Day 2: Reconnecting with old friends (and new ones)!

by Sarah

The first night, we slept in Streetsboro, Ohio at a beautiful hotel called the Fairfield Inn & Suites.  I was glad to have free continental breakfast, clean shower, and clean rooms.  However, this was a huge mistake to go to such a beautiful place for our first stop since it set the bar for all the other stops we'd be making.  The only reason we stayed here was because it was so late into the evening and we just wanted to find a place to stay.  Well, we got up, ate breakfast and got on our way.  We were going to visit my friend Liz who I met while studying abroad in Lithuania two years ago.  I hadn't seen her since we said goodbye on the bus early that December morning.  We met her at Michigan State University where we met up with Nicole's friends Sarah and Carl from Quinnipiac Univeristy.  Carl, Sarah, Nicole, and Lauren walked around campus (causing Lauren some blisters on her feet) and I went to coffee with Liz.  We caught up over coffee and it was just like old times.  It was so wonderful to see her and just to be together for a couple hours.  So, all of us met up a couple hours later and went on our way to Indianapolis.  We drove through beautiful corn fields, more corn fields, oh, and some more corn fields.  We arrived in Indianapolis to visit my cousin and her new baby girl Emma Jean Wittmann Crane.  She came into the world earlier that morning and I was privileged to see her on her zero year birthday!  She is beautiful.  I was in awe when I saw her.  She was so tiny and her skin was so soft. I got to hold her and cuddle with her.  I brought her a little pink dress and some little onesy outfits, as well as a pale green blanket that I knitted for her.  We dressed her up in the dress and she looked like a little princess.  So beautiful!  I'll put up pictures as soon as I can.  After visiting with Jean, her husband John, and Emma, we went on to drive a few hours so that we would cut down the driving time for the next day.  I'll allow either Lauren or Nicole to post about the hotel we stayed at that night to be fair to them (you'll see why later...).  Thats all for now!