When I booked my hotel in Ft. Wayne a few weeks back, I had to make a decision: stay for the extra night or return to Muncie.

Everything inside screamed “Come home, silly.” But that’s exactly the kind of thinking I’m trying to purge from the head. So I bucked up, extended my stay by a day and decided to see what happened. Fortunately, a work colleague and friend decided to join me as well.

Unfortunately, she had some business in Muncie so we didn’t really get started until a bit later in the day…after the downtown businesses were closing. That meant lots of wandering through the town, checking out what we could have done had we gotten there just a bit earlier.

No worries though. We are resilient people unencumbered by the rules of modern society.

Or we had other options.

We took a walk to The Historic Embassy Theater of Ft. Wayne, where we decided we would return to see A Chorus Line and Grease later this winter. (That she is going to be out of town for the Nov. 23 showing of Nosferatu depresses me to no end.)

We wandered by the multitude of churches in the area. I’m not sure what’s up with Ft. Wayne and The Jesus, but in the downtown area, they are definitely hip to him.

We, of course, were more interested in the symbology because we are game/nerd/techie types always looking for some excuse to build this into the classes we teach.

There are spires all around the town, too. Once you start looking (at least while you’re in downtown), you begin to see the tops of churches everywhere. (Aside: while I was taking a picture of a giant shoe statue, a gentleman and his family began talking to me about how beautiful the spires were that were most likely going to be in my picture. I had to tell him I didn’t even notice the church because I was focused on the giant shoe. I don’t believe he was impressed.

The wanderings were short lived, though. It was dinner time and I’d found what I was told was the best Indian food in Ft. Wayne. “They” were right. We had a lovely meal at the Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant (See my Yelp review). The waiter was a bit odd, but I’ve come to enjoy a little bit of weirdness with my daily activities.

Next we headed to the Columbia Street West bar, home of the best live music in the city (again, that’s what “they” said). We were way early for the music, but these things happen. We settled in for some coffee + Coke drinking. The bartenders were amazingly cool about our lack of drinking, something I find that doesn’t always happen.

That there were drunkards crashing all around us may have had something to do with it. Still, we found the night entertaining…even if we both reluctantly decided to pack it in just as the band was about to go on.(See my Yelp review of the Columbia Street West bar.)

We did contemplate, for just a moment, going to the Flashback on the Landing dance club, an 80s music bar complete with catwalks and platforms, but I put the big negatory on that. There was a time I could simply wander into a dance club. Now, I must be full prepared.

Instead, we ended the evening back at the Courtyard, where they had a little fire going in the outside patio area. No dancing, no drunkards, just quiet.

For which I’m always down: