tour 2024. Sparky checked it out for you if you are not able to be in the area this year. For those waiting on RV repairs, or camping in the area for the summer, it's a great family activity and really beautiful to see. May 30th is when the 13 gardens (this year) have been planted, and early September would be when they are winding down in their beauty, but it's still a fantastic way to see the Amish countrysides of Elkhart, Bristol, Goshen, Middlebury, Nappanee, and Wakarusa in the summer months. It's also a great way to see the several small towns in Indiana that are always mentions as some of the best small towns in America on various surveys. 

There are hand painted quilt themed super sized art murals to be seen as well along with the gardens. They are mounted on the sides of buildings, some near the gardens, some are not. The same painted murals go up year after year until they need replacing as they gradually age out. On the map, the quilt gardens are marked with a red square. The hand painted murals are marked on the map with an orange square. Some fun facts about the quilt gardens:

1. All the wall murals are handpainted by one man, Jeff Stillson, from Nappanee. They go up when the gardens are planted, then are taken down when the last flower is dug up. They have a shelf life of about 10 years and are stored over the winter.

2. The quilt gardens started in 2007 with two test gardens, one at the famous Amish style restaurant, Das Dutch Esssenhaus, in Middlebury. Sometimes the locations change each year, but Das Essenhaus has always had a garden every year since the beginning.

3. Two hundred plus volunteers plant, weed, water, and maintain the gardens.

4. There are an estimated one million blooms in all the gardens put together.

5. Four quilt gardens are located at sites with historical significance-Ruthmere in Elkhart, Krider World's Fair Garden, Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds and the Elkhart County Courthouse.

6. Two of the quilt gardens are more than 2,000 square feet! Essenhaus is the largest at 3,142 square feet. Dutch Country Market is another large one. 

butterfly chair $309.00

Linton Enchanted Gardens in Elkhart on Cty. Rd. 17 used to have a really big one as well, but a butterfly garden has replaced the quilt garden this year. Some amazing beautiful Asian lilies there, along with everything you could possibly think of for gardens--plants, statues, seating, fountains, knick knacks, etc.

We visited that site thinking there was a quilt garden, there wasn't, but Linton Enchanted Gardens is a tourist worthy stop of its own! It's the largest garden center in the state of Indiana with 9 acres of outdoor shopping, a parakeet house, a petting zoo, and more. The parakeets were comical, fussing at each other, talking to each other, and these ones all on one row had the one on the end poking and pestering the one next to him until he had had enough and flew off. They were fun to watch. 

There are all these cool reproduction architectural structures--houses, buildings, and weird tongue-in-cheek/whimsical items among the thousand of flowers and plants displayed. Linton's also had a little go-cart track with carts, and a little tourist train that ran around the gardens that you could ride.

one of the model buildings on the grounds

It has an AMAZING gift shop, and beautiful birds flying all over the place amongst the pines. Sparky saw a baby cedar waxwing fledgling tightly gripping the park on a pine tree off to the side of the walkway, and then saw the parent waxwing come in and feed the baby right on the bark! She tried to wait out a second visit from the parents feeding the little one, but they were too cautious with her there.

almost got the photo!

(Sparky has an eagle eye for birds these days--HAHAHAHAHA! laughs E.) Ouch. 

Back to the short list about the gardens Sparky got sidetracked....

7. The gardens are composed of all kinds of bedding plants--begonias, impatiens, zinnias, petunias, marigolds, sweet potato vines, dusty miller, dichondra, curly parsley and coleus of all colors and shapes. Patterns are taken from centuries of quilt design dating back to the 1800's.

You can print out a map for the quilt gardens online, or pick one up in person at the Elkhart County Visitor's Center. Here is a direct link to the quilt gardens

There is also a free, separate audio driving tour of these areas called the Heritage Trail and can be downloaded at Visit Elkhart County.  

On to the gardens! We did it in a semi organized fashion. We started in Goshen, because that's the closest to our apartment, and proceeded to cover part of the tour on a couple different days. You could easily do it in less than a day if you wanted. There are three gardens in Goshen--the locations are Elkhart County Courthouse, the 4-H Fairgrounds, and Abshire Park.

Elkhart County Courthouse--"Many Beautiful Parts"

4H fairgrounds-"Rising Dawn"

It doesn't take that long to find the gardens, so we did a few one day this week, then covered some more the next day while out on some more errands. Abshire Park in Goshen, where Sparky usually starts off on the Pumpkinvine Bike Trail, has a pretty one called "The Sunburst". 

Abshire Park--"Sunburst"

Each garden has a sign that tells the name of the quilt inspired pattern a little bit of history about the location, and the names of the flowers planted for the design.

