On holiday in the “Region” (Northwest Indiana)
Karin & I will soon have been married ten years. To celebrate, we dropped off Jasper, Ziva, and Dory at a cats’ hotel and headed west with our three little sons.
Not very far west.
Not as far as Illinois. Not even as far as Gary, Indiana. We did cross over into the Central Time Zone.
Our activities in the “Region” were zoological, botanical, athletic, culinary (e.g., White Castle), and commercial.
We toured: Michigan City, Valparaiso, Merrillville, Hobart, and – unpremeditatedly – Beverly Shores.
Beverly Shores is a beach town next to the Indiana Dunes National Park. Our GPS took us there because we asked it to find a playground. But we couldn’t park the car without a city-issued permit, so we didn’t play in Beverly Shores.
Instead, we drove and gawked. We could see Chicago across the lake, and there were spectacular houses that looked out in that direction. Some had been built for Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1933 and then transported east, by boat.
I hadn’t known that there was such glamor in the “Region.”
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Our hotel was in Portage. It had a breakfast buffet and an indoor swimming pool. We used those conveniences daily.
It took all of our effort to keep our children from destroying our suite. Abel, in particular, was a menace.
Samuel asked to go home and, the first night, was physically ill. He improved.
It was Daniel who took to the holiday with especial keenness. We couldn’t keep him out of the pool.
One night, our family was bathing when a man and a woman came into the pool area. They looked very sheepish (they had come in and gone out once before). They disrobed, got into the hot tub, worked up some courage, and, I daresay, proceeded to do the deed while we were across the room. You’d think it was their honeymoon or anniversary; such was their involvement. But I suspect they were adulterers who had come to the “Region” to escape detection.
Not very far west.
Not as far as Illinois. Not even as far as Gary, Indiana. We did cross over into the Central Time Zone.
Our activities in the “Region” were zoological, botanical, athletic, culinary (e.g., White Castle), and commercial.
We toured: Michigan City, Valparaiso, Merrillville, Hobart, and – unpremeditatedly – Beverly Shores.
Beverly Shores is a beach town next to the Indiana Dunes National Park. Our GPS took us there because we asked it to find a playground. But we couldn’t park the car without a city-issued permit, so we didn’t play in Beverly Shores.
Instead, we drove and gawked. We could see Chicago across the lake, and there were spectacular houses that looked out in that direction. Some had been built for Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1933 and then transported east, by boat.
I hadn’t known that there was such glamor in the “Region.”
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Our hotel was in Portage. It had a breakfast buffet and an indoor swimming pool. We used those conveniences daily.
It took all of our effort to keep our children from destroying our suite. Abel, in particular, was a menace.
Samuel asked to go home and, the first night, was physically ill. He improved.
It was Daniel who took to the holiday with especial keenness. We couldn’t keep him out of the pool.
One night, our family was bathing when a man and a woman came into the pool area. They looked very sheepish (they had come in and gone out once before). They disrobed, got into the hot tub, worked up some courage, and, I daresay, proceeded to do the deed while we were across the room. You’d think it was their honeymoon or anniversary; such was their involvement. But I suspect they were adulterers who had come to the “Region” to escape detection.
