Back home again in Indiana. It's always exciting to be back in Indiana, because no one can deny that being 'home' is truly the most comforting feeling. This visit was exceptionally exciting because it meant I got to show Dave the home I've been referencing for 2 years. I tried to warn him that it wasn't a particularly exciting destination, but that all the same the people make it what it is. It helped as well that we chose to go to Indiana in October, when the leaves were on point, and made for the most fabulous backdrop ever. I love autumn in the Midwest, it's simply the best. The visit entailed many exciting things, mostly lots of hanging out and Dave getting to know my best of friends, but also some pretty cool things, like presenting a lecture in Katherine's Spanish class, lots of good hikes, lots of good food, apple orchard visits, jack-o-lantern carving, Halloween festivities, a barn bash, running coupled with a half marathon, and a quick trip to Kentucky.
I appreciated so much that not only Dave got to meet my friends, but also that my friends got to meet Dave. Everyone gave Dave raving reviews, naturally, and I think the feeling was mutual on Dave's part as well. It's always a tiny bit nerve wracking when you start dating someone new wondering whether or not they will jive with your friends, but it's no shocker that Dave has adopted my friends as his own, and that makes my heart so happy. I will let the pictures below do most of the talking for the month, but I can't say enough how calming this visit was for me. I feel incredibly lucky to have the friends/family that I do, and to have Dave feel comfortable with them all is perfect.
So the first photo deserves a tiny bit of explanation. Katherine is a high school Spanish teacher in Indianapolis, and she asked Dave and me if we would be willing to give a presentation about Spain to her kids. I begrudgingly went to Katherine's classroom (only because I'm hesitant with my Spanish abilities), but Dave was super excited about the excuse to speak Spanish. To be honest, it was a really fun excuse for us to get to go back through both of our collections of photos of Spain, and the kids really loved our presentation! We got allllllllll kinds of questions about Spain, and Europe in general, and it made for a day we'll never forget! The questions ranged from ebola, drugs, food, language, music and more. Katherine appreciated opening her kids' eyes to the fact that a person from Indiana can go as 'far' as Spain, and that conversely, a person all the way from England can come all the way to Indiana. All in all, it was one of our favorite days spent in Indiana.
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| Miss Jessica and Mr. Dave talk about Spain! |
In lieu of the previous picture, it's appropriate to have the following photo second. The wonders of the internet are pretty cool, because my high school Spanish teacher realized via my LinkedIn profile that I was living in Spain this past spring, and she was really eager to chat with me about my time there the next time I found myself in Indiana. I got ahold of Señora Whicker and it worked out quite nicely that Katherine, Dave, me, and Mrs. Whicker were all able to meet for lunch one day. It was really cool getting to catch up with an old teacher, something I've never done before, and she was absolutely beaming listening to all of our stories.
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| Out to lunch at El Meson, obviously. |
The same day we met up with Mrs. Whicker, we also took 2 of Katherine's 3 sisters out for a hike at McCormick's Creek State Park. It was a beautiful fall afternoon, and it was really cool to spend a day with Katherine's sisters because they are, after all, like a second family to me.
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| Lovely fall colors! |
Katherine had 2 weeks off of school while we were in Indy, and that was really nice so that we could take some day hikes. We went to Shades State Park one day with Craig and Katherine, and it was another gorgeous day of hiking amongst Indiana's autumnal colors. It was cool because during December, when I visited last, Katherine and I took a photo on a certain rock, that 10 months later has already shown erosion.
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| Top - December, Bottom - October |
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| Swing talk! |
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| Friends taking in the view. |
The apple orchard near my hometown is my happiest of places in the whole wide world. Something about going to Anderson Orchard is calming every single time. I don't know how to put words on quite the feeling I get from being there, but it's pure magic. I guess it's that it encapsulates exactly what autumn should look like, feel like, and taste like to me. The colors on the trees, the rows of ripe apples to get lost in, the pumpkin patch to wander about in, the raspberry patch to frolic in, the lake to relax beside, and the farm shop to buy everything good.. apple dumplings, apple cider slushies, apple turnovers, apple butter and more. Anyways, I was beyond thrilled to show Dave the infamous apple orchard, and we went multiple times throughout the month. The best time was when we went to pick out our pumpkins for the night of jack-o-lantern carving, but really every time is the best time.
