Memories of Three Rivers Festival

Are there memories of your childhood, that everytime you think of them, make you smile inside and out?  My brother and I were on the phone yesterday talking about one of those memories: Three Rivers Festival, an annual summer festival in Fort Wayne we went to every year while growing up.

TRF always started with the parade on Saturday.  When we were young, Dad would take Brian and I to the parade if Mom had to work on Saturdays.  (Brian and I started marching in the parade when we were in H.S and I eventually ended up in the parade with the radio stations I used to worked at.)  We'd always go to "A Slice of Summer" when the Old Fort was still the Old Fort (I specifially remember my brother winner a watermelon seed spitting contest at the Slice of Summer); we'd go to Junk Food Alley and eat Monte Cristos from the stand my High School Marching Band used to run, get Lemon Shake-Ups, fried cheese from the Wisconsin Cheese stand and Elephant Ears from the Big Red Barn; we'd go to the big-wheel race, the boat race, the bed race, we'd go back to Junk Food Alley, we'd go to Freiman Square and play in the fountain; and we'd watch the closing night fireworks from downtown wishing the one week of excitement in Fort Wayne could continue all summer. 

After talking about the memories of the festival, it made me a bit homesick, so I decided to head up north and spend the day with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece at Three Rivers Festival.  (Mike had previous commitments at church today, so he wasn't able to go with me.) 

When I arrived at my brothers house, my niece was just waking up from her nap.  I walked into her room to get her out of her crib, and when she lifted her head and saw me, she instantly had a giant smile across her face.  My heart melted. And when I picked her up she gave me the biggest bear hug.  As far as I was concerned, if the day ended right there, I'd be okay because that smile and hug was all I needed. 

After getting Addison ready, we piled into my brothers car and went downtown for Three Rivers Festival.  We walked around Art in the Park, looked at the sidewalk chalk drawings, walked around Freiman Square, Junk Food Alley (Steph and I got our lemon shake-ups and Brian got his fried Wisconsin Cheese), both sides of Headwaters Park, visisted the site of the Old Fort and saw some of the reenactors, ran into some of my friends from high school (that actually live about 20 minutes away from me in Indy, but it was the first time I'd seen them in almost a year...) and got a nice sunburn.  After three hours, we were hot, sweaty, and tired, so we headed back to my brothers house to go swimming and relax.

While Three Rivers Festival isn't quite the same as it was when we were growing up, it's still a memory of mine that I'll always remember.  I'm so glad that I was able to revisit and create new memories of Three Rivers Festival with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece today.

Fort Wayne friends:  What are your memories of Three Rivers Festival?