Spring Break Trip - Day 4

[ate breakfast at the hotel (leftovers and snacks) - checked out at 0800 - our first stop was at Saint Mary's College, just west of Notre Dame - the weather was really pretty and we found a good parking place at the Welcome Center (0930) - the Twins' names were listed on the school billboard (!) and the red carpet was definitely rolled out for them - we got the royal treatment in the tour (classrooms, library, dorm rooms, cafeteria, etc.) - at the end, we visited the Admissions office and the girls received a first class vetting by the staff - we learned there is an engineering program that partners with Notre Dame and allows students to receive a degree from ND (!) - ate a free lunch in the dining hall (another really good meal) before departing - we drove south on US-31, sort of sad to leave South Bend after several really good days there... - switched to IN-25 near Rochester and took it all the way to I-65 - the kids slept almost all the way to West Lafayette - they didn't even ask to stop - when we finally arrived, we spent about an hour exploring the Purdue campus - we looked for places to park (hardly any) and planned out our return for the morning - the Twins contacted their mother to set up the tour with one of their friend's from Texas - after looking for hotels for about an hour, we found a reasonably priced one (Quality Inn) in Lafayette, arriving at 1630 - we got settled and the kids did some homework for a bit - on the way to dinner, we drove to the AT&T Store (nearby) to try to get Erin's phone fixed - it turned out that it couldn't be done there (or quickly), so we gave up and looked around for a place to eat - we stumbled across a place called Sushi Don (Asian Fusion) in Lafayette (1915) - at first, the kids indicated disatisfaction with the food choices, but it turned out to be really good (stone bowl teryaki chicken for the Twins and sushi for me and Mollie) - we also had some appetizers (croquets) and good drinks - overall, a big hit - afterwards, I took advantage of the long day (west end of the Eastern timezone) and convinced the kids to let me drive them to nearby Tippecanoe Battlefield - I got disoriented on some farm roads north of West Lafayette and we ended up in some big cornfields with huge windmills - the sun was setting when I finally found the right roads (combination of IN-18, I-65 and IN-43 to find the park in Battle Ground - we took some pictures of the monuments as dusk settled and then we headed back to the hotel - the kids studied and watched TV while I read - bed late]