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| Best friends, apple slushies, and apple trees.. perfection. |
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| So many gourds. |
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| How do you pick just one? |
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| He was excited to find his! |
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| Supposedly there is more than corn in Indiana... |
It then only makes sense to brag about our jack-o-lanterns that we carved..
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| Katherine, Dave, me + Lucas, another combined effort, and Craig's |
The above pumpkin carved into a deer was actually Katherine's, Dave's and my creation from a 'barn bash' that was held at Katherine's parents' friends house. I was really excited to spend time with the Schmidt's as they were something of second parents growing up. So it was pretty cool to get invited to the barn bash out in Danville, Indiana. The barn bash included a soup contest, a jack-o-lantern contest, and some other shenanigans. Katherine's vegan chili unfortunately didn't win the soup contest, nor did our pumpkin win the jack-o-lantern contest, but a good time was had all around. I think we mostly enjoyed this particular evening because it was followed by ghost hunting around rural Indiana's covered bridges. While no ghosts were found, it really fueled the Halloween spirit.
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| Barn bash! |
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| A deer complete with horns. |
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| There was a competition to see who could get a nail flush into a wooden stump with a sledgehammer first, I lost. |
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| Dave was also introduced to the horribly awful game of beer pong. |
There was also a weekend that my mom and dad came out to visit everyone, and that was really nice. We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the perfect weather, and my grandfather even drove down from Chicago for a day to see everybody. Walks along the canal in downtown Indianapolis, a visit to the Indianapolis Museum of Art's gardens, and plenty of good food were enjoyed by all.
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| Walks along the canal with all of the Lati |
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| Funky bones at the IMA's 500 acres! |
I also took a day trip to Chicago to try on my much anticipated bridesmaid's dress for Trista's wedding, and had a lovely run along Lake Michigan while I was there. I was all giddy to be in Chicago and it got me excited to be up there for November, which I will eventually get around to blogging about...
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| The Chicago skyline is easily my favorite. |
Then there was Dave's and my trip to Kentucky to visit Liz, who is planning a wedding for May! We were really excited to go to Kentucky because Liz's sister Emily owns a lake house and it was a perfect excuse for a trip away for Liz being on fall break, as she is a teacher, and damn am I learning how exhausting that job is. So Liz, Ryan (her fiance), Gabe (her son), Dave and me loaded up in the car and we headed to Nolin Lake. Coincidentally, Nolin Lake is super close to Mammoth Caves National Park, a place I hadn't been since I was a kid, so we used the perfect opportunity to visit a place most of us hadn't been to since we were kids, and that Dave and Gabe had never been to! Unfortunately you can only take guided tours through the cave, but that was still pretty cool because then you get to learn about all kinds of information you would have otherwise never known. After spelunking for a while, we decided to head back to the Lake House to have a really relaxing evening of good food and drinks around the bonfire.
The following morning we woke up and after we slowly enjoyed our coffee/tea, we got the house tidy for our departure and headed back towards Louisville. Of note is the fact that anywhere outside of Louisville - as far as Kentucky goes - is super conservative and Dave was really taken by all of the sign postings, so the drive was quite entertaining. We then decided to accompany Liz and Ryan as they went to view a potential wedding venue, and we promise it had nothing to do with the fact that it was at a bourbon distillery ;-) Anyways, we made our way to Frankfort, Kentucky to visit the grounds of the Buffalo Trace Distillery. I am pretty confident that we all fell in love with the space instantly. The grounds were impeccable, and just what any person would want for an outdoor wedding. After the wedding coordinator showed us around we naturally had to partake in a bourbon tasting, and I think I'm more interested in the Bailey's esque version of Buffalo Trace, but all the same it was really cool to do a tasting. Post Buffalo Trace, Dave and I headed back to Indy.
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| Gabe, Liz and me admiring the caves. |
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| Caves are so insane! |
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| The dock at sunset. |
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| You best behave. |
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| Barrels of bourbon! |
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| Dave and myself with our bourbon samples - thumbs up for that! |
Other things of note include a day hike in Jackson Washington State Forest in southern Indiana, a place I had never been to before. I was really excited for a day trip down there during Craig's fall break. (It seemed that everyone's fall breaks fell at different times, but at least it seemed everyone had one for us to take advantage of!)
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| Autumnal views are perfect. |
Another noteworthy day was spent at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. While this may sound kind of bizarre, the fact of the matter is that you get the most insane views of Indianapolis from the cemetery because it's the highest point in Marion County, and seriously the leaves were just magic. Thankfully Dave's camera does these things justice.
