Lake Wawasee - Brady

I spent this Memorial Day weekend at Lake Wawasee, one of my all-time favorite places and next on my list of things I'll miss about Fort Wayne. The awesomeness of Lake Wawasee was especially apparent to me during this trip because the weekend was interrupted by an impromptu journey to the infield at the Indianapolis 500, one of the things I will miss LEAST about Indiana. Maybe you can get an idea of the heat, exhaustion, noise, and general disgustingness of the event by looking at this shot, from a couple of years ago:

Needless to say, I was happy happy happy to return to the lake on Sunday night after my 3rd year feeling like THAT.

Kevin and I both (separately, obviously) vacationed at Lake Wawasee as kids. When we were deciding where to get married it seemed like a logical choice. It's beautiful and fun, we have a history there, it was destination wedding-y without being inconvenient for most of our friends and family, and it was almost exactly halfway between my hometown and his (symbolic, huh?).

I'll obviously still visit the lake a lot even after moving to Chicago, but the close proximity to it over the last two years has been so nice.

Here are some pictures from the last few summers at the lake.

My mom and me on The Lillypad, the boat where Kevin and I had our rehearsal dinner. Also, the hotel where Kevin and I got married is in the background.

Kevin's parents' condo.

Reading/working on the porch. Probably my favorite thing to do there.

Kevin's dad, aka Swamp Monster, after a spill into the lake.

The view from Kevin's parents' porch. I could sit there all day. I take the comment from two pictures up back. Sitting here in the morning with a cup of coffee is my favorite thing to do at Lake Wawasee.

Our Beautiful House - Brady

I love our house in Fort Wayne in any season, but spring is my favorite. On days like today when the weather is so great, I think I'll miss living here full time a lot.

This was actually taken at Thanksgiving, but it's really the only one we've got of an inside view.

Our room. It opens up onto a little porch in the back and a little strip of woods that separates our house from the ones behind us.

I love this picture. My husband took it of our road. Motorcyclists love to drive down it because it's really pretty and really winding.

A stone path leading to our front door and some of our flowering trees.

View of our house coming up our driveway.

Cinema Center - Brady

And another reason!

Cinema Center. A single-screen, independent theater in Fort Wayne where you can get popcorn with all those fancy salt choices OR gourmet chocolate. Yum.

I just got back from dinner at Pint & Slice, a fun pizza place downtown, and a free screening of the movie Wall Street at CC followed by a discussion lead by who I think was an IPFW professor. (We didn't stay for the discussion, unfortunately. Teaching starts too early!)

My only complaint is there were only about 15 people in the whole theater! I guess I am looking forward to living somewhere where there's slightly more interest in events like this.

Roanoke - Brady

Next in line on the list of reasons why I will be a little sad to move away from Fort Wayne (maybe I'll make this a series) is yoga and food in Roanoke.

Regularly, my husband, in-laws, and I go to a great Tuesday night yoga class in Roanoke, Indiana at the Powers of One. Val is a perfect instructor for me. She's challenging, but the class isn't overwhelming. And Roanoke is the cutest town in the world. It's tiny, but Joseph Decuis is there. Some people say that's the best restaurant in the state. Anyway, after yoga, we head over to a bar called The Village Inn and get some combination of salad, fried food, beer, and their awesome dinner rolls. The atmosphere is great, too, minus the smoke that's still allowed in there.

If, perchance, the yoga class we attend is on Saturday, not Tuesday, we go to a diner (I don't even know it's name!) that has perfect, greasy cheese omelets and good coffee.

I wonder if I'll be able to find an equally great combo of working out and pigging out in Chicago. :)

One Thing I'll Miss About Fort Wayne - Brady

Here are photos from the very first Fort Wayne TinCaps game ever! Kevin and I had tickets to the inaugural event. It is a beautiful park, right downtown. It makes me excited for what's in store for the city and just a little sad I won't be here as often to witness it.

- Brady