A Whimsical Tour

"Davis, the guitar"

 

The Peanuts Gang on Van Buren St. Shipshewanna

Every year at least for the past three years we have lived in Elkhart, there has been a hay bale tour in the fall in Shipshewanna and surrounding area, usually from September 1 to November 1. Actually, it has been going on for a decade! We were happy to go on the self-guided tour once again this year.

Shipshewanna is such a fun town all through the year. It is always beautifully decorated for the seasons. This year was no exception...Scarecrows everywhere doing all kinds of antics--hanging upside down, swinging, doing cartwheels and being chased by a mean steer. There are great restaurants and ice cream shops to visit while you are checking out all the decorations--we love the Blue Gate Restaurant and a bit farther away from Shipshewanna is Das Essenhaus, both great restaurants if you want a nice homecooked meal by Mennonite and Amish folks. Lots of home goods and home decor stores are in Shipshewanna and Middlebury as well, and of course, the Amish with their horse and buggies are out and about on the county roads. Saturday is a big shopping day for the Amish.

Sparky's favorite treat while window shopping at Lolly's Fabric Store in Shipshewanna or "Shipsee" as the locals call it, is JoJo's Pretzel shop in the Davis Mercantile building, downtown Shipshewanna, where they make homemade pretzels all day long. It's fun to watch them and they are so fresh! YUM! And of course, Sparky has to have a Coke with her pretzel, that's her drink of choice.....

So here is one of Sparky's favorite hay bales this year in downtown Shipsee.

We were lucky to run into Will-Hay Nelson and friend while we were out and about! We didn't find out who his lady friend was...We will leave that to your imagination.

We also ran into Louie, the Bluey...

Buttercup, the Cow....

Sammy, the Sloth....

And a couple of aliens at the Essenhaus.

The highland steer (?) was cool...

Buzz Lightyear and Woody were in Middlebury for a visit!

There are SO MANY wonderfully decorated hay bales...People vote on their favorites and post photos online. It takes a lot of patience and skill to decorate a scratchy hay bale and make it look good, we think!

Sparky's favorite this year was the little RV....

If you are ever in the area in the fall, between September 1 and November 1st, check out the hay bale tour...you can find the information online simply by googling Shipshewanna Hay Bale Tour. Online maps are available, and you can also get info and maps at the Shipshwanna Visitors' Center. It's a fun way to spend about a half day to see many of the hay bales. Eldo is such a great driver. He organizes the order in which we follow the maps to make it a great day. (Sparky would be just all over the place, driving around, and not be as good about gas/mileage. So, a big thank you to Eldo/(Eldy)!

The 2025 Heritage Trail Quilt Gardens

"Creativity and Structure" in Goshen on Main Street

"The Sunburst" Abshire Park, Goshen

It's that time of year again, when Elkhart County plants its beautiful Heritage Trail quilt gardens all over the county. They start planting in May, opening May 30th, and the season runs through September 15th. This year there are 16 quilt gardens and 12 quilt murals. Each year that we have lived here, Sparky and her chauffeur (Eldo) make the rounds all around the county, following the handy dandy map that is provided online, which she prints out. See the map here: quilt gardens map  You can actuallly make it a fairly economical trip gas-wise, if you plan carefully!

One of Sparky's perennial favorites (haha, did you see what she did there?) is the garden at Das Essenhaus in Middlebury....This one is called "Burst of Joy"....If you drive to it in the middle of the day, or late in the day, you can stop by for a traditional Amish style home cooked meal. They have a fabulous bakery on premises as well.

Each quilt garden has a signpost telling what flowers are used and a vivid description of why the particular flowers were chosen. Unfortunately, Sparky cut off the vivid description on all the signs, focusing on what kind of flowers were used!

One of the most challenging gardens to view is the "Just Wingin' It" garden at the Elkhart Environmental Center. It's four birds and difficult to see the lines of distinction, like the birds' beaks for instance. But still, an amazing floral feat!

There are over a million blooms total in the gardens and gigantic quilt murals to see as well....

Bonneyville Mill Park mural

At Bonneyville Mill County Park, not only can you see one of the quilt murals on the big red barn, but you can see a beautiful dahlia garden just beginning to bloom in July....The garden was just beginning to show its colors when we visited.

Dahlia at Bonneyville Mill Park

Speaking of dahlias, this quilt garden at the Wellfield Botanic Gardens in Elkhart must have been planted a bit later than many, so it is just getting started. 

"Giant Dahlia"

Here are few more of Sparky's favorites--a trip to Shipshewanna to see this one at the Farmstead Inn, called "Goosetracks". 

"Goosetracks"

"Flying Swallows" at Ruthmere Mansion in Downtown Elkhart...

Can you see the "Sweetgum Leaf"  tree in downtown Bristol, IN?

It is really fun to take a road trip that lasts less than a day if you are in the area and want to see quite a few gardens in a short time span. 

And there are more gardens to be seen, these are just a few of Sparky's favorites. We highly recommend taking this road trip if you are in Elkhart County during the summer months. It's a wonderful trip down nostalgia lane to see the Amish farms, towns and small town living in northwest Indiana. There are great places to stop and shop and eat in each of the towns along the route--Elkhart, Middlebury, Goshen, Shipshewanna, Bristol, Wakarusa, and Nappanee. Hope you enjoyed today's quilt garden tour!

Hay, There!

