I couldn't have chosen a better place to bring fresh picked blueberries (thank you KOA) than to my sister, who whipped up amazing blueberry cobbler followed by bb pancakes for breakfast the next day. Sweet!
Our final day in Valpo was spent somewhat leisurely. Mike and I took two of the nieces (Audrey and Lydia) to the driving range, and oh what a training facility!
They have no idea how lucky they are to have The First Tee practically in their backyard. Brave souls go to the range when hunting season is not yet open.
I suppose the little guy knew he would be perfectly safe if he stood near one of the pins.
No sooner had we filled our buckets with balls, the skies opened up and poured rain on our heads.
The great thing about this place is all we had to do was back up a few yards and we could keep right on hitting through the storm.
Check out Audrey's form! So what if the ball is still there! I'm not sure that the girls caught my bug, but a few lessons (not by their father) may help them become infected with my disease. They were good sports, humoring Mike and I as we attempted to show them a few things we think we know...like, if it feels uncomfortable and very unnatural, then you're doing it right. Creekside was a terrific training facility with the bunkers, chipping, pitching, and indoor/outdoor range. We enjoyed our time with the girls and the much needed practice for us.
After driving around in search of the freshest fish for a while, we went back to their home so the girls could regale us with their musical talents.
First they jammed Wii style...
Then the real concerts began. I guess if golf isn't your thing, having a musical talent bone is pretty cool too!
I tried my best to get Emma to play her tuba with no success. She owes us an oom pa pa concert the next time through!
Mike helped with the dinner doing the fish portion of this midwestern style meal (salmon & bratwurst?) and had plenty of coaching from inside and out...
We sat down to an unusual but fantastic meal with the whole gang as well as Brian's sister and her hubby. The locally grown Indiana corn was undoubtedly the best Mike and I have ever tasted.
Already a full day, it was then time for a rousing game of Dice, which turned into the old sisters against the young sisters.
Despite his enthusiasm, Mike finished in 9th place. We voted Brian the neatest scorekeeper and Ken the happiest player. As for the battle of the sisters, in the end, it was the sister-in-law, Lori, who dusted us all with her conservative (and lucky) strategy.
What a fun night and a perfect end to our time in Valparaiso. We enjoyed having a great big house to hang around, a yard for Peanut, delicious home cooking, and the company of family we love who actually love us back. Thank you all!
This morning we battled our way through Chicago on our way to visit Mike's nephew, Andy in Milwaukee.
There is no easy way or time of day to make this drive but we did it and are now set up at our new home du jour-- the Wisconsin State fairgrounds in Milwaukee which also doubles as an RV park. The fair begins next week but we're already enjoying the construction and sound checks going on outside our door (right!).
We're looking forward to a good time this weekend with Andy and to meeting his girlfriend. As for golf, we've had a couple of suggestions for Milwaukee, Brown Deer and Erin Hills. We thought at $82 each Brown Deer was way too expensive until we called Erin Hills where it is double that! And the interesting thing about Erin Hills is there are no carts allowed (motorized or pull). You must carry your bag or hire a caddie to do so for you. When we leave Milwaukee on Monday we're on our way to Kohler where we will be dropping some serious coin for golf so we opted to play an inexpensive muni course near the fairgrounds tomorrow (Currie). Thanks anyway, Andrew and Andy, for the ideas!
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