Before we headed back to South Carolina we spent a couple of more days with Jeff’s dad, since we won’t be able to be there again for a while. As always, we loved spending time in his beautiful yard.

We also got to spend time with our great-nephew. Jeff had seen him before when he was up visiting, but it was my first time meeting Christopher. He is a living doll.

Our final big stop on our midwestern vacation was at the Field of Dreams, where the movie was filmed in Iowa. Granny & Poppie had been there years and years ago, and talked so much about it that I was thrilled to finally get to see it myself. As it turned out, the Field of Dreams Tournament finals were going on the day we were there, so we got to watch the U9 baseball championship – and a team from Indiana won. It was very fun.

It was insanely windy while we were there – we understand it usually is pretty windy in that area – but I still wanted my picture made beside the sign – even with my hair all in my face :-). Just a fantastic way to end our vacation.

We arrived in Iowa late afternoon after leaving The House on the Rock. It was a first time being in that state for both of us.

We stopped at a scenic overlook to get a different view of the Mighty Mississippi. It seemed so weird seeing the Mississippi as the borders in states that far north, too. Very cool. We’re not sure how often those houses on that strip of land in the middle of the river flood. I need to do some research on that.

The second Saturday of our vacation we spent in Spring Green, Wisconsin, at The House on the Rock. I first heard about this place when Al Roker did a spot on it years and years ago, and it had been on my bucket list ever since. It far exceeded I ever imagined, and Jeff loved it, too. I got this picture of Jeff in the Japanese Garden as we were going in. The garden was huge, so we didn’t even get to see all of it. If we lived closer we would definitely get some sort of season tickets to this place, if they were available.

The displays inside this house were absolutely amazing. Unfortunately it was a pretty lowlight place, and I didn’t want the flash on my camera bothering everyone, so my pictures didn’t turn out great. This was a picture, though, of the display in one of the women’s restrooms. How crazy is that? The man’s name who built the house and gathered all of this things was Alex Jordan, and after he finished building he just started collecting all different things he was interested in, and the variety was amazing. He had 250 dollhouses built, among other things. It was incredible.

This was in the Heritage of the Seas House, which was three stories tall, and this whale filled up the center of all three floors. It was truly an amazing place.

I got a couple of more pictures of the Notre Dame displays before we left the hotel last Friday, of the Heisman Trophy winners from Notre Dame.

We checked out and headed to Spring Green, Wisconsin, where we checked into a great little mom & pop motel, with the prettiest garden out back. Such a pretty place to stay.

Our last stop at Notre Dame was the beautiful old cemetery there. I do love a great old cemetery, and this one definitely qualified. We loved going on the hunt to find the old graves that were on the map they gave us, including this one of one of the Heisman Trophy winners from the Fighting Irish.

That night we had pizza for supper from one of the oldest establishments in the city. Maybe the best we’ve ever had. I hope you can enlarge this to read the great family story that was on the front of the menu. Very cool – and delicious.

We headed back over to Notre Dame to visit some of the sites on campus that weren’t sports based. Our first stop was the Basilica – the church there on campus. It was absolutely beautiful, and no picture could do the stained glass windows justice. Just breathtaking.

From there we went to the Mann Building, which is the building with the golden dome that you always see in pictures of Notre Dame. The painting inside the dome was absolutely beautiful. Let’s face it, it was just a gorgeous campus. One cool thing we learned was that on game days (back to the sports information), the band lines the railings at all of the levels and plays some song – I can’t remember what. Then they march outside, get in formation, and play and march across campus to the stadium. I would love to see that.

From there we were off to visit the Grotto, which was highly recommended to us by several people, and it also was very moving and beautiful. I hope you can enlarge this picture of the informational plaque. Just an incredible campus.

The place where we are staying is called the Varsity Club South Bend, and it is absolutely crammed full of every imaginable kind of Notre Dame memorabilia. We were so excited when we saw a picture of Jeff Burris on one of the walls – hometown boy & everything! Well, Rock Hill, but close enough.

We headed to Shipshewana, Indiana, right in the middle of Amish country, for an absolutely delicious lunch at an Amish buffet that day, and then hit up the Shipshewana Flea Market – over 700 vendors, they said. Pretty amazing.

Not many vacations go by for us without playing goofy golf, and this was no exception. We spent Monday morning in Michigan, because Jeff had never been to that state before, but all the pictures we took were on his phone. I did get this one at our afternoon golf match 🙂