The “Girls” and most of our husbands have just returned from a seven day trip to Indiana and Ohio to see a production using our name in Amish/Mennonite Country. The Blue Gate Productions hosted us and treated us as VIP’s. All ten of the girls were together at the Blue Gate Garden Inn where we enjoyed “Faspa” on Sunday night before we had our cooking show and saw the production for the first time. As you can see from the first photo above we have fun together.
We took this opportunity to get some photos of all ten of us since Betty and Charlotte live in Manitoba and miss many of our get togethers in British Columbia and Seattle.
This part of the country really enjoy pie and Kathy bought a couple pies for our time together.
The Blue Gate Garden Inn /Shipshewana was a lovely spot with the perfect outdoor space for us to enjoy our Faspa.
“Faspa” is one of those Low German words for which there is no direct English translation. Faspa is a light lunch about 4 p.m. on workdays. Faspa also is the gathering of family and friends, usually at 4 p.m. Sunday, for a light meal and fellowship, with an emphasis on fellowship. The meal always included zwieback, coffee and might also include cheese, cold cuts, and jelly.
On Monday the festivities began at the Blue Gate Theater and Restaurant with a cooking show before a dinner and play and topping the day off with an ice cream social. It’s strange seeing your name in lights!
Lovella, Anneliese and Kathy were on stage for the cooking show and they had a wonderful opportunity to convey who the “real Mennonite Girls” are and what we believe and why we give all of our author royalties to charities that benefit orphans and widows and provide food to those who are in desperate need. They really shined on stage and had the audience entertained. They made three recipe’s from our books for the show and the Blue Gate served those three dishes after the show to the audience.
Later we met lovely people who were able to share their stories with us at a dinner before the show. We really enjoyed talking to these retired teachers from Ohio. Oh my and we ate in the Amish/Mennonite way with more than one protein, starch, veggie, and of course Pie to end the meal. Don’t forget that there still was an ice cream social after the play.
Salad, Meatloaf, fried chicken, green beans, stuffing, noodles, mashed potatoes, and gravy.
Here we are with the cast from the comedy. They were great actors, playing ten separate characters. We were happy that we had the chance at our cooking show to represent who we are in contrast to the play.
We had the special treat to have my niece’s in-laws come down from Michigan to see the cooking show and to spend the morning with us taking us around to their favorite shops in Shipshewana. It’s always great to enjoy a town with “locals” who know the area. Thank you Mary Lou and Arden for your hospitality to us! In another post I’ll show what we saw with our special hosts.
From Shipshewana we traveled to Sugarcreek Ohio to the Carlisle Inn, another beautiful and well appointed Inn. We were treated to lovely suites for the next leg of our time together. We had another opportunity to have a dinner where we could share the real story about the Mennonite Girls before the play and meet people at book signings after the play. It was so good to be together with our husbands and enjoy this very unique countryside together.
I have lots of posts that will show the countryside and the people who live in the communities we visited. I’m missing the clip clop clip clop of the beautiful horses pulling the buggies…
Linking up to ABC Wednesday with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger and all the administrators of this weekly meme.
These corn horse photos were taken at the very end of the tour after we had come full circle.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 