Next, Elkhart, the town itself. There are three gardens here....The "Take Heart Garden" downtown near the riverwalk....Elkhart calls itself the "City With a Heart" so this is very apropos. There are large painted hearts all over the city from a sculpture/artwork contest years ago that are fun to see a well. There's actually a LOT of artwork and sculptures to see in this northwestern small Indiana town. Look at this copper beauty! This is near the Brass Elk in downtown Elkhart. We think it's a nod to the brass musical instrument industry that used to make Elkhart the band industry capital of the world. (Eldy used to buff musical instruments for famous jazz players and for the Olympics!).

"Take Heart Garden"

The "Discovery in Bloom" garden near the Ruthmere Mansion...

And one very interesting one at the Elkhart Environmental Center...WOW! Three butterflies with pipes for antennae. It's called "Spread Your Wings".

Here is a closeup of the detail of the butterflies...Not a pretty day to view this garden, but we loved seeing the creative use of plants and piping anyway!

On to Middlebury's three gardens....at the Das Dutchman Essenhaus, another one of Sparky's favorites and the largest garden on the tour. This garden is called "Blazing Star Garden". Stop and enjoy a delicious Amish homestyle meal at the Essenhaus while you are there.

The second one is at Kryder World's Fair Garden in Middlebury...This is the "Box Car" garden....A little harder to see the pattern with the shade and time of day...Kryder Gardens is a beautiful stop to rest and see all the beautiful plantings, sculptures and water features. It's a spectacular botanical gardens for such a small town as Middlebury. Plants are labeled, there are beautiful benches and gazebos to sit and admire nature. It's a wonderful place to stop.

The third one is at the Dutch Country Market on Cty Rd. 16, and it's a beauty even on a dreary day!

In Nappanee, we visited the Farmhouse Inn Bed and Breakfast site, where we saw the "HIS Indian Sunburst" garden. It was a beautiful setting with the red barn in the background.

Our next stop was Wakarusa...a cool little town with a really interesting candy shop, which we stayed out of today, for health reasons, haha. But the quilt garden, the "Full Blown Tulip Garden" on S. Elkhart St., was a great way to end our little tour.

There are two more we missed, but we'll have to check those out the next time we are out and about in the county. We need to see the "Burst of Joy" garden at the Elkhart County Historical Museum in Bristol, and the "Tracking Our Beginning" garden at the Nappanee Center on West Market St.

Hope you have enjoyed seeing these amazing gardens if you are not able to do the tour in our area. It's one of many cool things to see and do in the Elkhart County area. 

We love living here!

Bye for now.....            Eldo and Sparky

Time to Go Home...Alaska 2024 Last Day

It's our last day and we are always sorry that we have to leave! But we have seen a lot of Alaska we had not seen before. We were so happy to see a total of 6 moose, a mama with her baby, the Homer Spit, and how visually the Exit Glacier had receded since the last time we visited. We got to experience some new places to stay, we learned about moose fencing, we experienced some new hikes, we discovered that we really enjoyed boondocking and that our budget was majorly enhanced by doing so. There are so many things to do and see in Alaska, you could spend all summer and lots of money doing them and then still not cover everything there is in Alaska. Every person has their own agenda for experiencing Alaska. Some want to do lots of excursions and don't mind spending the money to do tours, cruises, and fly ins, but we had to keep it simple and basic to be able to go...And we really do prefer the simpler Alaska, just seeing the mountains and feeling the cooler air, seeing the freedom of the wildlife to roam in this beautiful state, that was wonderful for us. It's majestic, it's awe inspiring and we hope we can go again some day...We always say this is our last time, but we hope it isn't. It's that amazing.

very rough pavement 

Day 9.... We extended our RV return time from the usual 10:00 AM in the morning until 1:45 PM for an additional 63.00. You can get a shorter extension, around an hour to an hour and a half for free, but then the later you come back, there starts to be a prorated charge toward the daily rate or they are just going to add another day! We thought it would be worth it to take our time driving back to Anchorage since our flight didn't leave until 9:40 PM that night. You need to add extra time sometimes for road construction, which is ALWAYS going on in Alaska, if you are on a timetable. Seward Highway from Seward to Anchorage is really rough this year...

So we slowly took our time and enjoyed some pull outs for the last time like this one: The Kenai Mountains turn out where the beautiful purple lupines were abundant. Hard to believe these are invasive but they ARE everywhere in Alaska, lol.

We stopped at Potter Marsh where we have seen some amazing shore/wading birds and even a moose in the past, but today, being a rainy day, we didn't see anything but a super friendly robin and this cute little girl all ready for a rainy day and some puddles.

