First off, thanks for the birthday wishes! I had a wonderful birthday on Friday and a great weekend in Madison, Indiana to celebrate turning 26.

Madison is a small and quaint Indiana town nestled against the Ohio River. It’s also the next-door town to Hanover, Indiana, where Chris and I went to college.

We got into Madison Friday night later than we planned, so after a quick dinner of burgers and fries, we turned in early so we could be up and at ‘em on Saturday.

Saturday morning was chilly and dreary, but we braved the cold and headed to good-old Hanover College to walk around campus and relive our college memories. I know most people are fond of their college years and their Alma Mater, but I  really think that Hanover is a special place. There aren’t many campuses that can rival Hanover in terms of beauty, that’s for sure!

The Point on Hanover’s campus.

In front of Classic Hall, where I had my English and history classes!

The Quad.

After touring our old campus, we headed back down to Madison for an early lunch at my favorite lunch spot, The Downtowner. I get the same sandwich and potato salad every time, and it never disappoints!

From lunch, we headed to the Lanier Mansion to tour the grand, 19th-century mansion and gardens. Touring the Lanier is something that I’ve always wanted to do, but was too cheap in college to do it (even though it only costs a measly $5). The mansion itself was stately and gorgeous, but I was especially excited about the gardens, which were full of purple irises. I was sad to see the rows of peonies weren’t in bloom yet — but they looked like they were about to pop! (Side note: I learned on the tour that the state flower of Indiana is the peony. I didn’t know this!)

After we finished reveling in the beauty of the Lanier, we walked over to Lanthier Winery. We tried some of the wines, and I got a glass of their Rivertown White to sip on while we walked around their impressive gardens. (Our weekend was full of enjoying beautiful gardens, let me tell ya!) They, too, had lots of irises in bloom, in addition to many, many other flowers. They had some bright pink single chameleon peonies in bloom that had big, yellow middles. So pretty!

While we were at the winery, the sun decided to show its face and warm up the day, so I decided it was time for some shopping downtown. Since we last visited Madison, there has been a new wave of shops open up, and there were lots of people out and about shopping on Saturday. We browsed lots of antique shops, clothing boutiques, gift stores, and shops full of fun knick knacks. I got a couple bath bombs and a candle that’s a pretty good dupe of the Capri Blue Volcano from All Good Things Soaps and Such.

We worked up an appetite while shopping, so we headed back to our cottage to change for dinner. We ate at Bistro One, which is a Mediterranean restaurant. We shared the “world famous hoummus,” and it was by far the best hummus I’ve ever had. For my entree, I had the gnocchi, which was just as tasty.

After dinner, we enjoyed a beer at our old stomping grounds, Shipley’s Tavern. And we couldn’t resist a late-night stop at Hinkle’s for a milk shake and slider. (Yes, I’m on a serious cleanse this week after all the eating we did over the weekend, ha!)

I was sad to head home on Sunday morning, but was also ready to see our kitties!

By the way, we stayed at the Dove Cottage and fell in love with this quint little house! We had a river view and were in walking distance of downtown and all the action. We’ll definitely be staying there again!