Icicles The Size of People!

Last weekend A and I took a weekend away to the huge populous snowy city of South Bend, IN.  I had a Hilton rewards certificate which was expiring soon (thank you, traveling project!), and we could not let it go to waste.  We chose South Bend because it was close (about a two hours' drive), they had received multiple feet of snow and they have a park with outdoor winter activities.

One of A's med school friends graciously volunteered to watch Orion for us, so we dropped her off Saturday morning then headed out of town.  About $10 in tolls, four chapters of neurology and two iPod playlists later, we arrived in South Bend.  We were very impressed with the amount of snow on the ground (this was pre-2011 Blizzard!).

Our first mission: Find a local place for lunch.  After seven minutes of driving around town, we decided we must have missed the city.  Where were the restaurants?  College kids?  Hangouts?  After consulting Yelp via cell phone, we settled on Nick's Patio, a 24-hour diner-type eatery.  The small-town atmosphere was prevalent.  A had the chili taco salad (very good), and I had a chicken wrap (pretty good).

Mission #1 completed, we made our way to St. Patrick's County Park.  They advertised $10 cross-country ski rentals (including boots), and we were eager to try out a new activity.  We weren't sure how difficult cross-country skiing was, so the night before this trip we looked up video tutorials on YouTube.  It didn't look life-threatening, so we decided we'd give it a whirl.  (Well, hopefully no whirling while on skis!)

The park was beautiful.  We got fitted with skis and boots, then ran into our first hurdle.  How do you get the boots into the skis?  While we were struggling to figure it out, a park employee was kind enough to help us out.  (He might have laughed a little, too.)

Skis attached, we were on our way!  And it wasn't too difficult... a similar motion to ice skating.  Plus, the park staff had created a sort of "track" of two grooves.  If you put your skis in the track, you were good to go!

The park was beautiful.  We skied through the gardens... they're probably also a (completely different) site in spring and summer!

We quickly came upon our second hurdle: How the heck do you get up again when you fall?!

A tried to go off-roading (e.g. outside of the pre-made track) and took a tumble.  He's fine - and we got him back up again.

Hurdle #3: Cross-country skis + steep hill + no ski experience = bad idea!  (And fall #2 for A, #1 for K.)  The sign totally wasn't on the side of the hill we attempted to go down!

A made it almost all the way down before he fell.  Me?  I was on the ground immediately.  Laughing my head off, though.  

They kept the ski equipment in a big red barn.

Hurdle #2 revisited: A challenged me to a race.  However, this required one of us to be out of the track.  He volunteered, went a little too fast, and was down for the count.  (I think the worst part was making him wait there while I took a picture!)

See the grooves?

When we were changing trails, we were close to the barn again, so we checked with an employee as to the time we had to return the skis.  She told us 5:00PM, and in my head I calculated 2.5 hours left.  Then she said, "So you have about an hour and a half."  Um, what?!  Apparently South Bend is in the Eastern time zone!  Definitely didn't check on that before we left.  

So much snow!

One of the most amazing things was the icicles in South Bend... they were huge!  Bigger than people!  If one fell on you, it would not be pleasant.

Before going out to eat, we decided it would be prudent to check on Indiana's alcohol sales laws (since we didn't even know they were in a different time zone!).  They do not allow sales for carryout on Sundays, so we made a pit stop to buy a local microbrew (recommended) for both ourselves and as a gift to Orion's dog-sitter.

Saturday night, we had a couple recommendations for dinner, and settled on a Cambodian-Thai restaurant aptly named "Cambodia Thai".  Everyone said it was a long wait but well worth it.  After sitting for 45 minutes, we decided they were right - absolutely delicious!  I had "Drunken Noodles" (kind of like pad thai) and A had a Yellow Curry.  We had enough for leftovers and were sad about throwing them out until we realized - it wasn't getting above freezing in the next day.  Our car was a giant refrigerator!  

After dinner we walked to Fiddler's Hearth, an Irish pub.  They were advertising "live music", but didn't specify the genre.  We should have realized it would be an Irish band!  The music was good and they had specialty beers from Great Britain.

Sunday morning, we walked around the Notre Dame campus.  One of A's med school friends is an alum, and he recommended sights to see.  One included the main building.  This is the inside of its big gold dome.

If you know anything about college football in the Midwest, you've heard of Touchdown Jesus.  

He's on the side of the library, and is visible from the stadium.

Next up: The Basilica.  We had to delay going in because Mass was in progress.  It was worth the wait - very beautiful and intricate.

We had time for one more winter activity before eating lunch and heading home to Chicago.  Back again at St. Patrick's County Park, we joined the kids and went innertubing!

You grab a tube, climb up a hill and slide down the other side!  It was pretty high, and you picked up some speed on the way down. 

The park employees who were supervising weren't too strict.  People were allowed to go down in groups (of up to 5) linked together.  We saw all sorts of combinations - long strings forwards and backwards, couples side-by-side and facing each other, kids in a big circle...

If you were brave, you could even attempt to ride on top of the tube on your hands and knees. (It wasn't too hard, but looks daring!)

Before we left South Bend, we had a late lunch at CJ's, a place we had passed downtown.  Yelp said they had the best burger around.  One Chicagoan even said if they were in our city, he would go there every week!  So we had to check it out.  Sure enough, they had some really tasty burgers!

It was a ton of fun to discover more enjoyable outdoor winter activities and get a taste of the South Bend culture.