Out of Our Rut

 As the summer moves along, we decided we needed to change our routine a bit, a vacation of sorts.

Friday we went to the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend. The weather was beautiful. Everybody and his cousin decided to enjoy the nice day at the zoo. The main parking lot was full. My husband found a spot about two blocks away next to the adjacent park but not near the zoo entrance. He said there were only two other parking places and that people that came after him were parking in front of houses on the streets in the neighborhood next to the zoo. He had dropped me off at the entrance. I have a handicap parking placard now, but all of the designated places were full already. 

The zoo is relatively small. It has been upgraded in recent years.

It is laid out by continent, with South and North America combined. There is no Europe. 

One of the reasons I picked this zoo is because they have electric carts that you can rent.

You can feed the giraffes lettuce for a $3 fee, but they have other feeding options so that they sometimes ignore the people wanting to feed them.

Helen accommodated them. I overheard her name spoken by the zookeeper. I did not feed her, but they allowed folks like me to come closer to take photos. 

The lines were long for the train, feeding the giraffes, and especially for people buying lunch at the Lodge. 

The leopard was awake and alert unlike the lions. We only got a glimpse of the tiger as he chose to enter his "den" shortly after we arrived. 

We spent about 3 hours there (waited about 20 minutes to get food). 

Saturday we drove to nearby Columbia City and had breakfast at Pickles Cafe. The decor is garage sale hodgepodge.

Since Pickles sits right on the courthouse square, we walked around the Farmers' Market a bit. I was not feeling up to much shopping.

I bought a bouquet of flowers put together by 2-year-old twin boys re their father who owned the booth. He showed me video on his phone. They were not giggling nor bickering. They were quite serious about their job with colorful results.

With our lovely weather continuing today, we attended the boat-in worship at Oakwood Resort on Lake Wawasee. Attendance was down compared to past summers. We had to take a round-about route through the farm fields and country because Highway 13 has construction between North Webster and Syracuse. I wonder if that affected the turnout. 

We also did a jigsaw puzzle this weekend. My husband's sister has loads of puzzles and gave us some. 

Now we are heading out to Texas Roadhouse. I especially like their pork chops and tossed salad and rolls. Makes me hungry just thinking about them. It has been a while since we ate there.

Back to our routines next week except also a few medical appointments in Fort Wayne. It is going to warm up more next week, too. Glad we enjoyed the beautiful weather while we could. The freedom of retirement.

Pickles Cafe

 We ate breakfast yesterday (Friday) in Columbia City at Pickles Cafe.

It is located across from the county courthouse. On Saturdays there is a farmers market around that building; we will go back in the fall to shop. Probably we will eat breakfast at Pickles also. It is about a 25- minute drive for us.

The decor is hodgepodge. My husband commented that except for the metal window counter stools, there were no two chairs alike in the cafe. The dishes, silverware, and mugs are also an assortment. 

We had been here previously for lunch, but this was the first time for breakfast. The hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. except currently on Wednesdays they reopen for dinner. They are closed on Sundays.

There are specials on a blackboard. The back side of the menu also lists different omelets. Notice the gimmick of pickles coming with your meal. Not the kind of pickles I like and very strange with French toast casserole. The casserole changes periodically. Right now, it has blueberries, strawberries, a few blackberries.

My husband ordered Morning Mingle which came with biscuits with gravy and a portion of the French toast casserole. The gravy had lots of chunks of meat, but he said it was too thick. 

It was a cool morning or we might have sat outside since the streets were not yet busy at 8 a.m.

Out and About

 This morning we headed northeast to a woodworking sale in Churubusco. Because so many craft shows have been canceled due to the corona virus, Fred Inman organized a sale at his home/workshop as well as at several other studios including pottery.

It was a pleasant drive through the country to the sale site. 

Mr. Inman's property had a nice pond.

He turns on the lathe extremely large pieces compared to what my husband can turn on his mini-lathe.

His wife does scrollsaw work. Two other ladies (Shelly Bice and Doris Geiger if I remember right) also had items for sale.

Mrs. Bice shares shop space with Mr. Inman. She was demonstrating turning. She sometimes teaches classes at Oak Tree woodworking supply shop; right now those classes are not allowed because of social distancing problems.

Pieces in progress. She does a lot of segmented turning.

When we finished browsing, we headed for Columbia City. Around two sides of the courthouse square a farmers' market was taking place. We were unaware of that until we arrived. Our purpose was to eat lunch in Columbia City.

We bought this blueberry and lemon zest jam to try. The label says blueberry zing jam.

Pickles Cafe formerly was situated near Fort Wayne. It relocated this year to Columbia City.

It sits across the street from the courthouse.

It's decor is eclectic; few matching chairs or tables, no matching plates nor silverware.

We had pink lemonade.

The grilled ham and cheese sandwich came with a light applesauce/butter to spread on the toasted bread or use as a dip for the chips. My husband and I had the 1/2 sandwich, cup of soup combo. The thick spicy tomato and artichoke soup was interesting. We ended the meal by splitting a piece of pumpkin pie. The crust was not pastry, but crushed walnuts baked into a pie shell. Topped with whipped cream, it was delicious.

It is quite warm today (soon to be near 80) but very windy. A beautiful but atypically warm October day.