Last Thursday Night in Fort Wayne, Indiana

listening to: 2008 Bejing Olympics on NBC

Heather and I had an opportunity to get away for a long weekend without the kids for the first time in years! One of my cousins (once removed) in Louisville, Kentucky, had her wedding on Saturday night, so we saw that as our chance to get away.

Our weekend actually had its start on Wednesday night when we picked up a fun rental Mitsubishi Eclipse rental in South Bend. If we were going to get away, we wanted to make it fun and different. We celebrated with the kids at Chili’s here locally.

Neither Heather nor I could wait for the day to get over. Katelyn was already gone with some friends we have here in town, and we just needed to take Dylan to his grandparent’s place in Indiana.

We took off just before 6 PM with the top down. Of course, we had to run into some rain on our way to Indiana. While we drove through the first wave, we were on a four-lane highway, so we were able to drive fast enough to keep the rain from hitting us. However, once we hit the state highways that have stoplights, we had a more difficult time of keeping dry. Ha ha ha. Well, that was the last time we saw rain the entire weekend.

We dropped off Dylan, and were off to Fort Wayne. Heather and I wanted to relive a little fun at our old stomping grounds when we were dating, and I was living in Fort Wayne. Our plan was to make it to Henry’s, an artsy tavern-restaurant. Heather had always loved their Chicken Milano, which is chicken in pasta, sun-dried tomatoes and a delicious sauce with white wine and other proprietary ingredients.

I was surprised at how easily Fort Wayne came back to me, even after all the years that had passed since I moved from it in 2000. Just Goshen Road alone held a lot of memories I forgot I had! Restaurants, businesses, landmarks, and even gas stations all came back to me.

We found Henry’s right where it always was. We could not find an official website, so we were worried it might be out of business. It has a lot of reviews and mentions in restaurant web sites, so we could only assume it was still there and as good as ever. Our backup plan was Munchie Emporium, another local phenomenon.

We walked in, and found that the front room was pretty much the same as it had been when we were last there in 2001. The old German bar and booths were still there. We sat in the back room, which had been expanded some years ago. I’ll give them credit, the expansion had been seamless, and it took me some time to realize that there had been some changes back there.

We brought over a candle to our booth, and began our wonderful and leisurely dinner. Surely enough, Heather ordered the Chicken Milano, and I ordered a New York strip steak. Heather’s meal did not disappoint her at all, and I was quite delighted with mine as well. My steak was served with garlic and shallot butter, and you would be surprised at how just good that really is. Even the blue cheese dressing was unique and memorable.

Afterwards, we went over a few blocks to Headwaters Park, which is just off downtown and along the river. It’s a popular site for city festivals, and features a lighted water fountain you can run through and even stand in and not get wet. We literally get to the fountain to take some pictures, and it shuts off! However, the landscaping misters turn on, and it made for a creepy fog effect. My camera did not do it justice.

It was late, so we headed to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. We had a big trip to Louisville on Friday.

More to come . . .

buck on 08.19.08 @ 10:03 PM EST [link] [No Comments]