Fort Atkinson and Mabes

Both of my parents grew up in NE Iowa. Both sets of my grandparents lived their entire lives there. And I even went to 1-3 grades in that area. So its full of memories and nostalgia for me.

One fun thing I always remember was going to Fort Atkinson Days.

I guess it was an old pioneer fort to protect pioneers from the natives.

There are reinactments and everyone is dressed the part.

As we were walking in Sully saw a soilder dressed in red and he whispered to me, 'is he a redcoat?' I said yes and Sully started BAWLING! He's watched way too many of the Liberty's Kids series with Jordan and he knows the red coats were bad! Hilarious!

Here's a picture from the outside. I believe the walls have been remade but many of the original buildings are still standing in full or in part.

Vendors set up in full pioneer and soilder gear and sell hand made goods ranging from jewelry to toy weapons to animal skin 'stuff'.

The teepees are probably the most impressive part.

Here are the kids in the old 'powder magazine'

When we left I called one of my brothers and I said, 'so was Fort Atkinson a lot cooler when we were kids or was it just that we were kids?'

He laughed and said it was probably just cool to us because we were kids!

We ate lunch at Mabe's Pizza next. Tess was determined to do her own ordering!