Staycation!

Since I've been off recuperating, we discussed taking a short vacation before I dove back into work. But a gaping hole in the base of our chimney changed our plans. We now have a brand new, very nice chimney.  

So we've been finding fun things to do locally. We've been having amazing weather and took full advantage of it.

We visited Chesterton's European Market, which is a lot of fun. It goes through October. In addition to farm fresh produce, baked goods, honey, preserves, and maple syrup, they have a lovely variety of crafts.

Hubby bought me the lovely handmade Jewelry Box from Pa's Woodworking as an anniversary present. It's prompted a big clean out of my jewelry boxes, bins, and baskets--I was very disorganized.

Some drawers have dividers, some don't.

Then we went by the Dunes for a picnic lunch. This tree has an amazing load of pinecones at the top...and only at the top.

Dunes Grass.

We also went out to Hesston to visit the Hesston Steam Museum. The trains were running. They have a lot of steam power, a generator, sawmill, and other big equipment that are fired up for special dates. We love their Halloween train and hope to go back for that at the end of October, but the day was lovely so we decided to go and enjoy the fall color and beautiful weather.

Several sizes and styles of train cars were running. They have trains from Brookfield Zoo, Kiddieland, and the Donnelley Estate.

Here's Hubby, checking out a caboose.

Here are tiny trains (that take full size people!).

And here's the view from our train as we start our journey through the woods at the Indiana-Michigan border.