When an occasional chance to get out of town for a minute presents itself, I have a “just say yes” policy. I love trips in the car… staring out at the world as it passes me by. I find it to be really peaceful.
Anyway, a day trip to Lafayette, IN was on the docket for Saturday. A shining star in the middle of a corn infested, flat-as-a-pancake, Wal-Mart-centric state, Lafayette is hilly, and decidedly hip – at least, for Indiana. So while I might have passed on, say, a trip to Hobart, I knew that Lafayette would be a nice treat.
While the gf attended a rehearsal I wandered around Purdue’s beautiful campus, in search of wifi and a cozy nook in which to get some work done. Apparently, if you want wifi anywhere on campus you have to request it weeks in advance. So, after twiddling my thumbs and running software updates on my computer for about half an hour, I walked into a little downtown-ish area and found the Greyhouse Cafe.
Wifi: check.
Nook: check.
Really big and delicious hot chocolate: check. check.
This is a serious college town coffee shop. Hipsters wearing bandanas make beautiful foam in enormous for-here mugs and there are easily 40 seats with their own power outlets. Apparently you can order a crepe, which I hear are good, and take about 45 minutes to prepare in the kitchen. It doesn’t matter, because Greyhouse is a place you want to stay for hours.
On the return trip, we stopped at the mysterious Fair Oaks Farm off of I-65 in Fair Oaks, IN. Having passed the self-proclaimed “Dairy Adventure” on numerous trips through Indiana, it’s a place that has always piqued my curiosity, though never enough to stop… until now.
After my recent up-close and personal day with a flock of turkeys, I wasn’t certain how this was going to measure up, but thought it could be interesting to see the birthing barn. When we found out it was twelve dollars each to board a black and white camouflaged school bus to see a cow or five, I thought better of it and ultimately passed on the whole Dairy Adventure. The cafe/gift shop was really enough for me to get the idea that a couple of midwestern dairy farmers likely got drunk one night and decided to transform their struggling farm into an over-commercialized Six Flags Over Fair Oaks, IN. I will say, however, that the grilled cheese was one of the best I’ve ever had, and I would go back again, if on I-65, simply for that reason.
Lauren Warnecke 
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