A Visit to Shipshe

The locals call the town "Shipshe" because "Shipshewana" is a mouthful.  We left Nappanee today about 11 to visit the Amish town of Shipshewana.  We had heard that the shopping was to die for, and that the food was out of this world.  It was.

We drove north through Goshen, IN, and turned east on Hwy 20 toward Middlebury, IN.  Near Middlebury is the largest restaurant in Indiana, Das Dutchmen Essenhaus, with more than 1100 seats.  It is part of a complex of shops and hotels designed to separate the tourists from their money!  And they do a remarkable job of it.

After a short stroll about the place, we decided to forge on. On the way to Shipshe, we took a quick side trip a few miles north to the state of Michigan.  At least we can now say we have been there!

Then on to Shipshewana, IN.  We had a late lunch in Shipshe at the Blue Gate, a large restaurant with an Amish influence, and was it good!  Donna had a full-on turkey dinner, with mashed potatoes and such, and I had the Monteray Chicken dinner, which was a grilled chicken breast with potatoes and dressing.

 No dessert because we had lots of shopping to do!

One of the neat things I saw was a collection of buttons.  For a few cents, you could pick out a bunch of buttons.  What a cool thing!

We left Shipshewana after a few hours of noodling through the shops and headed south toward home.  There was a sign at the edge of Nappanee this morning inviting us to attend a tractor pull this evening to kick off the start of the 2013 Apple Festival, which runs through next weekend.  When we got back to Nappanee, we found out that the tractor pull had been held early in the afternoon, so we missed it.  Bummer!

The late afternoon was taken up with minor chores around camp, and a quick chat with the neighbors, Ted and Phyllis.  They went out to dinner and then joined us for a slice of the Dutch Apple pie we had bought at the bakery near the Blue Gate restaurant.

A great day!