Potter Marsh is very beautiful and worth a stop even if you don't see as many birds or wildlife on the day you visit.....Lots of long boardwalks that take you all over the marsh.

There was a magpie in the parking lot. He's a big, beautiful bird, that's for sure!

Even on a rainy cloudy day, Alaska is still majestic in its beauty....

We wish we had explored the Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Viewing Trail, but we ran out of time. It looks really interesting! We'll just have to plan another visit for a longer period of time next time!

Or this is something maybe somebody else will be able to experience and write about...At any rate, the time passed by so quickly on the drive back...We topped off the gas tank and propane tanks within 5 miles of Great Alaska Holidays, which is required by contract, and then headed in.

We checked the rig back in, (everything was A-OK with the rig), and the shuttle transported us to the airport for a many hours' wait. Sparky never minds waiting at airports. There are always a lot of things to see, especially at the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage. It's like a museum, a friend said. Humongous taxidermies polar bears in glass cages, a sculpture of a salmon school swimming upstream made of a thin green glass slivers, paintings high up above your head of Native American tribes of Alaska, and a life sized taxidermied moose for size comparison with many other cool things to see that represent Alaska. We ate at the Norton Seafood House and the food was great! (terrific clam chowder) Sparky jumped on every photo opportunity to remember Alaska, much to Eldy's chagrin. But he's such a good sport!

And that, family and friends, is our Alaskan holiday visit...made all the more special by the quality unit we received from the Great Alaskan Holiday team, including a repair job that required a special visit from a tech, (thank you, James!) that went above and beyond the normal business hours to ensure that we could still have our vacation. We'd like to give a shout out to Alaska Airlines employees at the Anchorage hub, Denise and Betsy, who treated us as if we were first class passengers even though we weren't. (Eldy needed a little extra assistance with his bags and walking after hip surgery recovery..he's not completely there yet) Not to forget, we want to thank the wonderful managers we met at the KOA, who really made our last few days' stay special by caring about their campground. AND, if you are going to fly, we highly recommend Alaska Airlines out of Chicago to Anchorage. There is more legroom on Alaska in coach than on any other airlines, or so they say. We paid a little extra for premium seats in coach for even more legroom, to endure the six hour non-stop flight back to Chicago, and it was well worth it!

We hope you enjoyed our tour of Alaska, geared more towards the nature side this time...We hope you will continue to check back now and then to see what we are up to! So-o-o..We will see you down the road.....Bye for now, Alaska 2024.....

Eldo and Sparky

Alaska 2024 RVing in Alaska- Part 3-Day 6, 7, 8

view from KOA campground-Resurrection River

KOA playground

Day 6... We moved from the Seward municipal city campground over to the KOA outside of the town of Seward, AK at midday. The Resurrection River runs right along the front side of the campground, just across the street. What a campground! Lots of amenities--a wonderful ship playground for kids, a gaga ball pit (a hot Indiana kids' game played at all the schools, kind of like a contained, low throw dodge ball game where you have to smack the ball with your hand and try to hit a player with the ball, below the knees. The ball bounces off a hexagonal wall pit adding geometry angles and a bit of strategy. It's a little bit like handball only in a very small contained area. Lots of action in a small space, and the kids love it.) The hot showers are AMAZING, and the shower floors are heated! The bathrooms are super clean and modern.

KOA patio deck for all campers

The sites are beautiful, level and gravel....some have Adirondack chairs with artificial turf, and they are improving sites with laying cement pads with bricked in fire pits. There is a very complete RV store with all kinds of goodies in it, the staff is amazing, and concierge services are provided if you want to try a lot of different activities in the area like: dog sledding, kayaking to the Aialik Glacier and lots more. AND--there is an active eagle's nest near the front of the RV park. We really enjoyed watching the eagles take turns watching over an egg. It was determined that there was one egg due to a fellow RVer who had a drone, and who very respectfully kept its distance as to not alarm the eagles.

Sparky walked the town in the afternoon and visited a quilt shop. She bought two quilting kits as souvenirs to make later. She really wanted a moose one, but there weren't any as attractive as the bear and the whales. These patterns are from Alaska quilt designers, so truly representative of the state.

She went looking for more murals and here is another one...They are all over town. The whale mural used to be three painted blue whales. The winter weather did a number on them, so the store owner wanted them replaced with something very similar so here is the updated, more weather resistant newest addition.

