St. Joseph County, located at the northern edge of Indiana near the Michigan state line, is probably best known for its premiere university, Notre Dame and its major city, South Bend.

But even beyond the bustling city and the beautiful Gothic style Notre Dame campus with its magnificent stone buildings and paeans to football legends past and present, St. Joseph County is a charming place with cute towns and villages, small lakes and the winding St. Joseph River which courses through the landscape. So think beyond the gridiron and explore what else St. Joseph County has to offer.

Mishawaka

A must for serious shoppers is Mishawaka, named after the daughter of a Native American chief, for the wonderful shopping along Grape Road including the sprawling University Park Mall.

If green is your thing, the Shiojiri Garden, located in Merrifield Park in Mishawaka, offers a peaceful setting of bridges, flowers, waterways and trees comprising different vignettes, one connecting to another so that visitors are enticed to keep walking into different landscapes. This Japanese style garden, one of only a handful in Indiana, was designed by Shoji Kanaoka, a Japanese landscape architect who works at Epcot Center, Disney World, Florida.