FITZGERALD'S CORN

Today we moved on to Rising Sun, Indiana, about as close as we can get to Cincinnati. After dinner, I looked at Fitzgerald's blog, and there it was-another picture of their corn that they planted this year. Now, we've watched the progress without saying anything. But-how long can we remain silent? We couldn't find a fancy ruler like they use, but we're PROUD to show you that our corn is over ten feet tall-and WE HAVE EARS!!!!




I'll bet even Kathy and Jerry, our farmer relatives are impressed!!!

BABIES

We were happy to hear that Pat and Kathy Fitzgerald are going to be grandparents for the fourth time, and we've been told that Larry and Colette Wilson are going to have their second grandchild. Hurray! Now, everyone knows that we're thrilled with our six, but it's been ten years since we've had babies. We were kind of bummed-until we discovered we're going to have twins!!! Our spider plant is going to have two babies. So there!!!

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

We thought we'd share a few pictures of our second favorite genealogy library where we;ve spent the last two weeks. The LDS library in Salt Lake City is the best, but Ft. Wayne is also great. It's huge!

One of the hallways has interesting quotations.

This is just one small area of the book stacks.

I sneaked this picture through a book shelf-it's tough when your camera makes noise. It only shows a small area of the researchers.

FT. WAYNE CITY MARKET

We went to the farmers market in Ft. Wayne and thought it was pretty nice. We know Decorah is thinking of a permanent area for their market. We were impressed with these poles and coverings and thought we'd pass the idea along to the city fathers.

CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Yet another beautiful cathedral-inside wood and stained glass windows-outside beautiful gardens.

DEBRAND CHOCOLATIER

As we drove up to DeBrand Chocolatier to take a tour, I was surprised how large the building
was.

The other surprise was how classy the place was.

The tour began with a 15 minute movie-I've never seen a picture frame used as a movie screen before.

We weren't able to take pictures on the tour, which is a shame, because it was very interesting and there were several things made out of chocolate, such as the Eiffel tower. They have many Hollywood clients and provide chocolate bars for all the Trump enterprises. Usually you get a sample or two, but we got six-one better than the other. When it's over, you can get your $5 back if you spend $10. It can be on their desserts or chocolates. We opted for their homemade ice cream and toppings-thank God we didn't gain an ounce! Our Scott thinks Belgian chocolate is to die for-so is DeBrand!

If you look closely, you can see a Trump bar behind the Irving one.

It was a fun afternoon!

MORE FT WAYNE

I'm often amazed to see how close things can be to each other. You can stand on the little hill by the old cabin and Johnny's grave, and look the other direction and see the very modern coliseum. It's home to many events in Ft. Wayne.

One of the things I noticed in this town, was the amount of women carrying Vera Bradley purses and totes. There are so many, that even Don began to notice them, after I pointed them out several times. I did some research on the internet, and found that this is where they're made. Each spring they have a huge sale at the coloseum, and everyone in town must buy one. I had to go to the original store to see what I could find. It's pretty classy.

JOHNNY APPLESEED'S GRAVE

Since we're staying at the Johnny Appleseed Campground, we thought we should find his grave which is nearby. It's been fixed up very nicely by the garden club and is surrounded by what else-apple trees. They have a sign telling about his life, a gated grave and a small log cabin behind it.





Notice the apples on top.

TINCAPS

Last night we took a break from research, and went to the baseball game-the Ft. Wayne TinCaps vs. the Quad City River Bandits. We've been driving by this new stadium and were curious about the name of the team and their logo. This is the place where Johnny Appleseed died and it's the name of our campground. The logo is an apple with a tin pan on, but it not only has a handle, it also has a tree branch protruding-it looks like a tin cap. They have there own version you can buy, similar to the cheesehead hats. Anyway, the stadium is fantastic and the tickets are cheap. The game was great and the TinCaps won, but the audience partcipation was fantastic. They had something for kids going on at every break, and it was nice to see families having so much fun. The game the night before was rained out, so we got to see the end of that game also-and they won. The first two pictures were before the scheduled game started-it was almost full on a Monday night.



A bunch of people who were celebrating their birthdays got to pitch a ball to the catcher-one of them was a little guy who waddled like a duck-he was really cute!

Here are some happy fans appearing on the screen.

Here's Johnny!

It was a fun evening. After the game, they let kids run the bases-how neat!

CINDY'S DINER

We've found an interesting little place for lunch-emphasis on the little! Cindy's diner holds 15 people with very little room to spare. The food is good and the interaction between the locals is interesting-middle America at its finest! Since we decided to stay for another week, I'll bet we end up there for a third time.

Looking to the left.

Looking to the right-a doughnut machine.

BOTANICAL CONSERVATORY

On Sunday afternoon, we went downtown to go to the library, but it was closed, so we ended up at the conservatory. There are three main parts to it, one was tropical, one was a desert and the other had annuals and perrenials.

There were some pretty flowers. I couldn't help but think of my mother-she loved gardenias, and dad bought her many plants over the years.

Some areas were quite colorful.

Here's an interesting container.

The tropical area had a small waterfall.

The desert area had a huge prickly pear in bloom.

It was like being back in Arizona.

GOOCH'S GREENHOUSE

When we were in Dubuque, we camped at the Rustic Barn, about six miles across the bridge in Kieler, WI. In talking with Don's brother Marvin and sister Barb, we learned about a good place to get pizza. It's in the small town of Kieler, which is too small to have the population listed in the atlas, so Don figures there's probably a couple hundred people. The pizza was good, but we laughed at their claim to fame.

If you blink, you'll miss downtown Kieler!

WHERE ARE THEY?

For those of you that expected to see us in Grinnell or Omaha-we turned the wrong direction and are in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. We're here for a week at our second favorite genealogy library. I found about 65 documents today on various relatives, so I'm happy. Since we're in the area, we'll probably head to Cincinnati next week. We did have a real small town experience before we left, but it's midnight, so you'll have to wait to hear about it. Just thought the kids should know where we are.

MORE PARTY

The party went on all day with other relatives and friends joining the group. Here's Grandma with her younger sister, "Pete".

A group of Mulerts.

Like other families, the youngest member is "passed around" all day since everyone likes to hold babies! Here's Emily with Jenna.

Even Jake took a turn with his Dad and Uncle Jerry looking on.

And my favorite picture-Aunt Linda holding Emily while her sister Anna gives her a kiss.

It was a lovely day. Hopefully the photographer's pictures of the whole group will turn out good for Grandma!

GRANDMA'S 90!!!

On Saturday we had a party for Grandma at Eagle Point Park with almost all of Don's family. We had a good time and hope Ida did too. Here she is with all of her great-grandchildren except our grandson Lucas, who was in Omaha running the 800 in a regional race after winning state. The kids range in age from 16 to 5 months.

Then they got to have a "silly picture".

I gave my camera to someone to get a picture of our family, but it's not very good-obviously we weren't ready. I hope the photographer did better.

We have two families with five children. It's interesting to listen to their mothers comparing notes. Carrie has a chance to remember when hers were little and Wendy gets a look at what's to come. Our son Russ, his wife Carrie with Jake, Dan, Jenna, Brian and Joe.

Pat and Jerry's son Ted and wife Wendy with Joey, Tommy, Jack, Anna and Emily.