Later in the afternoon, we paid a visit to Exit Glacier at the Kenai Fjords National Park, which was just five minutes down the road. Sparky tried to hike the Harding Fields Ice Trail. That is an amazing trail with 40 glaciers in the immense ice fields. She managed only a couple of miles with her knees because all the boulder and rock scrambling was just too much for these 73 year old knees. It's an 8.2 round trip if you go all the way to the ice fields, and there are some shorter hikes that lead to beautiful views along the way, like Marmot Meadows. The visitor's center warned of a mama bear and her cub spotted in the area just three days before, so there is a chance you might see wildlife, but there were lots of people on the trails today, so mama has probably moved on....

Sparky did sign in at the Harding Ice Fields trailhead, just in case problems arose later. You never know....a bear or a moose might be in the area! Sparky documented her knees for posterity, lol...They will be officially 74 years old next month, haha. So much for posterity, they throw those sheets away, but it was fun to say she was there!

It's a bitter pill to swallow when you realize that you can't do what you used to do, not mentally, because you think you can, but physically because the body is telling you NOPE! Even with all the cycling Sparky had been doing beforehand, all that steep climbing was just too much for the knees! She could barely walk the next day....Sigh....

Tonsina Creek hike

Day 7...After some painkillers and ice the night before, Sparky thought maybe she'd try a hike right outside Seward, called the Tonsina Trail, a very popular trail with the locals. The drive to get to the trail starts right outside the Marine Museum in Seward along the Resurrection Bay heading towards Caine's Head State Park and goes a few miles before getting to Lowell trailhead. The moderate 3.4 mile out and back trail starts out on a vehicle shared road with hikers (minimal traffic from residences), then ventures off into the woods with a lot of switchbacks. Trailhead parking is 5.00 because it is part of a state park, but Eldo had driven the rig and dropped Sparky off and went and parked elsewhere, so off she went. It had rained a lot, so the trail was muddy and slippery, but beautiful, with views of the mountains on the left through spruce and hemlock trees. 

You had to cross the Tonsina Creek early on, to keep going on the trail. It was fun to watch families coming through and how they navigated the rocks and rushing water.

Sparky did not do the entire hike, due to incoming tides near the end of the trail where it comes out on the bay, but crossed two bridges on the way there, for two miles in and two miles back out. The views were spectacular once you got through all the muddy switchbacks. It was perfect temperatures for hiking, in the mid fifties and overcast a bit. She met families, dogs and quite a few people along the way, it's a popular trail. 

For dinner that night, we decided to try the Seasalt Grill, downtown Seward, which we mentioned earlier, was excellent, but expensive. Sparky would like to mention that the hamburger was weird. Weird, as in a different kind of meat. It was listed as a hamburger, but had the most different taste to it. There was a lot of mention of reindeer meat on the menu, perhaps it was a reindeer burger, but we'll never know, because she didn't ask. Fourteen dollars for onion rings, and they were good, but not THAT good!

Day 8...Sparky's knees were all fired up again, after all those switchbacks yesterday, so after watching the eagles fly back and forth from the nest in the morning, we decided to drive back to Exit Glacier one more time and Sparky would hike the easy handicap accessible Exit Glacier trail. It's a one mile paved/compressed gravel loop and FLAT. It was misting enough rain that a raincoat was warranted. Nice easy trail and great views. (Thank you! said the knees.) Not sure which hike these guys were going to do, but fantastic that they are going to do it.  There's also another Exit Glacier hike that is a little more of a challenge, only because of slick rock surfaces, but very little elevation change and great views as well. 

Note: It's more than a half mile paved walk to get to any of the trails before you are actually on one of them, so figure a mile in and out just to get to and from the parking lot. This is the view from the regular Exit Glacier hike, the most common one people usually pick.

Here you can see visitors walking the glacier trail towards Exit Glacier.

Sparky saw PLENTY of moose poop on both trails--some old, some fresh, so they are definitely around. And just for the record, here is what moose poop looks like, haha. Bear scat is smaller, darker, and rounder in case you were wondering. (They weren't, laughs E.)

In the afternoon, we decided to go for a drive looking for moose as we had not seen enough and Sparky was seeing more moose poop than moose! We decided to drive 20 miles north on the Seward Highway and if we didn't see any, we would turn around and head back to camp. About 17 miles out, we look to the left in a marsh, and there was a mama moose and one baby. They were super close in the marsh next to the highway, just getting out of the water, but headed for the woods. Eldo parked right away just past where we saw them, Sparky hopped out and jogged over to the marsh, and they were gone. But we both got to see them very close by and were super happy!

Tomorrow we leave for Anchorage to fly back home. One more Alaskan blog and then we will be in summer mode back home in Indiana.   See you down the road....

                               

                                 Eldo and Sparky