Indiana Trip -Part 1

I have been slow in writing this post because there is just too much to say, and I am not sure how to break it up. I guess we will see how it goes, and when one post get too long I will just start on the next.

May 1st-7th we spent in Indiana with R&J&B. The 1st J and I flew to SEA and met up with Dad for our standby flight to ORD. Just to try something different we tried listing for first class seats, and were lucky enough to get them. (BUCKET LIST- First time flying first class) It only cost us a total of $20/person thanks to J's benefits working for the airline. We had nice wide seats, inflight meal (not that great), and free use of the "Digeplayer" to watch movies on. I don't think Dad took advantage of being in first class, but I enjoyed it, especially after the man next to me switched seats with J so we could be together.

While in flight the captain said that we would have to fly further south below Nebraska because of a storm, and a storm it was. I felt like we were right over it, not because of the turbulence, it was a very smooth flight, but because of the lightning show that was going on just below us.

This is a really bad picture, and doesn't show how amazing it was. The red streak is the wing light, the blueish glows are the lightning. We saw lightning bolts going strait up, and all through the clouds. I doubt I will ever see anything like it again.

When we landed it was almost midnight and apparently, despite the information I was given when I called, the hotel shuttle did not run that late. We ended up getting a cab (BUCKET LIST- first time in a cab). When we got to the hotel we found it was far away from any restaurants, except a Subway sandwich shop, so J and Dad had sandwiches for dinner at 1am.

The next morning we took a shuttle and got our rental car. We drove out of Chicago, and into Indiana where we had breakfast at a Cracker Barrel.

We drove the 5 hours south to Bloomington, through beautiful, but flat, farm land. I have always lived in the foothills, and surrounded by mountains (from the hill near our apartment you can see 3 different volcanoes) so the flat land as far as you can see, felt very foreign to me. Here are a couple of not-so-great shots out the side window.

When we got there we were very excited to see everyone, and B-man was especially excited to see his Papa (grandfather). He wanted to show us how he has the same kind of hat Papa has.

That evening we went for a walk over to the park and down to the creek. We were all happy watching B-man splashing and throwing rocks, then R told us that the creek was full of geodes. We started picking up rocks, shaking them (the hollow ones tend to rattle) and throwing them against rocks to break them open. There were tons, and we found a few good ones. Here is what we brought home with us.

That night Juls took us firefly hunting.... and I think that is where I will start my next post.