What a great day!

Promanade Park opened in downtown Fort Wayne today and, no matter how you pronounce it, it was a great success.  Lots of people came to experience the new park and I heard nothing but positive comments.  One young man standing beside me during the final act of the evening which included a really stunning light show, said "It almost feels like you're not even in Fort Wayne."  I laughed but I knew what he meant.  We walked around the park quite a bit and discovered, in addition to the special events going on this evening, many permanent fun features.  There are concrete corn hole courts, and similar pingpong tables (the kids were loving those) and big multi-person swings reminiscent of old roch swings, that adults could relax on.  My favorite part, and I expected it would be, is the canopy walk.  This is a board walk elevated up in the tree tops along the north side of the river.  I had been wanting to take this walk and was very pleased to discover that it is accessible at both ends by long ramps so I didn't have to climb any steps to get up among the trees.  At the end of the evening it was a perfect place to view the river lighting which consisted of fires burning on floating platforms, men on some of the platforms spinning flamng battons, and a thousand glowing balls set loose to float down the river.  The St. Mary's is not a fast flowing river but I will be curious to see if any of the glow balls make it beyond the Spy Run bridge (my view of the river) by morning.