Hubby – Page 4 – Believe in the Magic Traci Diary

Swiss Heritage Center – Berne, Indiana – Part 2

Posted on 18 Nov 2018 by traci

After we finished with the Luginbill House, we went over to the Cheese House. We learned how they made the Amish cheese which was interesting. Did you know they have to boil the milk in a copper pot and check the constancy later with a silver spoon? It’s interesting how they knew how the metals interacted with the different steps of the cheese making process.

That post was used to press down the cooked milk to get the whey out.
The cheese maker’s room
The cheese maker’s room
The cheese maker’s room

Next we went over to the Apple Cider Press. When it was in operation, it was the biggest apple cider press in the United States. It was not original to the Berne area but was moved to the Heritage Center from a place within 40 miles away.

The press barn was rather dark so I apologize for the quality of some of the photos.

F. William Hauenstein built this press during the Civil War. The pressing beam was oak that at time was about 300 years old so it was already growing when Christopher Columbus arrived in the West Indies.

More info about the press

After visiting the Cider Press, we left the Heritage Center to go watch the glockenspiel at the clock tower. Then we came back to enjoy the rest of the tour with Char.

Join me next time when we’ll visit the church and doctor’s office at the Swiss Heritage Center.

Stay kind!

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, Photography, Recipes, travel

Swiss Heritage Center – Berne, Indiana – Part 1

Posted on 16 Nov 2018 by traci

Random photos of Berne, Indiana

As I previously said, Berne, Indiana really did not have a lot to explore. If you wanted Amish furniture, you could certainly find it. The clock tower and the architecture is wonderful. It’s a small town so there is not much there.

There is one other interesting place. That is the Swiss Heritage Center. Berne was settled by Amish and Mennonites immigrants from Switzerland. They were being persecuted in their native country so they came to America. Eventually they moved and settled in Adams and Allen County.

We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the Heritage Center. They had a guide to take us around the grounds which was neat. The guide was a 73 year old lady named Char. She was a wonderful storyteller. It was almost as though she was there when the American flag was being created or when the Amish were being persecuted in Switzerland. Hubby kept wanting her to tell us more.

She had a golf cart for her to ride from place to place. There was a total of four guests plus herself trying to get on this golf cart more than once. Some of the buildings were a small distance. On a nice day, it would be a good stroll. Not on the chilly and then rainy day we visited.

The first building we visited was the One Room School Room. She talked about the reasons why girls were more educated than boys, the history of the American flag, and how many school buildings were in the county at one point.

Ringing the bell
In Trouble

After we left the schoolhouse, we went to the Lunginbill House. The Lunginbill House was the house of Peter and Barbara Luginbill. It was built in 1856 and moved to the Heritage Center in 1987.

While we were in house, we learned about the typical day of the family, how they built the original house, and how they made soap back in the day. Char also told stories about Barbara.

Join me next time for the cheese making shed and apple cider mill.

Stay kind!

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, photographs, travel

Random Photos from Berne, Indiana

Posted on 15 Nov 2018 by traci

Before I begin with this blog post, I should tell you they’ve changed how we write blog posts. It’s going to be interesting writing this blog post today.

Clock Tower

Hubby geocaches. One of his geocaches was located at their war memorial so we headed there first.

The Eternal Flame

After we finished at the war memorial, we headed to the local coffee shop. We loved all of the different signs in the coffee shop.

We briefly walked around the town. I tried to get photos of the town but Hubby decided it was too cold and windy to enjoy the walk.
I especially loved the Dollar General and it’s Swiss exterior.

Their version of a five and dime store.

When we were leaving town, we tried to find Amish cheese which we never found. 😦
We ended up on a road that was unpaved but very well taken care of.

Okay that wasn’t so bad. I got through this new way of blogging on WordPress.

Join me next time when we’ll either explore the Swiss Heritage Center or check out where we spent the night.

Stay kind!

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, photograph, travel

Berne Clock Tower – Berne, Indiana

Posted on 11 Nov 2018 by traci

Johnny Appleseed’s Grave Site

Forty-five minutes south of Fort Wayne is a little Amish town called Berne. The founders immigrated from Switzerland by way of Ohio. A lot of the architecture reminds me of what I think of when I’ve seen Swiss architecture. I felt as though I was in another world when I was walking through the town.

It’s also an Amish town. I had to remind Hubby to watch out for the Amish buggies. I didn’t want to be on the news because we hit a buggy.

The reason for our visit was the clock tower. The clock tower is designed after the Zytglogge in Bern, Switzerland. Every noon, 3, 6, and 9, there is a glockenspiel when the clock comes alive. There are 13 different symbolic representations during the 5ish minutes. I took a video but since it was raining I was far away so you really can’t see the individual characters. 😦

These were taken Friday at almost 7 p.m. You can see it was raining. Plus it was cold! Hubby wanted to come back for the 9 o’clock glockenspiel. I’m was like no way!

The next day we went to the Swiss Heritage Center. They allowed us to pause the tour until we saw the glockenspiel. Then we went back and continued the tour.

These are photos I took during the glockenspiel. I was underneath a shelter so they are not close up shots. You could certainly click on a photo and enlarge it if you want to see the actual characters.

Some of the views from the plaza. That is an Amish horse. The buggy is behind the bush.

I hope you enjoyed visiting the clock tower. I don’t know if next time if I’m going to share random photos of the town or the Swiss Heritage Center. Maybe I’ll share the Amish furniture in the hotel we stayed at. Who knows.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, photograph, travel, what we ate

Johnny Appleseed’s Grave Site – Fort Wayne, Indiana

Posted on 10 Nov 2018 by traci

Visiting the Art Museum

When researching ideas of what to do in Fort Wayne, I discovered John Chapman; aka Johnny Appleseed had lived there. We decided to try to find the grave site.

Close to the grave site is the Johnny Appleseed Campgrounds. That is where we ended up at first. We weren’t far from the actual grave site.

It was still raining when we were at the grave site so I got some photos. Honestly, there is not much around there except if you go into the area where the campground is located. There is a river which would have been pretty to photograph if it was not raining.

There was two other graves located there. I also took photos of those graves.

After we got done at the grave, we went to get supper. We were going to drive to a pizza joint that was 20 minutes away. However while stopped in traffic at a light, I saw a Blaze Pizza restaurant. Hubby quickly turned into the parking lot.

Boy were we glad that we changed our minds about where we were going to eat. The food was delicious. We both were able to get our own customized pizzas. His was a meat lover pizza while mine was a veggie pizza.

They had an awesome deal where you got half of a pizza with either a salad or garlic knots. I got the deal with the salad while Hubby got the garlic knots. The half of a pizza was perfect since were traveling.

Afterwards we traveled to Amish country – Bern, Indiana. It is also a city based on the culture of the Swiss. Join me next time for more of our adventure. I can’t wait until you meet Char. She took us around the Swiss Heritage Center in Bern. Such a great storyteller which is a lost art.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, photograph, travel

Fort Wayne Museum of Art – Fort Wayne, Indiana

Posted on 7 Nov 2018 by traci

Part 4 of our visit to the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo

After we were done with the zoo, we went to the Museum of Art. It was between lightly raining and raining harder so we could not really explore the downtown area.

20181026144419_IMG_3862

We enjoyed the Museum. Since it was the Friday before Halloween, they had a Day of the Dead exhibit. I took a few photos of the area.

They had a book for visitor’s to sign and leave messages for their loved ones who have died. I left a message for Tanya. You can see it on one of the photos.

These were taken in the hallways. They had a glass ware display and an older toy display. I thought the bourbon keg and the Fisher Price circus toys were pretty interesting.

They also had a guitar exhibit. Hubby decided to pretend he was playing an air guitar.

In the hallways

In the sculpture garden

The friendship garden outside the museum.

Join me next time for when we visited Johnny Appleseed, aka John Chapman’s grave site. He lived and died in Fort Wayne.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, photograph, travel

Halloween at the Zoo (Part 4) – Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo

Posted on 6 Nov 20184 Nov 2018 by traci

Part 3

They had a deal where the train ride was free to everyone on the day we visited. Earlier in our visit, we saw it went past some beautiful fall foliage so we decided to ride the train. We ended up the next people up for the ride when we got in line so we sat in the front behind the conductor.

Near the end of the zoo is the Indiana Farm.

The weather forecast had called for rain. It started to lightly rain when we explored the farm. It’s just a petting zoo/ farm animals.

The pig scared me because he all of the sudden stood up on the fence to say hi to me.

They were giving away free pumpkins to the kids right by the exit. In true touristy places, the exit was through a gift shop.

Since it was raining when we left, we opted to go to Fort Wayne’s Museum of Art next. I’ll share photos from there on another blog post.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, photograph, travel

Halloween at the Zoo (Part 3) – Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo

Posted on 4 Nov 2018 by traci

Part 2

After we got done at the Indonesian Rain Forest, we watched the Red Panda.

Once we got to the Australian area, we ate our lunch. I actually found a veggie burger on the menu. Sweet!

My veggie burger – Hubby had a hamburger.

Join me next time for the train ride and the Indiana farm.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, photograph, travel

Halloween at the Zoo (Part 2) – Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo

Posted on 3 Nov 20183 Nov 2018 by traci

Part 1

After visiting the African candy trail, we went to the Indonesian Rain Forest. We thought the indoor exhibit was marvelous. Hubby’s favorite part was the orangutan exhibit.

These are Malaysian Walking Leaves. I wouldn’t want to find one of them in my house.

The orangutans – I enjoyed taking photos of these guys. There were some teens there that were in the way. They were just sitting there without really paying attention to the gorgeous orangutans. We had to ask them to please move for a minute so I could get a photo.

Here is my favorite photo from the orangutans.

20181026122623_IMG_3472

These are banana trees.

Join me next time for the red panda and Australia.

Have a magical day,
Traci

Hubby, photograph, travel

Halloween at the Zoo (Part 1) – Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo

Posted on 29 Oct 20183 Nov 2018 by traci

Our school holds parent-teacher conferences in the fall and winter. The Friday after conferences is a comp. day.

During the fall, I like to do a quick get away. Last year, we went to the Columbus Zoo and then stayed with friends of ours. The year before that we went to Louisville, Kentucky.

This year we went to Fort Wayne and Berne, Indiana. I’ll explain why we went to Berne in a future blog post.

The Fort Wayne Children’s Museum is only open from late April until early October. During the month of October, it’s open on Fridays – Sundays for trick or treating. Half of the zoo is closed so I didn’t get to see all of the zoo. 😦

It was cool seeing the zoo all decorated for Halloween.