SHIPSHEWANA FLEA MARKET

This past Tuesday the ladies all loaded up in the church van and took our annual trip to the Shipshewana flea market, in Shipshewana, IN. This was the third year in a row that we have gone. If you've never been there, you simply must plan a trip sometime! It was a blast. It is in the heart of Amish country. So cinnamon rolls, homemade bread, horse & buggies and bonnets were in abundance.

We arrived about 10:00 a.m. and the parking lot was already 3/4 full. We shopped for 2 hours and barely put a dent in the exhibits there.



Can you believe what some people will do for a buck? ROFLOL

We left there at Noon, and headed to the Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury, IN. It was only about an 8 mile drive.



This is my beautiful daughter in law, Monica (the one in the tent! LOL) and my beautiful daughter, Hannah. I was so sad that my oldest daughter, Sarah couldn't get off work for the trip.



This is our daughter Hannah with our Summer guest, Brittany.

The food at the Essenhaus is wonderful but WAY overpriced, especially if you get the family style. Granted, it is all you can eat. But ladies don't usually eat much more than a plate full. Since we didn't order family style, we could not make a reservation, so we had to put our name on the list and just wait for a table (even though there were 16 of us, they still wouldn't make a reservation for us). We had to wait nearly an hour on a table. It gave us a little time to shop around there though. We all decided the price was too high for family style, so we ordered off the menu. Many of us still got the broasted chicken that they are so famous for, but we didn't have to pay $15 for it! LOL Baptists do love to eat, but we're cheap! LOL Normally we go to the Blue Gate restaurant right there in town. It basically has the same food that the Essenhaus does, but it's closer.

We all decided that next year, we are going try eating right there at the market. There were 2 or 3 huge BBQ outfits there, selling BBQ chicken and it smelled heavenly!
We stayed until they close at 5 and then headed out. It was a HOT day to ride in a van with no AC. Before too long (20 min) the ladies were begging to stop for drinks. Well somehow that degraded into these HUGE waffle cones filled with ice cream! Now granted I DID stop at an ice cream shop, but it was to get "drinks!" *hehe*
We left there, happily licking our ice cream cones and got an hour down the road and realized that none of us had bought any water! So once again we pulled off to get drinks! LOL

On the way home we laughed and chatted and were already talking about the upcoming annual Ladies rafting trip. We go rafting on the Pere Marquette river in Baldwin all day and then we head to The Shack Bed & Breakfast to spend the night. That trip will probably take place in August sometime. July has filled up already!
Our rafting trip gets down right adventurous! Now, it's NOT an adventurous river, but the ladies in the rafts MAKE it so! They were already picking out their rafting buddies for the trip and breathing out warnings and threatenings! LOL It should be a fun time.
I told them I wasn't taking them rafting unless they all sign a contract stating that they promise to be NICE to their Pastor's wife this time (and NOT try to drown me!). LOL

We made it home about 8:00 p.m., tired from a busy day of WALKING and shopping.
We had a wonderful time of fellowship together.