Granny's Excellent Adventure

My mother-in-law is getting up in years, to the point where getting out and doing things can sometimes seem pretty daunting to her. So we were taken aback a bit (OK, downright shocked) when she announced a few weeks ago that she wanted to go on a little adventure. Knowing that she could change her mind about this as quickly as she thought of it, we wasted no time in making plans.

My sister-in-law and her husband have been living in Carmel, Indiana for the past 15 months, where they are presiding over the Indiana mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We thought, and my mother-in-law agreed, that it would be fun to take her to visit them since she hadn't seen them in all that time.

My other sister-in-law helped "Granny", as she is affectionately known by the family, get ready for the trip. When the time came, we just showed up at her door and collected her and her luggage, and off we went.

Not having flown for many years, the whole airport security experience was new to her, and one she would  have happily done without. When I asked her for her driver's license to show the TSA guy, she clutched her purse tightly and wanted to know why he wanted it, did he think someone was going to blow up a plane? 'Oh boy,' I thought. 'Please don't let her say that any louder.' She wasn't too keen on the whole idea when we told her she needed to take off her shoes and hand over her purse for x-raying, proclaiming in what seemed to me at the moment a rather loud voice, '"well, do they want me to just take off all my clothes?! Good grief!", and then repeating again, "what?! Do they think someone's going to blow up the plane?!" I was sure we were going to be having a lengthy conversation with the airport police when they discovered a pocket knife in her purse, too, and needless to say, she wasn't very happy when they took it away, telling her that they could either toss it or she could mail it home to herself. We quickly opted for the latter, and whisked her away from the security area before there might be any further risk of us being detained.

Finally, we boarded our plane, had an uneventful flight and arrived in Indiana for our visit.

The mission home is in a quiet established neighborhood with nice older homes and lots of beautiful oak and maple trees. Every three years the mission presidency changes and a new couple, sometimes with children, more often without, moves in. (Ironically, my step-children's grandparents served as mission president in that same house many years ago).

 The neighbors seem friendly and welcoming, knowing that this is the "Mormon house" where there's always lots of activity going on. 

Our first morning there, we mostly just relaxed and checked out the "wildlife" in the back yard - lots of birds (including cardinals, woodpeckers, chickadees and nut hatches), chipmunks, and small red and huge fox squirrels. President C has made a hobby of trapping the chipmunks who will burrow inside the walls of the house if allowed to multiply unchecked. He traps them and relocates them to parks or fields away from the house. So far he's trapped about 40 of the little critters with the chubby cheeks.

In the afternoon, we took a little trip to the center of Carmel. It's a cute little town with a bit of an artsy side to it.

Granny managed to make a few new friends as we walked around...well, maybe one friend, anyway...

This lady wasn't too impressed with Granny's advice on what the best bread to buy was...she just frowned...

 ...perhaps this is what she was thinking?

My husband tried to get her to smile for a photo...

but apparently it didn't work. He tried to make it up to her with a sweet kiss on the cheek (after all, it always works with me!!!) ... to no avail... 

In fact, we suspect that she's the one who called the cops on him... 

Apart from the fun J. Seward Johnson statues, there were some interesting looking shops in the downtown area. I kind of wondered about this one...

I can't quite imagine what Mary and Martha would stock in their boutique that would be exceedingly chic...maybe some oil and some cooking and cleaning products? And then again, probably not. We didn't go in to see.

The people of Indiana do seem to be fairly religious, though. Check out the license plates... I hope this helps the missionaries in their efforts.

Back to the shops... we wandered through a nice antique shop. My hubby is a confirmed antiques browser which is fine with me since there are always fun things to photograph ...

We had plenty of fun with Granny. She manages to keep us all laughing with her antics. If it wasn't her giving one of us the stink eye for messing with the walnut shell and bird feathers she had collected...

or her giving me the double bird (see my previous post), it was her contagious laughter or her spontaneous dancing to the music at the restaurant or singing happy birthday to her baby boy (my hubby) or just her sweet loving ways.

Oh, yes, it was my hubby's bday this week... no birthday cake (I made him killer cupcakes, thanks to a recipe from my good friend, Vern), but we did have pumpkin pie and we ate plenty all week long, thank you very much... Happy Birthday, my love.

...including a fantastic meal from Fast Wok, a cheap cheap Thai "dive" with great food, for which President C is willing to drive all the way across town.  While we waited in line for at least 20-25 minutes at this popular little hole in the wall to order our food, I made friends with these little cuties...

Anyway, Indiana was fun, cloudy weather and all... It was great to see the family.

We hope that Granny truly did have a most excellent adventure, because she deserves it! 

We love you, Granny and hope you're around for a good long time.