Nicky and I were so blessed to have the opportunity to visit my sister in South Bend, Indiana, USA. I thought I’d document the trip in this blog for prosperity so I’d have a place to look back on the memories.
Plane trip there
We set off from PE/GQ all bright eyed and bushy tailed. The first flight to Jozi was fine, but we had to rush to get to the next one. We kind of had to jump the passport queue because we were running a bit late.
We rushed to the gate. Nicky was running ahead so, although I saw him run in to the gate, I lost him when I got there. I was that mom calling “Nicky!” until he popped up. (He had the boarding passes).
It was a double decker airbus. A really big plane. And, we had the Springboks boarding the plane! I actually saw Rassie Erasmus (the coach) and some guy who was sitting next to us getting him to sign his autobiography. As we were checking in, Faf du Plessis came up to the check in lady and asked about his loyalty miles!
That plane trip though… was just the worst. We were in row 83 right at the back of the plane. Did you know that if you sit at the back of the plane you get the worst turbulence? And we were dead in the middle, enclosed by other people. So it was not fun. Nicky didn’t eat much of any of the aeroplane food on this trip. And he puked on both planes on the way there.
One very nice thing about that trip is that I watched an excellent movie “Wish.” This is about a guy that has all the villagers dreams in bubbles and he grants a wish every now and then. Then he turns nasty and starts absorbing the wishes instead of granting them. I just thought it was a good film about making your own dreams come true, instead of relying on some guru.
We were really glad to get off that plane to Heathrow Airport in London. Heathrow is a really big place. They don’t give you your gate number until about an hour before so that you can spend lots of money in their shops. So we got suckered in to getting two books and then Nicky wanted one of those plane pillows. I only got him one because I didn’t feel like spending all the money on another one but I got one on the way back because those pillows are the bomb!
The book I read was “Lessons in Chemistry” which is a lot about feminism and a woman that encouraged women to pursue their dreams. She’s a scientist but she lands up on a cooking show. And that becomes a stage for her to encourage others. Nicky got a cartoon book by Dav Pilkey. He kept showing me the cartoons and laughing, so it was a hit.
The next flight from London to Chicago was uneventful. It was during the day, so that helped.
When we got to Chicago there was a long queue by customs. It’s quite a process to get in but we made it through. However one of the bags did not make it (all of Nicky’s clothes). My sister helped me with that and we got some replacement clothes from Goodwill and the bag came a few days later.
It was really good to see her again. She had driven all the way out from South Bend to Chicago to get us. Did you know that there’s actually an hour time difference between the two places? South Bend, Indiana is on Eastern Standard Time and Chicago is on Central time.
South Bend
We were glad to get to Liz’s house. She has two cats and a dog. The grey one was super friendly, although by the time we left the other one was warming up to us too. That grey one made himself right at home on the bed. Liz also gave us this lovely Trader Joe’s body wash which smelt really good.
We also played some games. There was a cool one where you push counters back and forth and Nicky really liked it. We played it quite a few times.
Oh, and in America you have to pump your own gas. So Nicky took the photo opportunity. He also mowed the lawn on one of those machines. Super cute.
The Waterpark
On Friday we went off to a place further up the lake. From there we were able to go to various places.
Avalanche Bay Indoor Waterpark at Boyne Mountain was awesome. But maybe I’m just not so adventurous as what I thought I was. After getting water up my nose in the first ride I decided to just cruise on the lazy river in a floaty. The warm water section was also good. The others rode all the rides though. We also had Karin, Liz’s daughter, on this weekend trip. She was taking a break from camp. So Nicky and Karen did a lot of rides together.
As you can see from the pic below, he tried to do checkers with sugar packets…
The lake
The lake is a bit like a beach (so there’s sand) but less hectic waves. We walked along and took some pics. Nicky took some pics of the houses along the lake.
Traverse City ice-cream
Ice-cream was a big deal on this trip and we had a lot of it. These ice-creams at Traverse City were amazing. I had cheesecake and apple pie ice-cream. It was so good!
Sougatuck
On the way back we stopped by this little town and it was so lovely. A lot of little shops to look at (ice-cream of course, again!) and even an African themed one with some interesting art. We found some chess pieces too!
We had Mexican food for lunch. Liz likes tortillas. Nicky had a cheese Quesadilla and chips.
