Fall Festivals

It's a bit of old news at this point, but earlier this fall, I enjoyed going to two local festivals, and I snapped a few pics that I've been meaning to post. 

During the last weekend in August, I took our new ESOL faculty member and her boyfriend to check out the International Festival at the mosque in Perrysburg (about 20 minutes north of town). This is a great annual event with food, tours of the mosque, and even activities for kids. I've been several times, but I always enjoy going back, and it's particularly fun to take people who are going for the first time. We had a great tour guide, and I tried some very tasty food, including an Egyptian macaroni and cheese dish with seasoned ground beef.

I really love that the mosque hosts this event because I think it's so important for people to be able to have this kind of opportunity to interact with and hear from people from other cultures, countries, and religions. Especially in the political climate we have here in the US today, there's no better time to listen to and understand those who are different from us and to take a chance to see what we do have in common. Here are some pics of the beautiful mosque:

Out front with my new friends.

Beautiful stained glass inside the main worship space.

Each window has one of the
names of God in calligraphy.

Our tour guide.

The space where the Imam speaks.
Women worship on the left; men on the right.

A couple weeks later, BG had our biggest event of the year, the Black Swamp Arts Festival.  This event takes over downtown for the weekend with food, art, and music. Mark and I wanted to avoid the rainy weather on Saturday, so we decided to go on Sunday, starting our day with a visit to a church downtown, then staying for lunch and wandering around the booths. We didn't really catch any specific music this year, but it was still a nice day out. As usual, we ran into a few people we know, including our neighbors across the hall. The pics don't really capture the environment, but here they are anyway. 

Fall is a great time of year around here, and I'm so thankful to be back on my feet this year and able to get out and enjoy it! Walking from our place to downtown and back for BSAF was such a treat given that a year ago, I was on crutches and couldn't go at all. I'm looking forward to indulging in some other fall treats over the coming weeks, like the massive influx of all varieties of apples at rock bottom prices, the changing fall colors, and the open-window weather. :-)