 Did you know that culinary tourism is becoming more popular? The US boasts many unique drink and food trails all over the country. In all our travels, we have heard of the Kentucky bourbon trail, salsa trails (in Arizona), the Boise potato trail (Idaho), the margarita trail in New Mexico, (how did Sparky miss THAT one??!), a pork tenderloin trail in Indiana, (oh, yes, there is such a thing!), the North Carolina Oyster Trail, the Macon Bacon Trail in Georgia, the Buffalo Wings Trail in New York, and many many more....winery trails, whiskey trails, farm to table trails, a BBQ trail in Alabama AND the Beer City Air Trail in Grand Rapids, MI, home to over 40 craft breweries. (HOW did I miss that one?! wonders Eldo.) 

But if you aren't a foodie, and live in northwest Indiana like we do, you can check out another kind of trail, the 2024 Straw Hay Bale Art Trail in Shipshewanna and Middlebury, IN. Both towns are decorated up the wazoo with all kinds of all decorations--TONS of them! while you are driving around the towns looking for the hay bales, be sure to check out the beautiful and whimsical fall decorations in both towns.

"Be the 'I' in Shipsee"

It's part of the Autumn Adventure in the   fall in Shipshewanna and Middlebury, IN. Two towns, 24+ festivals and events in the area, and 30 giant hay bale pieces of art, depending on the eye of the beholder. On Sunday morning, we headed out to Middlebury and Shipshewanna to see how many we could find. It was a BEE-YOU-TI-FUL day and here was our first one:

"Thank you for your BEES-ness" says the sign where there were two of these cute bees in front of the shops at La Guana. There were MANY hay bales to be found in Shipshewanna. Quite a few creatures...."Henry the Panda"....

"Jack the Mouse and His Cheese" at the Heritage Creamery....

"Farmhouse Frederick the Steer" at the Farmstead Inn in Shipshewanna....

"Bacon the Pig" at the Ace Hardware store in Middlebury....

Some famous characters....Stuart and Bob of the Minions...(Sparky LOVES the Minions!)

Some popular fair food items...popcorn and pies....

"Life is Short, Eat the Pie!"

And a "Cheeseburger in Paradise"....

This little camper above, "The Mini Morton Camper" was out in front of the Morton House in Shipshewanna, right downtown. So cute! It was Sparky's favorite of all of them. There were many more. We saw about 26 out of the 30. It was fun driving all around Shipshewanna and Middlebury. They are small towns and the art bales were easy to find. You can find a map to all the hay bales artwork here: https://visitshipshewana.org/straw-bale-art/

We hope you enjoyed our little travel adventure this weekend! Thanks for stopping by to have a read....

                                    

                                    Sparky and Eldo

Charming Charlevoix and Shipshewanna

It's been a long time since Sparky saw her family, so in early August we went to Charlevoix, MI to a small family reunion. Charlevoix is a charming harbor town surrounded by three lakes--Lake Michigan, Lake Charlevoix, and Round Lake. It's a small town, population of about 2300 people, but it most certainly is charming and a lovely place to visit. We were only there for two days, so we missed lots of possibilities of things to do. It's only 48 miles to Mackinac Island, and 17 miles to Petosky. Had we had more time, we would have definitely explored a lot more of the area!

One of the coolest things about Charlevoix is the "Mushroom Houses".  They were a series of houses designed and built without blueprints by architect Earl Young, back in the early 1900's. The houses are affectionately nicknamed "gnome" houses or "hobbit" houses. If you look carefully, there is a gnome sitting in the second window to the right in the photo below.

They have signature cedar shake roofs, wide wavy eaves, exposed rafter tails, and are a horizontally designed build instead of vertical. They are designed to blend into the landscape as well. There are 26 residences in Charlevoix and 4 commercial properties in downtown Charlevoix that are mushroom houses. They are made of limestone, fieldstone, and boulders found in northwest Michigan. The nice thing about these houses is that you can see a great many of them clustered in parts of town and it is definitely a walkable tour.

One of the coolest ones is called the "Thatch House". The original walls were set in 1919. In 2013, Michael Sietz purchased the house and put his own spin on it. The roofing material is real thatch, designed to last for over 60 years. He renovated the inside to make 6 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, with three fireplaces and two living rooms. You can rent this house! No idea what that costs, but it's a year round vacation rental.

The Thatch House

 Several of them are near the hospital in a section of town called "Boulder Park". Here is a map showing the clusters...

In the short time we were there, Sparky took some daily walks to the Mt. McSauba Recreational area. There was a challenging 18 hole disc golf course there, dunes along Lake Michigan, a .7 loop hiking trail on a beautiful wooded trail that wound in and around the disc course and the beach. 

silly Eldo!

While we were there, we enjoyed eating at the Weathervane Restaurant, another Earl Young design, and watching the drawbridge go up about every half hour. The food was fantastic at the Weathervane Restaurant and the views of the channel with the boats and ships passing right outside the restaurant made dining there a pleasure.

We had a wonderful time with family...It was a lovely visit full of laughter and love. Here is Sparky's extended family....

Anything else you want to add Sparky? asks E. Well, while in Charlevoix, you could take a ferry to Beaver Island, the largest island in Lake Michigan, but we didn't have time to do that. For a small town, there a lot of places to visit  and some fine eating establishments as well. All too soon, we had to return home as Sparky needed to start school with an early first day long term subbing assignment.

Once back in Elkhart, it didn't take Sparky long before she made her semi-weekly trip to Shipshewanna, to get holiday crafting ideas, view sewing projects in her favorite fabric stores, and get a fresh homemade pretzel at JoJo's Pretzel shop. Look at how beautifully decorated Shipshewanna is for fall!

Here is a fun vignette of scarecrows....

Sparky's favorite....

And that's the latest from Sparky and Eldo...Happy fall, y'all! See you down the road.....