Summer Road Trips!

As much as we love exploring Chicago in the summer, sometimes it's nice to take a break from the city. We try to take at least one road trip per month in the summer, so we'll tell you about two of them that we've taken so far!

Road Trip 1: Strawberry Picking in Hobart, Indiana

Wait a minute, Kathleen. That is not a picture of strawberries or picking. That is a picture of two sand crabs.

Well.... strawberry season lasts about 90 seconds in the midwest. I was stalking this strawberry farm and market in Hobart, Indiana to make sure we got to pick strawberries this year.
I thought we had picked the perfect day! The website assured me that there were strawberries.

But their Facebook page told a different story. At 5am (this is not an exaggeration) the day we were supposed to go they announced that strawberry picking was DONE.

Surely there had to be some strawberries left, right? We decided to chance it and made the 45 minute drive. If strawberries were done for the season, maybe blueberries were ready?

All guesses were wrong.

Me: So can we pick some strawberries?
Cashier with better things to do: No, that ended yesterday.
Me: What about blueberries?
CWBTTD (nonplused): That doesn't start until tomorrow.
Me: So you're telling me there's nothing we can PAY YOU TO PICK IN YOUR FIELDS today?
CWBTTD (missing the irony): No.

Turns out they sell pies, though. So we'll count it as a win. And it was a good pie.
Not as good as this one that I made, though:

Store-bought strawberries and blueberries. How remedial. 2/10

So we went to the Indiana Dunes, instead! We were just a few miles from Ogden Dunes and played in the sand and the (considerably larger than Chicago-side) waves for three and a half hours!

Some of us were not prepared for such a long day on the beach and now we will have very awkward tan lines and splotches (one in the shape of a hand) on our backs for the rest of the summer and possibly for life. There will be no photos of this atrocity.

Road Trip 2: Blueberry Picking in Indiana (no fooling this time)

Determined to make up for my fruit fail, I made absolutely, 100% certain that I could take the kids to the Blueberry Ranch in Mishawaka, Indiana that we've gone to the last four years running.
Success!!

We picked 5.65 pounds this year, a new record! We froze half of them for smoothies and then just pretty much shoved the rest into our mouths by the fistful. I'm telling you, dear reader, midwest blueberries are just the best I've ever had. Sweet, bursting with juice, and as big as a quarter, we are very spoiled.

The fun thing about this annual trip is that it is part of a whole ritual. We drive to the blueberry ranch, then we picnic at Central Park in Mishawaka, and then end the day at Let's Spoon for frozen yogurt in  South Bend before heading back to the city tired and sweaty, but full of antioxidants.

Central Park is next to the river and we spent several hours wading and picking up shells.
Side anecdote: For anyone familiar with the Little Dragans' obsession with dead animals, you will not be surprised to learn that we found a huge floating dead trout and this became the subject of MUCH conjecture, prodding, and admonishments to NOT TOUCH THE DEAD FISH. How many times should you have to tell children not to touch dead animals that they find? Am I the only mother with this problem??

And now, back by popular demand.... BONUS BYTES WITH B!!

Hi guys welcome back to Dragan Tales. I’m B and today I’m going to tell you about our road trip. First I would like to give a special thanks to some friends who went blueberry picking with us. Thank you so much!!

So now let's get to the blog.

We go blueberry picking in Indiana about every summer and we usually take some friends along with us and then go to a park with our lunch and then to “let’s spoon” a frozen yogurt place that's really good!  Let's hear from Little Guy. Little Guy says that let’s spoon is the best frozen yogurt place and he also likes Josis!! [Mom's note: Josi's is in Portage Park and we will tell you all about it in the next post! Great foreshadowing, B!]

Now it's your turn to go to Indiana and experience all these fun things!!!!!!!

See you next time!!!!!!!!!