End of 1st Year Getaway!

In celebration of the end of Jim's 1st year of doctoral studies (Yee-Haw), we went for 3 days/2 nights down into southern Indiana, land of rolling hills and farms, close to the Ohio River. On the way we stopped for a picnic at a state park that also has a "Pioneer Village". Really cool! The mill is still functioning and we even purchased some cornmeal ground that day.

Of course we had to take a photo outside the house of Pottery.

We stayed at Rose Wind Farm, a bed & breakfast cottage in a quiet farming area, and located less than 2 hours from Bloomington. It was a beautiful place and a great cottage set-up. Lots of birds, beautiful flowers, and an outdoor patio to just relax on for hours. I got a bit confused one day and forgot where we were...is this the Western Cape? No...it's Indiana. Jim even read some fiction of his choice. Now you know it's summer break.

Both nights we toasted marshmallows. How could we resist?! We decided that whenever we have a house with a backyard we must get one of these enclosed fire pits.

This is the barn on the Farm property.

And a cool tractor at a local family restaurant where we had a fried chicken dinner. Sorry, Jim, I got your head in a halo.

The wine industry has been growing rapidly in Indiana in the last decade, and one farm (Huber's) was a five-minute drive from the cottage. Not only do they have a large selection of estate wines, they also have vegetable and fruit farms in season. Apparently in October they get upwards of 10,000 visitors a day.

Jim got chatting for a long time with the employee who was giving him tastes, discussing cultivars and residual sugars. Very interesting. And really good wines, says Jim. (Jul agonizingly had to stay away of course...) For comparison's sake to previous posts from South Africa, here is the outside of the winery's tasting room (a barn).

Just to make us even more "Cape-homesick", it was a very windy day. Ahhh.

Now it's Monday and back to the work and school schedule. Jim starts up a summer class today, and continues working 20 hours/week. I have 3 weeks left of my nanny job before public schools are out. Baby Gies (23 weeks) is doing well, kicking lots, and hopefully will be starting to gain big weight in the upcoming weeks.