We're finally feeling up to posting about our train adventure; our brains have been mush for the last few days after so much travel. (I'll leave out a description of what my feet and ankles have been like.) We didn't mention anything about our trip before leaving because of some security concerns in our neighborhood with recent robberies. Because of a public group we run in Salem, our home address, e-mail, phone numbers, and blog are very accessible, and we don't like to advertise when we won't be home. Anyway, we were going to Indiana for the weekend for Brandy and Yuri's wedding. We were originally going to head home right after the reception but decided to extend our trip a couple more days to spend time with some of my grandparents who have had some recent health concerns.
On the way there:
On the way there:
We were very excited for David's first train ride ever and my first one since being a little girl (and a train across America is slightly different than a train across Australia). This first leg of the trip would have us travel from Salem at 10 a.m. Thursday and arrive in South Bend at 9 a.m. Friday. When we first were boarding the train, we realized that we had left our garment bag full of formal wear at home. Ugh! As if it weren't bad enough that all of David's pants are either special ordered or tailored, how were we going to find maternity formal wear in the wedding colors, especially because I had searched for my dress since March before finding one online? We did attempt to have someone go to our house and overnight it to South Bend but that didn't work out, so we just resigned ourselves to a mad shopping spree when we got into Indiana.
As for the actual train ride, it wasn't that bad. The main joy of the first portion of our trip was sitting behind Crazy Grandma. Crazy Grandma took a seat next to a little boy she didn't know when Dad got up to go to the bathroom. By the time Dad returned, CG had pulled out a box of photos she was putting into an album and was narrating the antics of her cats to the little four-year-old boy. She didn't let Dad have his seat back and so he sat in the aisle for the next hour or so listening about her cats and her family with comments like: "Then Robert married Joann. Look at this dress! We certainly didn't care for it, but Joann pulled it off. She's the kind of woman who would wear a dress like that on her wedding day though." CG finally left when the little boy was losing his patience with her, but she insisted they all sit together on the next leg of the trip (and she did insist when they boarded the next train).
On the second leg of our trip to Indiana, we were pleased to not be seated next to CG, but we unfortunately were not seated next to each other. The problem with this was that the whole point of taking a train instead of driving was so I could keep my legs propped up on David and that we could both sleep. It is incredibly hard to sleep on a train sitting next to a stranger, especially if you have the aisle seat. David was fortunately seated next to a gentleman who didn't stir the entire trip, but I was next to loud cellphone girl talking to her boyfriend, who when she wasn't on the phone, was upset that I kept glancing at her laptop (by glancing, she meant any forward looks, even though I was reading a book). So, I needed to spend the entirety of the ride with my body facing the aisle. At around 3 a.m. we were able to get seats next to each other, but it still amounted to David getting ~4 hours of sleep and me getting 15 minutes. We were really crossing our fingers that the train ride home would be better.
The time in Indiana:
When we first arrived we had a hurried shopping trip to find clothing which was surprisingly successful; David found pants that fit, I found two dresses that fit--one of them not even maternity just very stretchy, and we got them all during Macy's One-Day Sale for ~90% off! We unfortunately don't have any photos of us at the wedding to post. After that sigh of relief we were able to enjoy the time before the wedding with Brandy and Yuri. The rehearsal dinner on Friday was amazing. It was at Yuri's parents' house in Elkart, and his dad catered the entire affair for ~40 people. It was quite the spread of wonderful Italian food; as the only non-family there, felt very special and spoiled with such feast.
The two of us at the Beiger before the rehearsal dinner.
A swollen Liv (barely fitting in shoes) showing a 7 months belly.
The Beiger Mansion
The next day the wedding was held at the Beiger mansion in Mishawaka, an incredibly ornate and formal facility that was breath-takingly beautiful. The wedding itself was short and sweet (in the words of my friend Sarah who was a bridesmaid at our wedding, "Brandy's was the sweet commercial of weddings, and your wedding was Ben-Hur"); there is a definite time difference between Catholic weddings and everything else. At the reception we were again treated to some of the best food we've ever had at a wedding. Then we enjoyed the rest of the night dancing, as did my parents and Dillon who were all in attendance.
I was very excited to go to Nappanee, because even though I grew up in Indiana, my exposure to the Amish is limited to kids selling baskets out of their buggies at highway interchanges. I had never seen the Amish in their natural habitat as it were, and I'm a big fan of the Amish. For beach reads, some people have bodice-rippers, some people have crime novels, but I read Amish romances (yes, there is such a genre...take a peak at the Women's Christian Fiction section during your next trip to a large bookstore). On the way up, I reminded Dillon that when we got to the restaurant or were outside of the car, that he needed to be culturally sensitive, and that the Amish were people too with feelings. However, it was me that was shouting inside of the car, "Look, an Amish person! Look, an Amish person next to a cow! Look, Amish children! Look, Amish people sitting on lawn furniture!" Thank goodness the windows were rolled up and I wasn't pointing.
Once in central Indiana, we had a wicked fast two-day tour of family members: time with my mom's parents, time with David's parents, time with my dad's parents, and finally dinner with Jeff in Chicago before leaving on the train. I won't go into details, but we were pleased that we could see everyone; it was just rushed, rushed, rushed because of our return schedule.
David and Jeff after dinner
The return trip:
The return trip was considerably longer but more enjoyable because we could sit next to each other and we both got at least 5 hours of sleep. We left Indiana at 3 p.m. Tuesday, had a brief stop in Chicago before leaving on the train, and we got back to Salem at ~1 a.m. on Thursday. It was a long trip home. Other than getting in later that we had expected, this train trip was pretty uneventful except for Insane Blonde. Insane Blonde had been traveling all the way from California and wanted everyone to know it. She spent the train trip barking at every person that walked by and belittling the Amtrak staff. We heard her raving about urine but didn't get the full story until a staff person filled us in while we were waiting for a lunch table in the dining car. Apparently on her last train she had wanted to spend the entire time reading her newspaper in the bathroom (with the door open) because she didn't want to be around other passengers. Well, there was a gentleman who wanted to use the lavatory but she wouldn't leave it. He asked her to kindly let him in for a minute and then could come right back in. She refused, but left shortly afterward to go find a conductor. She told the conductor that she was assaulted by a man in the bathroom who she "could just tell was a homo." She was convinced that he went back to her seat and urinated on it, thus infecting her "with the Gay." She demanded a free private sleeper car for the remainder of her trip. She didn't get one and was nearly thrown off the train (while it was stopped of course). When she got into the Chicago station, she screamed at the station master until he almost threw her out, but he did inform the next train staff that they were welcome to remove her at any station. After hearing the full story, we did run into her more on the train, where she was always complaining about being infected with the Gay and that her eyes would probably fall out because of it. We couldn't stop laughing at her; while clearly insane, she did keep us entertained for a few hours. When we got home, we were welcomed by our precious pussy cats and the new gift of a car seat. Needless to say, we are certainly glad to be home, and we will not be traveling any considerable distance for some time.
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