Monday, September 24, 2012

The trolley tour

Jane and I finally made it to the REAL Fort Wayne Museum of Art 'Trolley Tour' this past Friday night. Perhaps you read this story about us showing up a week early and crashing a private party. I have to say... the real thing was much better than the party we crashed. This was the MOST FUN I HAVE HAD IN A LOOOOONG TIME!!! It was fantastic.

As a reminder, the trolley tour, per the web site, is...
What is Trolley Tour? It's an evening to discover the vibrant art scene in downtown Fort Wayne. Trolley Tour is more than a night of art - it's lively music, fabulous nibbles from area restaurants and caterers, as well as an interesting mix of people. You don't need to be a lover of fine art to have a great time on Trolley Tour. Don't miss all the fun!

There were thirteen galleries on the tour - split between a downtown route and a southwest route. We chose the downtown route, and it took the whole evening just to do that. So we're thinking maybe we need to do the southwest route next year. Although the downtown route was loads of fun!

It was even more fun because we had a group. Tim and Vicki, and our friend from Sweden who was visiting (Doug M.). And, just let me say, a guy from Sweden with a pony tail is apparently quite the "chick magnet." Every time I turned around he had a different woman talking to him. He was quite popular. Probably a good thing his wife wasn't along. Unfortunately Joan wasn't able to go though. I think she would have loved this, but her dad went into the hospital that day.

So... we headed to the Fort Wayne Museum of Art around 5:40 (after Jane got home from work and T & V arrived - Doug was staying at our house for a couple days). We arrived just before 6 and got Doug's ticket. There were a bunch of people there, but unlike the private party last week, most of these people were in jeans and were much younger in general (although there were all ages). The food was free at each place - you just had to pay for drinks. So we got some food and drink and walked around looking at the art. Then we eventually headed out and got on a bus.

They had several trolleys, and several charter buses. We rode buses for the first several trips - and they were nice (and fun) - but the trolley on the last trip was the best. It was like a party bus all the way. Everyone was having a good time. It didn't even matter to anyone that it was raining the entire night, and sometimes we got pretty wet waiting to get on and off the buses.

So we went to the FWMoA, then the LOTUS studio, then Northside Gallery, the Potter's Wife Gallery, the 1st Presbyterian Church Gallery, Artlink, and back to the FWMoA for the after-party celebration. We skipped one because it was raining pretty good, and we wanted to go get some chocolate at the church.

Some of the places were pretty small, and they were all pretty crowded most of the time, but that made everyone have to sort of mingle and talk to strangers. However most people were pretty friendly the entire evening. The bus rides made for good places to have conversations too.

We saw several people we knew: Dan and his friend, Jessica and her friend, Dave F. and his wife... that might have been it.

Anyway, the after-party started at 10 pm. They had the band Sugarshot at the FWMoA. They were a little country, but they were an awesomely fun band led by a woman singer and woman fiddle player (along with a regular rock band). And the place was packed, and people were having a great time. We hung around until a little after 11 pm and then decided to call it a night.

So... as I said... this was the most fun I'd had in quite a while. I invited one person to church, but all in all it was just a fun people event. I definitely want to do this again next year. Oh... and we did look at quite a bit of art along the way too. :)

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