Discovering "The Region"

Hello! Wow, it has been busy and I will be using that as the excuse for our delay in any updates! haha. Between working four days a week and Mandy having her bachelorette weekend while I'm up visiting friends in Chicago, it's amazing how quickly time goes by before you realize you are almost two weeks behind in blogs! Well, time has slowed down for at least a few hours so I'm going to do my best to make up for this delay. So using my best Wayne's World movie magic, I'm going to take you back almost two weeks and then quickly bring you up to present time. Cue Mike Myers...

July 31st

This was a great day. Mandy came up late last night after spending the day at my family reunion. Sadly I was working when she arrived, but it was definitely nice to come back to my place with her there! Alright, I'll fast forward through the mush>>> Mandy and I decided we wanted to spend the day exploring the area and when google's only tip was to visit the local target and dairy queen for best things to do in Munster, we decided to go out and make our own list. Here is a quick recap of our day...

First stop: Indiana welcome center and the John Dillinger Museum

We located this place only a few miles north of my place and found the museum to be very interesting! Not knowing much about John Dillenger, we were surprised to learn he was an Indy native and found his entire story very captivating. Below are a few pictures of our time at the museum!

Welcome center and Museum

Random duck outside the Welcome center.
We assumed it had some historical importance!

Mandy posing with the criminals 

Mandy was slightly disturbed that I had no problems
pulling the switch...a few times

Next stop, Pierogi Fest!

After getting some helping tips from some locals, Mandy and I decided to make our next stop the Pierogi festival in Whiting, Indiana! The Pierogi festival is apparently a three day long event celebrating Eastern European food. A pierogi, a polish dumpling, is the headliner food. Obviously, mandy and I made it our mission to try some, and we were not disappointed. They were delicious! 

Walking into the festival!

Sampling the pierogies

After the festival, Mandy and I managed to find more room in our stomaches for some ice cream at Frozen Yogurt Express or "FroYo" as some locals call it. Our friend Michelle, who grew up in the area, apparently works as a part time advertiser for them and highly recommended  this place. It was very good and we then decided to walk off the calories at Munster's Centennial Park. Here are a few pictures!

FroYo!

Mandy doing her best Vanna White

Mandy posing in front of a very nice pond
at Centennial Park

Our last stop of the day was Three Floyd's Brewery and Brew Pub!

Mandy and I decided to have dinner at Three Floyd's. This was another recommendation from friends and locals and we really enjoyed our time there! The beer was very good! haha

Three Floyd's

So have you made it this far in the recapping? haha This pretty much ends the picture session, but to finish bringing you up to speed, following our random sunday in the region, the days consisted of lots work, sleep, wedding plans, and long distance phone conversations between Mandy and I. The week, though, was capped off with Mandy having her bachelorette party and me visiting some of my favorites in Chicago! While I never asked for any details about Mandy's bachelorette weekend, I did hear they had a great time. I can also tell you that Chicago was a lot of fun and a much needed break from the hospital life...

Alright, thus ends this week's catch up session ;) Hopefully I've learned my lesson at not getting so behind because catching up on over a week is time consuming!

To all those who read this blog, I hope you are doing well and I'll talk to you soon. Later! -Mike