Last month Leslie and I celebrated our fourth anniversary. Just for fun, we've been giving each other the traditional anniversary gifts (at least partially... then usually something else not necessarily in theme). Number four is fruit/flowers, which is a challenging one. So, as part of my gift this year, I gave Leslie an apple seed. Pretty lame, right? Well, yes. But what it symbolized was what we were doing that weekend - going to Fort Wayne for the annual Johnny Appleseed festival!
It was a rainy weekend, but that didn't stop us from having fun. Neither of us had been to the festival in a long time, so it was cool to go now, as adults, and enjoy it together. We bought a few little things to take home - some earrings for Leslie, some loose leaf tea for me, and some decorative things for the house. We also chowed down on some good food. Johnny Appleseed doesn't have your normal carnival food - they mandate that everything should be cooked with traditional means and methods. This means the hamburger stands and carts of fried candy bars are replaced by people dressed in period clothing cooking food over open fires. We tried some of the Chicken and Dumplings that the music boosters from our old high school sells every year, some Apple Petals (fried apple slices with caramel drizzle), traditional Root Beer, and some Roasted Almonds. Beyond the food, we also enjoyed checking out the bagpipes and other live music, seeing ole Johnny's grave, and checking out all the handmade goods. It was a great time and we were glad to have finally made it there together. We finished off the night with dinner at
Baker Street Station - a local steakhouse we'd never been to before. It
was fantastic and I enjoyed my steak almost as much as Leslie enjoyed
her salmon. I don't know when we would go again, but we both agreed that
we would love to return. Seriously Fort Wayne people, we highly
recommend it.
We started off the next day with breakfast at Spyro's Pancake House, which I had somehow never been to. After we ate our fill of eggs and french toast, we headed to that day's main event: the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo! Leslie loves animals, so she's a fan of pretty much any zoo. But we both have good memories of the Fort Wayne zoo, so coming here was a special treat for sure. We took the morning to explore zoo, see what had changed since our last visit (quite a lot, actually), and even went on the log ride! Plus the rain held off and it was a little cool in the morning, so the animals were active and we didn't have a carry umbrellas, which made it just that much better. So, after a perfect morning wandering through the African Savannah, the Indonesian Rainforest, the Australian Outback, and a Midwestern farm, it was time to head home. We had our fun and now it was time to return home to see our own animals.
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| No, we don't know these people... but that giraffe was really close and that chubby baby is awesome |
So, while this wasn't our most exciting anniversary vacation, it was a lot of fun. We don't usually do anything like this when we're in Fort Wayne, so it was nice to do some other stuff and not just spend time with family (not that we don't like seeing our families, but this was a good way to spend a weekend too). And next year is wood or silverware, which already sounds much easier to buy for than fruit/flowers. But, just in case, guess I should start planning next year right now...
Thanks for reading and we'll see you later!
