After a leisurely breakfast at Hemingway Bistro, we headed back into Chicago and went straight to the Shedd Aquarium. It was raining as we stood in line for about 45 minutes to get into the aquarium. The rain was gentle and kept the heat at bay, but we were anxious to see what was inside! Rainy and I both liked the frogs the best. When Rainy was little, she was fascinated with frogs. I think it was her Aunt Janis that gave her a set of wooden poison dart frogs and the paints needed to render them as they actually looked. We were thrilled to see those same poison dart frogs at the aquarium! In reality, other than the frogs, we were somewhat disappointed with the overall aquarium. Rainy said the Seattle Aquarium was much better. After the aquarium, we headed out of Chicago towards Indiana. (Julie)
Leaving East out of Chicago and in to Indiana, our drive was relatively uneventful. While doing some searching online I found that there are inexpensive b&b's all over Amish country around Middlebury in Northern Indiana. I found the most affordable and booked a room.
It didn't take us long to come upon an obviously Amish owned restaurant (more like dining complex) called Das Deutch Essenhaus. This place was nuts. It could seat 1,200! They served the epitome of country dining. It would be impossible to eat vegetarian there... apparently the Amish really like their meat. I had a turkey dinner and my mom had fried chicken. There was home-made peanut butter on the table made with karo syrup and marshmallow cream!
We were driving Northwest into something very nasty looking and cars were roaring past me in no passing zones. I told my mom she should check the weather on my phone and sure enough there were severe thunderstorm, flash flood, and tornado warnings! The storm was set to hit our area in 15 minutes!
We got to the place we were staying just in time. When we got inside the Patchwork Quilt Inn, we were told not to go back outside. Our first stop on the introductory tour was the path to the basement, where it was likely we would end up. We were shown to our room and the lights flickered three times before the power was out for good. We sat at the window and watched the greenish/orange sky and the trees being pummeled by the wind. Our host came in a few minutes later and told us everyone needed to come to the dining room because a tornado had touched down in the neighboring town 5 miles away. To be honest, I was pretty excited because I have had a fascination with tornados since I was a kid. We waited for more news while everyone chatted excitedly. The storm passed relatively quickly and we were safe to go back to our room.
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