Brown County Indiana

June 11th was our 49th wedding anniversary. We decided to get away for a few days. We drove to Brown County Indiana east of Bloomington on the 10th.

On our way south, we stopped at Newfields in Indianapolis. This is the Indiana Museum of Art and grounds including a garden with the Lilly mansion. J. K. Lilly who bought the Oldfields property in 1932 was a descendant of the founder of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company and served on the board.

We ate lunch at the museum restaurant. It was very tasty and interesting. The lower level of the dining room looks out at a fountain.

Oldfields is a 22-room French chateau-style mansion built in 1910 surrounded by 26 acres of professionally designed landscape. The first floor which is open to tour is furnished in 1930's era style and includes a great hall (living room), dining room, game room, music room, and a library which once housed 35,000 books. 

The part of the grounds we explored were paved. There is a section overlooking the White River which is rugged and steep which we bypassed. The time to come to Newfields for the garden is spring when the tulips are in bloom. I was somewhat disappointed in the flowers we saw in June. 

The best part of the garden for me was the fountain.

There were some benches on which to sit including one in the shade. It was over 90 degrees and humid so the shade didn't help much, but it was better than the overhead sun. As I watched the patterns appear in the water, I could hear music accompanying them.

We stopped at the Beer Garden as we headed back to the museum, not for beer but for lemonade and rootbeer. 

There is a nature park with sculptures on the other side of the museum. They were doing some construction so not all of the art in the outdoors was accessible. There are bike paths along the banks of the White River that tie into other bike trails in the city. We did not drive over to this part of Newfields but headed for Nashville, Indiana where we had rented a cabin in the outskirts for two nights.

We were glad that Deer Dance cabin is air-conditioned. We would have spent more time outside on the porch if it were not so steamy hot. We did eat some left-over pizza for lunch sitting in the screened porch.

Thursday morning after eating breakfast at Abe Martin Lodge in Brown County State Park, we walked an accessible paved trail near the Park Office. 

Probably the most crowded time for this park is autumn when the rolling hills are ablaze with colorful foliage. We saw a group of kids that were about to set out on mountain bike trails. I am sure there were a few hikers. People also were camping out. We had rain Wednesday night into Thursday morning. The rain stopped while we were eating breakfast. Our other stop was at the nature center.

After showering and eating pizza at our cabin, we headed to Nashville. 

I discovered many of the shops were difficult for me to navigate since I was using my Rolloy rollator walker. Lots of steps. A few had ramps. The two-story complex with the flags had an elevator and a ramp so we visited 3 stores there. After eating sherbet and ice cream, we strolled to Lawrence Family Glass Blowers. (This shop only had a low curb to negotiate.) We bought a humming bird to celebrate our anniversary. 

They even created a glass loop with an opening for filament to be strung so the bird could hang on a stand (or in the shop from the ceiling).

It was a little cooler when we drove home on Friday June 12th. We stopped at Irion's Smokehouse in Ellwood for lunch. This turned out to be southeast a ways, almost to Marion. I ordered pulled pork and my husband ordered beef brisket. This is a small place with maybe 5 tables and counter seating under the front window. You place your order at the service counter. 

We ended up putting half of the sandwich meat in a take-home box. No way we were going to finish what they gave us.

"Artwork" on the walls and trashcan to keep you entertained.

We will eat the leftover meat for our Sunday night supper.

It was good to get away for a few days, but it is nice to be home. I think our traveling days are winding down.

What a Weekend It Has Been

 Saturday afternoon I noticed a man walking past our windows facing the backyard. He had no insignia on his clothing. He carried an orange cable. I saw that he had parked a black car in front of my house that had no markings of any kind.

He went to the "utilities" boxes in the berm separating us from the backyards of the next block of condos. He used a trenching tool to bury the Xfinity line from my next-door-neighbor's condo. 

Shortly after, when my husband turned on the television to watch a sporting event, we had no cable connection thus we had no TV. (Since we have a smart TV, he discovered later he could watch a few things on YouTube.) I picked up the phone to call to report the problem and there was no dial tone, and it said no line on the phone window. 

Using a cell phone, we left a message to be passed on to the maintenance staff. Being a weekend, one has to go through the healthcare staff. We heard nothing back. Sunday night my husband emailed a message to the lady who oversees the maintenance requests. We heard from her this morning (Monday) that the request had been passed on. 

About 9 a.m. this morning two workers tried fixing the cut lines. It took them over 5 hours to restore the landline phone service to our condo quadplex. Around 3 p.m. they restored our television connection. We seem to be the only unit in the quadplex that lost TV service.  

This morning when my husband tried to view some news on the computer and check email, he could not. We had no internet connection. Since we had internet all yesterday, I guessed this was not related to the other problems but coincidental. I called my provider KC Connect this morning.

The retirement community worker was standing in our living room making sure our TV was OK when a truck from KC Connect arrived. Turns out the line going into our condo had been chewed through by an animal. It didn't take very long for the two internet company men to fix it. 

Finally, we are back to normal: we can view television, use the internet, and use the landline telephone. Feels good to be connected to the modern world once again in our routine way. We did check email on cell phones so we were not totally cut off.

Our home technology stopping at the same time. Made for a quiet weekend. I did get caught up on some magazine reading. Modern technology is great until it stops working, and you realize how much you use it. 

Fort Wayne Japanese Restaurant

 

Today I had a therapy session in Fort Wayne. My husband drove us there. There is a large lobby as you enter the building with a less busy section around the corner with comfortable chairs. Much quieter and less crowded than the PT waiting room. I finished early and decided to step over to this quiet lobby area to phone my husband. There he was! He had discovered this area also. He was starting to doze off. 

We had lunch at Asakusa Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar just north of Costco. We had eaten here once before but at least a year ago. 

There is a separate large menu for choosing sushi. You fill out an order on a paper left at the table which is taken to the bar so the sushi can be made fresh. We know very little about sushi other than California rolls; we did not order any. Instead, I ordered teriyaki chicken, and my husband ordered a bento box with tempura vegetables, Katsu chicken (panko crusted and fried), and shrimp. We knew our orders included rice, but we did not know broccoli and carrots were part of it. My teriyaki mentioned that the chicken would be on a bed of mushrooms, but my husband also ended up with mushrooms in his box.

The lunch orders included soup. The soup also had mushrooms. They must have a standing order for mushrooms from somebody.

When the waiter came to take away the empty soup bowls, he asked how we liked it. I told him I liked it very much and asked what it was called. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Clear soup". We joined him in a laugh. Now that I am home and look at the menu on the website, it does say clear soup; but it also describes it as fish-based broth with tempura crumbs, mushrooms, and green onions. 

The food was good, but like much Japanese restaurant food it was high in sodium. We were busy gulping down water. 

We ended our outing with a stop at Costco. Busy, busy, busy! We did snag a parking spot not too far from the entrance. I dozed off some in the car on the way home. Now, I do not need an afternoon nap. 

A Little Exercise

 

I spent about an hour this morning weeding the plot next to my patio. Not strenuous exercise, but I did work up a sweat since I was in full sun.

Yesterday I took the Rolloy for a walk again. I went further this time. I enjoyed the beautiful peonies in bloom over by the Community Center. I sat down in the shade of a fir tree as I continued down the block. A rabbit crossed over right behind me, about 3 feet away. When I tried to get out my phone so I could take a photo, the rabbit hopped around the corner of a building. 

We are in for a stretch of really nice weather through next week. I hope to spend some time sitting in my rocker on the front porch enjoying the geraniums and the hanging pot of fuchsia.  No exercise in that, but it will make me happy.