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| I love that skyline a great deal. |
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| One of my favorite photos Dave's ever taken. |
And then there was just lots of hanging out as mentioned above; this included making lots and lots of good vegan food. Katherine is vegan, which is good for both Dave and me because we would both love to push ourselves to be vegan, and spending a month with one will do that to you. Vegan 'buffalo wings' were my favorite new meal, while Dave's new favorite is tator tots..
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| If you didn't know any better you would guess those were buffalo wings, I know you would! |
And as I said earlier as well, the month was filled lots with Dave meeting all of my friends. I was so pleased that Casey was in town from Florida both selfishly, and so that Dave could meet her since she'd stayed in his casa in Spain after all :-) And there was lots of hangage with everyone else as well. Whenever possible hanging out with friends entailed watching a scary movie, because well, that's what one does during October if they care about Halloween as passionately as I do.
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| Carving jack-o-lanterns with Lucas, Craig, Casey, Katherine and Dave whilst watching a scary movie, duh! |
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| Lucas and Soda, just chilling in Alex's car. |
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| Watching the Half Step Sisters play a gig! Julia and Mark are some of my favorite people, and their music is beyond phenomenal! |
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| After a night at the jazz kitchen with Katherine, Elloree and Lucas. |
Other new friends included Dave befriending Katherine's kitten, Winnie, pretty fierce. I am still telling myself that I shouldn't feel threatened by his adoration for her.
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| Winnie 1 |
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| Winnie 2 |
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| Winnie 3 |
Last, but certainly not least, comes HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!! While Halloween was technically on a Friday night, and therefore a realistic day to have a Halloween party, I was beyond thrilled that my friends chose to have their Halloween party on Saturday this particular year. Why? Because I mistakenly chose to run a half marathon on November 1, otherwise impairing my ability to fully enjoy myself if celebrating Halloween on October 31. Thankfully, this was rendered a non-issue, and I was able to both run a half marathon and then turn around my appearance to celebrate Halloween that same evening.
I was admittedly really excited to run another official half marathon, since my experience in Helsinki last year wasn't disappointing per se, but wasn't met with meeting my under 2 hour goal as previously hoped for. I was really excited as well to run a race with a friend that I was able to train with. Running my full in March was a really rewarding experience with Casey, but at the same time it was a bummer that we weren't able to train together. Anyways, a large part of my month in Indiana was spent with Julia training for our race. I have never spent so much time with a friend while running since high school, and I forgot how great of an experience it is to run with friends. You get to spend valuable time with each other not distracted by your phone or anything else for that matter, and I will forever cherish that time with Julia.
The day of the race finally came, and my friend from high school, Brittney was also running the race. Britney and I haven't been the best at staying in touch post high school, but she is real great about picking up where we left off whenever I see her. She saw via the internet that I was also running the Monumental 1/2 Marathon, and offered to run it with me. Brittney and I first met via cross country in high school and she is a naturally gifted runner who continued to run in college, and excelled immensely. She said that if I wanted she would pace me out for my 1/2 to finally break 2 hours, and that she did!!!!! I was so excited crossing that finish line, and after the sensation to puke subsided I was so grateful to Brittney. Had I not had her to pace me I know I couldn't have done it otherwise, I was exhausted! I can finally check this goal off of my bucket list, yay! Humble as she may be, I was super excited to have such a talented runner by my side!
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| Me, Julia, and her sister Elizabeth geared up before the race! |
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| Brittney coasting, and me dragging my feet. |
And then after recharging at Taco & Burrito, Indianapolis' best Mexican restaurant hands down, we transformed ourselves for an evening of raging. It was so cool to get to see Alex play a gig after being on hiatus for so long. Alex, Craig, and their friend Jason played a horror punk gig in the Waterfill's barn, and that was awesome! That was then followed by a house party at the other Waterfill residence in Plainfield. An evening of dancing and being silly ensued and it was a perfect send off to our stay in Indy.
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| Scarecrow, mastered. |
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| Zombie dragqueen, mastered. |
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| Corpse paint, mastered. |
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| Artsy photo of my flower power eye. |
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| The Lost Souls, raging. |
And so concludes my story for the month of October. I haven't the words to describe how perfect the time was other than friends truly make the world go around, seriously.
