On Day 2 we drove to Lake Itasca State Park, where the Mississippi River begins, and walked across the river. After exploring more of the state park, we drove the winding Great River Road back to Bemidji, crossing back-and-forth over the river dozens of times.
Small town festivals have a charm that you don’t see with bigger city festivals. It seems everyone knows everyone else and the festivals are an all-town party. I had the pleasure of visiting historic Newburgh, Indiana, a town of about 3,300 people, during their Ghostly Stroll Halloween Parade and Harvest Festival in the Park. It was actually the second weekend of the Newburgh Halloween celebration, which began the prior week with Ghostly Walks.
We recently spent a few days in Shipshewana, the heart of Indiana’s Amish country and the state’s most popular tourist destination. During the day we shopped, went to plays, visited museums, toured the Amish countryside, and filled up on Amish country cooking. At night we retreated to the Blue Gate Garden Inn, just a few blocks from downtown Shipshewana. With amenities and activities that go beyond what you’d expect at a mid-range hotel, the Blue Gate Garden Inn made it easy to relax after a busy day.
It’s a bit eerie, a sort of ghost town in Richmond, Indiana. From the late 1800s to the Great Depression, the Whitewater Valley gorge was home to the Starr Piano Company. Its subsidiary, Gennett Records, recorded great jazz artists, including Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. Today, a shell of the piano factory, a smokestack, and a couple of graffiti covered structures are all that remain. Yet, it isn’t completely dead. The property is now the Whitewater Valley Gorge Park. The lone remaining building is used as an events center, and the Gennett Records Walk of Fame is embedded into the walking/biking path that runs through the park. The Gennett Records Walk of Fame pays tribute to the jazz, country, big band, blues, and gospel greats who recorded here.
Located on a former farm on the outskirts of St. Charles, a little more than an hour from Chicago, Pheasant Run was the place to go in the 1960s. Folks from all over the Chicago area visited the 250-acre resort for a weekend of golf, dinner theater entertainment, and relaxation. Oddly, neither my husband nor I experienced Pheasant Run until a couple of weeks ago. We discovered that more than 50 years after it first opened, Pheasant Run Resort is still a fun destination, whether you visit as a couple, a family, or a group.
