Vacation #2 - Ohio

This summer we took two vacations (because we are fancy like that). The first one was to Houston. For the second one we went to Ohio to visit Josh's sister, Christy, and her kids. They live in the Cleveland/Akron area. It had been several years since we had been up to visit them, and they recently moved to a new house that we hadn't seen.

It is about a 16 hour drive when you count in all the stops. On our way up there we spent the night in St. Louis. The girls do really well in the car. We pack lots of things to color, sticker books, books, and toys. They are old enough now to play games, so we played some "Road Trip Bingo" where they had to find things like a horse, tractor, blue car, gas station, etc.

Esther and Clara figured out how to nap in the car!

We had a pretty laid back visit. Isabelle and Patrick are teenagers, and Esther and Clara think they are pretty awesome. They liked pestering Patrick, looking through Isabelle's pretty room, and playing with their old toys. And we all had a good time visiting with Christy. We ate most of our meals outside on the porch. It was cooler and no flies and bugs, which was a treat in the middle of the summer. Josh was able to do some home improvement projects for Christy. Josh also spent some time finding beers that they have in Ohio that we don't in Arkansas, he is already making his list for the next time we go back to Ohio! One night the adults went in to downtown Cleveland to eat at Michael Symon's (famous chef?) Lola Bistro . It was nice to eat at a restaurant without kids.

Playing with Patrick.

Josh fixing some broken areas on Christy's chimney.

We were there over the 4th of July so we bought a few fireworks to shoot. Fireworks aren't legal to shoot off in Ohio, and there are only a few stores that sell them. We had to drive a ways to buy them, and they were much more expensive than we are used to.

Cousins doing sparklers.

Fireworks

We visited The Ohio State Reformatory. This is where Shawshank Redemption (and other movies) was filmed. We drove around the town and saw several filming sites for the movie. This old prison was impressive with how big it was and how many prison cells there were. It was fun to see the places from the movie.

In front of the Reformatory.

One wing of cells. This was several stories high.

With "Red"

We were in Ohio for our 14th wedding anniversary. We decided to leave the girls with Christy and take a little overnight trip. We went to Kelleys Island, which is in the middle of Lake Erie and a popular vacation spot for people who live up there. We drove about an hour from Christy's then rode on a ferry over to the island. Kelleys Island is small, with not a lot of vehicles, mostly golf carts and bikes. We stayed at a bed and breakfast that had bikes, so we decided to not take our car. I hadn't ridden a bike since I was probably 15, so it was a bit of an adventure! We got caught in a big thunderstorm and had to take cover a few times, but had a lot of fun riding around the island. There are several shops and restaurants. It was nice seeing the sites of the Lake. We visited the Glacial Grooves Park to see the impressions left by glaciers. The girls had a fun time with Christy and Isabelle while we were gone, they went to the Akron Zoo, had a picnic, and went grocery shopping where they convinced Christy to buy things that I won't buy for them :)

On the shore of Lake Erie

At the Glacial Grooves.

Biking--this was before getting caught in the storm.

On our way out of town we went to Lehman's store. It serves the Amish community and has lots of old-timey farm and home supplies. Josh and I could have spent hours there. Josh got an Amish hat, we got a crock-ware pitcher and mug, and we got some foodstuffs. We already have plans to go back next time we are in Ohio.

We ended up driving back all in one day. It was a long drive, but we were glad to be back home. It was a great visit and we are planning to go back to Ohio for Thanksgiving (to get more Ohio beer).