From First Photo to First Dance

This Memorial Day weekend has been a memory maker for our family.

The first part you can read about here, including the comment for an update: http://www.sclohoreally.com/2011/05/first-photo.html

Earlier in the week I mentioned on Twitter that we should have someone Tweet the Wedding.

Rachael invited a table full of some of her Twitter Friends, (That's usually people that you first meet on Twitter, who become face to face friends too), to the wedding and we nominated Christie to be the official Wedding Tweeper complete with the hashtag #GGWed !


I can see it now, you have a best man, maid of honor, caterer, and now an official Tweeper for your wedding with your own hashtag, so you can read it later!

And the significance of #GGWed?

My daughter Rachael, goes by the Twitter name @GreenGlassHero and her husband is not on Twitter. So we shortened GreenGlass to GG and that made it short enough that others could still have room to Tweet.

So, Christie's Tweeps were mostly pictures which I'll share in a second.

I was not about to Twitter during the wedding, despite my Twitter-holic nature!

In a few hours, I'll be heading to Indianapolis to visit my daughter Tiffany who was supposed to be in the wedding, but decided to give birth to my first grandson Calvin and turn Tiff and her husband Jon from parents-to-be to simply parents! (Welcome to the club!)

Perhaps Tiff got to see the updates as they were going on via the Twitter updates from her hospital room. She was missed by all of us, but I am relieved that both of my daughters have survived May 28th, 2011 with all of the blessings of marriage and a growing family.

Now, a few pictures...



The walk down the stairway was so easy the night before when I was wearing comfortable shoes, but this was the walk of death for my feet. I decided to Man-Up and walk with a smile as a proud parent down the stairs with my daughter Rachael on my arm, with only minutes left to her being a single lady.



The ceremony on the steps in the museum with Rachael and Brandon preparing to exchange vows, rings and later their first dance as Mr. & Mrs.



One of the shots of the reception. Rachael is visible at the head table, and also included in this shot are my son Josh in the blue/purple shirt on the left, and step daughter Abby in the red dress on the right. Sitting in the white shirt next to Abby is her fiance Jeff. Their wedding date is August 13, 2011.



And this is Christie who recorded the wedding with these pictures and Twitter updates.

The weekend and the month continues....

Fort WayneTweet Up For Good

On Twitter? Good, you are invited.

Not on Twitter, that's okay, you are invited too.

Amber Recker of Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana was talking on Twitter recently about getting together with other non-profits and pretty soon a Fort Wayne Tweet Up was planned.

In Fort Wayne we have a pretty active Social Media Community. Here's a chance to meet some of your fellow Social Media folks.

Details are from the CSNI page:

Calling all Fort Wayne Tweeps!

Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana, NeighborLink, Parkview Foundation and PBS39 have teamed up to bring you the first non-profit sponsored Fort Wayne Tweet Up!

What's a Tweet Up? It's simply a real-life meet up organized on Twitter.

There will be food, there will be drinks, and there will be information on-hand about the hosting non-profit organizations.

So, mark your calendars and bring your friends!

Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 5:30PM

Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana

6316 Mutual Drive, Fort Wayne

For directions, click HERE!

To RSVP, click HERE or use #fwtweetuprsvp on Twitter

Learn more about the hosting organizations:

Cancer Services has been serving individuals with cancer and their families in Northeast Indiana since 1944. Its mission is based on the belief that a cancer diagnosis bring with it more needs than the obvious need for medical care, and these needs affect the entire family. People with cancer and their families need emotional support and practical resources, and they can find them at Cancer Services.

Follow on Twitter: @cancersvcsni

NeighborLink is a faith-based nonprofit that encourages neighbor-to-neighbor expressions of God's love. We're a web-based, neighborhood development organization that provides volunteer opportunities to help disadvantaged residents who have basic needs they can't find help with anywhere else. Imagine an online community where neighbors can help neighbors.

Follow on Twitter: @NeighborLinkFW

Parkview is not for profit, but for people. As a health system passionate about providing excellent care for every patient, every day, the Parkview Foundation exists to support the on-going work of the hospital. We believe that generosity heals. When the community invests in the Foundation, we are able to provide technology upgrades, training and education for our clinical staff and go beyond the basics of care like the comfort of a teddy bear for pediatric patients in the ER or a car seat to get a baby home safely. Each Parkview hospital has a Foundation that supports the work and the money invested in each local Foundations, stays in that local community.

Follow on Twitter: @ParkviewFDNs

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WFWA PBS39 has been broadcasting since 1975 to the Fort Wayne area, and since 1985 as an independent, community-owned and operated PBS station, the only one of its kind serving northeast Indiana. Each day, we offer 'round the clock non-commercial educational programming across four digital channels: PBS39HD/Channel 39-1; Kids39/Channel 39-2; Create TV/Channel 39-3 and 39-4you/Channel 39-4. PBS39 is proud to offer equal access to the highest quality televisions programs available to everyone within reach of our signal, every day.

