Weekend in Carmel, Indiana

This trip was planned a few weeks back, thinking that it will be a good time to visit as it is Jayden's birthday and it will be after my trip to KBS. Turns out that the timing couldn't have been better because I was starting to feel homesick!

Indiana-Michigan border is only about an hour away but Carmel, IN, which is pretty close to the capital of Indiana - Indianapolis, is a little more than 3 hours away from Lansing. It was a pretty easy drive there as highway I-69 connects directly from Lansing all the way to Carmel. Wanted to leave shortly after lunch but the department had a poster session so end up leaving after work. Thanks to Jo, we had broccoli pasta for dinner on the way there! We did not arrive until past 9pm. The kids were already put to bed but they came down to greet us! As Chloe said, she wanted to see us before they go to bed. How sweet is that!

Although it was late, Gylin was nice enough to prepare supper for us - a Korean appetizer: GolBaengi MuChim. It is like a salad type of dish made with cucumbers, onions, squid and seasnail. It is eaten with noodle. It was the first time I had seasnail and it is yummy! Found a recipe online that I might try someday!
After supper, we played a dice game known as Farkle. Hehe...if Pei is here, it would definitely be having a more 熱鬧 time. It is a pretty easy game as all you have to do is throw 6 dice and decides to play it risky or play it safe. A lot of luck involved. Haha...maybe have to 'khua jit chi' before you decide to play :P. However, the name of the game is just weird. Oh Crap! or Squelch (from Wiki) sounds better. Hehe.. Oh, it was definitely my lucky night that night! Keke...

On Saturday, we spent most of the day at the Connor Prairie. It is an outdoor museum where they replicate the lifestyle during the late 19th century when Indiana was still a prairie. They make you feel like you are in the 19th century too because they have people who dress up and talk like they were from that time zone. When you walk through the town, there are people who are shopping, exchanging conversations, cooking, etc. just like in the 19th century. We were confused initially because we thought that these people really live there as they were quite convincing!

Here's a little girl (she was not dressed up) who was making a table leg using a 古代 version of 抹刀 (is this what we call bua to? hehe.... ).

They also have their own farm, herbs and vege garden, which provides them the food and transportation they need during the century (but of course, now is just to support their daily 'acts').

This is the largest piggy that I have seen!!
Mean looking chicks.
An old style heater.
Their school subjects look...boring...hehe.
There was also a young animals petting area where we saw two 4 days old lamb (they can walk within 2 hours after birth!!! Isn't that amazing??), a kid, a calf, a bunch of rabbits, and two cute little chicks!!
They let Chloe hold one of them and she was so excited. Jayden tried to hold one but he is still too little to control the amount of strength he needs to put on the little chick that the poor chick kept chirping.

Poor little Jayden wanted to stay around and play the trains (he loves trains and is a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine) but it was pretty late and we have yet to get some lunch. Lunch was dim sum!! Oh yeah, they have a place - Great Garden - that serves dim sum way past breakfast time. Since we got there way past lunch time, there was no dim sum on the carts, but we still got fresh and warm dim sum! Yummy!!

The Great Garden was next to an Asian market - Saraga International Grocery - so we walked over to 逛街. While most Asian marts tend to have similar stuff, this is one that has lots of weird vegetable selections...
Have you seen any of these? They look so...green.
This is the weirdest! It does not look like there is any beans in the inside at all! But when you look up online, it is a type of beans commonly used in Mexican food for dips or meat topping. Hmmm...doesn't this looks like those stuff that falls on the ground from trees that they typically grow near schools back in M'sia? Haha...a potential 'mimasak' type of 'chai'. :P

Later in the afternoon, Boon and Gylin gave us a tour of downtown Indianapolis and downtown Carmel. Downtown Carmel reminds me of downtown Falmouth at Boston, but more classy. Seeing all these stuff definitely makes one wants to get out of Michigan..hehe. There definitely seems to be more stuff to do and see at Indiana but this is not entirely surprising since Indianapolis is a much larger city than any city in Michigan. Like the old saying, 這山望著那山高 (the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence)...am sure Pei would prefer Michigan to being in PD, right Pei? So Ping will enjoy all the stuff in MI before the next destination is determined. Hehe.

For dinner, Gylin made us nasi lemak with curry chicken AND the best part - assam hae!!! Hehe...that is Ping's all time favorite and it has been a year and a half since I last had it!!!
After dinner, when the kids were put to bed, we stayed up and played Risk board game. It is a game of both strategy and luck. The strategy part is picking the territory to conquer in the first few rounds and when, where and how long to attack throughout the game. The luck part is the dice rolling during attacks. It was confusing initially but after we got the hang of it, it is actually pretty 刺激性 (err...thrilling? haha)!

Here is how much I conquered..I have the grey army.
Look at Jo's black army...she is seriously building her own 滿城盡帶'黑鐵甲'.

On Sunday, we were just spending time with the Chui family since we were leaving later in the afternoon. We didn't do much besides going to church in the late morning, had Szechuan food for lunch, toured the Carmel library and went to Costco (the same concept as Makro in M'sia) to kia-kia.

It was definitely a fun weekend! It settles the homesick feeling for a bit...