Kombucha
When we got back Liz showed me this cool thing that she does – she makes kombucha! It’s a super healthy tea drink and it’s quite a process to make.
Weko beach kayaking
I really enjoyed this. I got to kayak with my sister! Nicky went with my brother in law, Pieter.
Nicky and Liz went on an epic swim around a concrete pillar. Nicky was counting. I think he said they did 25 laps in the end. At least he slept well after that.
Notre Dame
On Tuesday we went to movies and saw Inside Out. It’s a really good movie about navigating the teen years and how all those extra emotions need to be included.
After that we walked around Notre Dame, where Pieter works. It’s a really beautiful campus.
There was also a place to light candles so Nicky and I lit one for Brett. It’s a Catholic university so we also looked at some of the buildings around, which were very beautiful.
We also saw some squirrels around which were super cute, but apparently they do bite.
Another amazing thing is that they have these little robots going around delivering food. You can order take aways and the robot will bring!
We had Chick fill A for lunch and it was good!
Mini golf
Emily, Liz’s other daughter, came back from Korea. We went for a fun game of mini golf with her and her girlfriend, Mia.
Liz really enjoyed it. I was doing really well but she beat me by one point!
Emily spent quite a bit of time catching up on sleep. Korea is literally a day ahead of South Bend.
Rock climbing
Nicky had a lot of fun at this rock climbing place. He went up some walls but the real fun was a wall treadmill. This thing moves as you climb and you can set how fast you want it to move.
Visiting Liz’s work
We visited my sister’s hand care clinic. She is an OT that helps people who have damaged their hands. She showed us lots of stuff that she did. She dipped Nicky’s finger in wax. This is one of the therapies she does. He thought that was fun.
We were going to go blueberry picking but it was raining. So we just got some blueberries and Liz made some blueberry pie which was delicious.
Ball game
We went to a baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rookies. The Sox beat the Rookies 11-3.
It was really cool to participate in this slice of American life. You get free T-shirts when you enter the stadium, which is super cool. They also do a lot of entertainment in between the game. When the home team scores a run the crowd goes mad and they let off fireworks. Nicky enjoyed that. We also sang songs.
Tenpin bowling
On our last day, Nicky wanted to go bowling. This was also fun, even if we weren’t particularly good at it.
After that it was off to the airport.
It was nice to chat to my sister on the way to Chicago. A week is probably too short to catch up but we’ll keep in touch for sure. It was just nice to see where she lives and works and a bit more about her and her family’s lives.
Plane trip back
The plane trip back was a lot better, although I didn’t sleep either. I had managed to check in before online (I was unable to do so the last time) so we got better seats. In fact, for the first leg of the trip, we got an upgrade! It wasn’t the lying down one, but at least we had more leg room, you could extend your seat, and they gave us cool pouches which had eye masks and socks. We also ate off china plates which was nice.
Nicky slept through the whole thing so he didn’t eat anything.
At Heathrow my carry on bag had to be searched. I had too many electronics overlapping each other so they couldn’t see. This is the reason you have to take your laptop and tablet out.
Once again we hung around at all the duty free shops. We didn’t get books this time, just food, but I did get my cushion! I read a Jodi Picoult that I’d brought with “Second Glance,” which is really an excellent book about this guy whose wife dies. He then tracks ghosts for a living and actually sees one (although he thinks she is real). He also meets another girl, who, unknown to him, is related to the ghost. How this all ties together is just amazing. She is an incredible author and she really makes you think about how we don’t always understand why things happen, but there are common threads throughout that you only see afterwards.
This next overnight flight was long but Nicky decided to amuse himself with the in flight entertainment. We even played Monopoly together for a bit. Then I gave up and told him to play for me, which suited him fine. He just bought all my properties for one dollar!
I watched Oppenheimer, about the guy that invented the atomic bomb. What a complex story, and a good film.
We finally got to Joburg and we had to first get our luggage again, go through customs and re-check it in for our flight. Another long queue.
But after that was done, we still had time, so I gave Nicky a Wimpy breakfast. He hadn’t really been eating the aeroplane food.
One last flight back home and we were done! We were happy to be fetched by my mom and see Mittens again.
Mittens climbed right into my suitcase as if to say – don’t go again without me!
Nicky crashed into bed and I went to the doctor to clean out my ears which had gotten all blocked up. And then it was back to work…
I’m so grateful to have had this experience and will treasure these times for always.
Leave a Reply