Follow on Twitter: PBS39FtWayne

Food in the Fort (The Downtown Version)

A week ago, my wife Kathy and I decided to do a weekend staycation. We made a reservation at the new Courtyard in downtown Fort Wayne for Friday night and then it was time to pick a place for dinner.

I decided to ask for recommendations on Twitter and Facebook.

Looking for suggestions for dinner in Downtown #FortWayne Friday evening

Three minutes later the suggestions started pouring in. Here's a few of them:

We went to Bourbon Street (lower level of Columbia Street) a couple weeks ago, and it was great--unique and fun.

JK O'Donnells.

Paula's is my fav and Club Soda is awesome too!

Toscani's has an awesome chicken alfredo pizza and such YUMMY breadsticks. You can get wine and beer too! It's more casual than the others have mentioned, but my fav downtown anyway.

I say you can never go wrong with Powers! Maybe you're looking for something a little more fancy? lol

Scott- About 90% of the time I go out, it is downtown so here is my two cents worth:

Toscani - Pretty good pizza. Better than Pizza Hut or Papa Johns. Tables are close and there is little privacy - if that's your thing.

Club Soda - Always good. Food is fantastic, atmosphere is great, especially on weekends with live music. If you sit in the bar and they have live music going on it will be loud. If you sit in their four seasons room you can't hear the music. I always ask for upstairs to hear the music and have a good conversation.

Don Hall's Gashouse - Quickly becoming my favorite downtown. By far the best Hall's in the city. Its not your grandma's Hall's, that's for sure. Food is great, atmosphere is cozy. Definitely a strong choice.

Takaoka of Japan (Upstairs of the Gas House) - Food is good. If you have less than 8 people you will be dining with strangers - I love this part of the experience, but it turns a lot of people off. One BIG negative, especially if you are planning to go somewhere other than home after, is all of the grease from cooking the food in the air. You will smell like grease. Your clothes will smell like grease.

I live and love downtown. JKs is tops or Club Soda....Oyster Bar

My vote is for Club Soda. Oh wait...not a vote, a suggestion.

I love Calhoun Street Soup, Salads and Sandwiches or CS3 as it is called....they have so much more than their name implies and the Jack n Blue Hamburger is to die for!!! It is across from the Oyster Bar by the way.....They have dinner theater, live bands and more on a regular basis

We live in and love downtown too! Oyster Bar, Club Soda, Tosconi's, Paula's, Burbon St. JK's, Calhoun St. Dash In, Powers, Coney Island. But the best...The Counterman's! You need to call ahead for reservations (so I can get a carry out from one of the above mentioned!)

That last one is from an old high school classmate of mine, whom we will get together with in the very near future.

Twitter suggestions were similar with the additional suggestion of Henry's. There were also a few warnings against Champions, the sports bar and grill located in the hotel.

So, what did we do?

We checked in at 3pm, and both Kathy and I were impressed with the hotel. This is the newly built hotel that is part of the Harrison Square project that surrounds Parkview Field, home of our minor league baseball team, the Fort Wayne Tincaps.

Recently, Kathy and I stayed at a modern hotel in Holland Michigan, the City Flats, which is pretty cool. The Courtyard reminded us of that hotel which gives it high marks. The staff is excellent, the food is a different story.

We had a drink and appetizer in Champions. It was very, very warm, close to 80 degrees at the bar, so we moved over closer to the door, so we could get an occasional cool breeze. Portions were small, food was bland and expensive.

When I made my hotel reservations, I bought the breakfast package too, which was a good choice for my wallet. It was an extra $10, but Saturday morning when we got our breakfast, it would have cost us nearly $30 for what we ate, if we had to pay for it. Again, small servings, and nothing special about the food. There are too many other local choices for food within walking distance that I will recommend to out of town guests.

Now, on to the dinner suggestions and what we did....

Due to the walkways that were built, we were able to walk about three blocks inside before we had to brave the winter weather. Our first stop was JK O'Donnells, a place that we've been several time before but they were not able to accommodate our beverage request for a Long Island, so we left.

We walked to the Thirsty Camel, which was a pretty cool place in it's hay day, 20 years ago, but today, it's just a run down below average full service bar with "bar food", wings and burger stuff.

Then we walked back over to Wayne Street and Toscani's. My daughter Rachael was the first to recomend Toscani's to me a couple years ago, but I'd never been there.

It was fantastic. A couple of beers, salad, breadsticks and pizza for $30 including tip. It was so good that on Saturday, after our weekend escape was over, I went back to pick up another carry-out pizza for dinner.

What about the others? We'll be visiting them in the months to come:

Club Soda, CS3, Coney Island, JK, Gas House, I've been to for lunch several times.

Henry's we visit about 10 times a year.

The Deck, outside of the Gas House, we also visit about 10 times a year which is a lot since they are only open for about 4 or 5 months when it's warm.

Cindy's Diner is a good place for breakfast too with it's uniqueness.

For this evening out, we decided to limit ourselves to places we could walk to in winter weather from our hotel and not to bust the bank. (Powers, by the way, is off our list. Not really into sliders).

Thanks to everyone for their ideas!