Fort Wayne For Work and Back to Michigan to Visit Family

Scott had a shoot in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

This time I was shooting some high end pontoons at the Harris Boat factory.

Having never been there before we decided to come along too. To break up the 9.5 hour drive we stopped for the night near Madison, Wisconsin.

The kids love staying in hotels.

This was our first stay at Tru by Hilton. Dumb name, slick hotels.

Once we arrived in Fort Wayne we found a playground for the kids to burn off some energy after being in the car for so long. 

Promenade Park was very cool. It connected across both sides of the Fort Wayne riverfront.

Winnipeg and Fort Wayne have cool riverfront spaces. C'mon Minneapolis. 

Next to the playground was an outfitters. Had we had more time we could have rented a canoe.

There were also the river equivalent of pedal pubs cruising along the river.

So far Fort Wayne was turning out to be a pretty cool city.

Then we stumbled upon a super cool splash pad and kids canal.

The kids got to splash and run through the canal. Hopping from rock to rock and in and out of the water.

The "headwaters" starts at this fountain and then flows down to the splash pad. 

Every park needs swinging benches. 

Literally while driving to Indiana I looked up things to do in Fort Wayne. That's where I stumbled upon a place called Ted's Beerhall. It seemed like it had a cool space and big patio.

Of course Theo and Meadow got giant pretzels.

The nachos with housemade chips were delish.

Good one Ted, good one. 

Not bad for being way on the edge of town. It's in Fort Wayne, but it looked like the exurbs.

While Scott was out working for most of the day, he dropped us off at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. What makes this zoo a children's zoo vs a normal zoo I'll never know but the kids were having fun right away.

Anytime we go on walks lately Theo suddenly gets "tired" and asks to be carried. I was not going to carry him all day so he got the zoo stroller.

The Indonesian Rain Forest had a cool biodome to walk through.

It was just as hot and humid outside. 

I guess there were kids only areas so is this what makes it a children's zoo?

I thought this thing was real at first.

I guess we found all the kids things.

This zoo was actually pretty cool. Probably the best I've been to. Way better than the Minnesota Zoo.

It doesn't look like it but we did actually see a lot of real animals. 

The park had various rides in each section. To pay for the rides you had to use special zoo tokens. To get the zoo tokens you had to use a coin exchange machine. I didn't have any cash on me. We thought we were at a loss when we found one machine that took cards over by the pony rides.

This was Meadow's first time horse riding and she loved it.

Before Scott came to pick us up we did a quick ride on the Endangered Species carousel. 

After Scott picked us up we headed downtown for dinner.

I spent the day sweating my way through shooting four pontoons at Harris' factory. The kids and Brooke spent the day sweating at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.

We had dinner downtown at Alto Grado Pizza. Theo was in a sour mood, but eventually calmed down. 

This was on a new pedestrian mall just steps from Promenade Park.

My beer even came from the brewery across the street.

We also splurged and had the S'more pizza for dessert. Yum.

I know where I'm coming back to next time I shoot at Harris (make sure you click the link to see what I've been working on for the pontoon company).

All over the city were these benches that were painted by local artists.

Bison in Indiana? Maybe.

I guess so. Settlers were real assholes.

We brought our swimsuits this time so the kids could actually play in the kids canal but the water was turned off. Back to the playground it is.

Okay, one of the restaurants in Three Lakes needs to do this. 

They didn't mind.

The next morning we drove north to Michigan.

We got to visit my mom for the first time with the whole family since Christmas 2019. We also got to check out my mom's new condo.

We had dinner downtown at Main Street BBQ. The cousins had some catching up to do.

We'll be coming back again next time we visit.

Theo wouldn't leave my side with all these "new" people around.

We then played at my mom's house for a bit.

We would stay the next couple of nights with Katrina and Dennis. 

Frozen chocolate covered bananas?Sure!

I ended up buying a new-to-me camera from some big dude from Grand Rapids. How does it look?

I took a turn at the trampoline for a bit. 

It felt like this is all the kids did.

I bought my mom a new TV since she just a had a little one. It seemed like an easy task, but soon turned into a bit of headache.

I had to mount it to the wall and the TV seemed a bit small. And then it glitched out. I would have to exchange it and start all over the next day.

While he worked on that, Katrina, the kids and I walked around town. We got ice cream that even came with sprinkle eyes.

For the rest of the night my mom would have to settle on her old TV.

My mom's new place was looking good. A few things need to be finished and we're still waiting on the actual fridge.

I had to go to Best Buy to return the TV I had just bought. I feel like every time I come to Michigan I have some kind of of unforeseen technical support meltdown. Why, I was just trying to be helpful!

Legos and trampoline. The kids were having a blast. 

Cool. These kids will be on Lego Masters some day.

 

Hey, look, a TV that isn't glitching and fits the wall better. Don't worry, the antenna disappeared.

Then after coming back to a mad wife (I took too long helping my mom out) we said goodbye to the Wrobleskis.

We had a 9 hour drive and it was 3:00 in the afternoon...

Goodbye, Michigan.

Hello, Chicago.

See you soon, Minneapolis.