We finally crossed this off of our summer bucket list, just in the nick of time.
One of my best friends, Mia, used to live here, but in 2018, she and her kids moved to Ohio. Sonia and Zoe and I visited them last August, and we went for another visit this August.
Sonia and Zoe are really good friends with Mia’s daughter Zoe, so a girls trip is just the thing.
A van is a seriously roomy vehicle when there are only three of you!
I looked back at our Ohio trip selfie from last year and whoa, my girls are definitely looking older.
Mia is really, really good at finding interesting things to do no matter where she lives. I’m pretty sure that she could move to a desert and still have a list of fun places to go if I visited her.
I do love Ohio’s big skies!
While we were there, we visited historic Roscoe Village, which was just beautiful.
Also beautiful: the weather. Ohio delivered some temperate, low-humidity days which felt so good I could almost have cried.
The historic buildings and tours were fun, but the girls were most excited about the candy shop, I think.
A cookout by the fire finished off that day.
The next day, we visited the Newark Earthworks, which I have exactly zero pictures of.
And then we headed to Lobdell creek, where we spent the afternoon walking the creek.
Before Mia moved to Ohio, I really thought of it as a state more like Iowa and South Dakota. Flat, not many trees, mostly cornfields.
But I’m learning that it actually has quite a lot of variety in scenery.
After we finished at the creek, we stopped at Whit’s Custard, which was very delicious and also very much cheaper than what I am used to paying!
And the next day, the girls and I packed up and headed back home.
We’ll miss our friends, but it was so good to see them again.
And I’m sure we will be back to Ohio to see them again!
Thanks for letting me share, if you made it through this many photos!
Jill
Tuesday 10th of September 2019
I'm from Ohio and spent the first 38 years of my life living there until my husband's job moved us to South Carolina. And though I love many things about South Carolina, home will always be Ohio. Thanks for sharing your photos and giving me a little piece of "home" today!
Jen
Sunday 1st of September 2019
Great photos! Lovely ladies, and yes, I see such a big difference in the girls, but you look the same! Lol! Re: Iowa and South Dakota being flat and just full of corn- NO! That’s so funny! I grew up in central Iowa, in an area with lots of hills and dales, rivers, bluffs, cities, etc., and although there are cornfields, it’s very scenic! So, I always pictured Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota as being flat and just a bunch of corn and wheat fields, then I finally got to see those states last summer, and BEAUTIFUL! , with lovely scenery, too. And tons of fun things to do. There are two parts of our country that I haven’t seen- the far Northwest/Pacific, and Northeast/New England. My mental pictures are most likely far off, I realize, based on past experiences, such as the above... excited to find out for myself!
Deidre
Friday 30th of August 2019
Gorgeous photos - makes me want to go visit a river somewhere - so glad you had fun, so lovely to catch up with old friends
EngineerMom
Thursday 29th of August 2019
Beautiful! I spent part of high school living near Cincinnati, college in Cleveland, then another part of my married life living in Cincinnati again (which was funny, as after high school I swore up and down I'd never go back!). My parents moved from the Cincinnati area to Kent, OH, where my mom teaches at Kent State (Dad's retired), and my sister now lives in Medina, so we go back to visit regularly!
It looks like you might have been in the Columbus area, but if you are ever looking for a little variety, check out the Cuyahoga River Valley! There are some amazing trails (we like Brandywine Falls!), a train that has the option of you riding your bike along the tow path along the Cuyahoga river then catching a train ride back to where you parked, and Hale Farm & Village, a sort of "living museum" collection of historic buildings with folks actually working them (glass blower, blacksmith, broom maker, spinner, dyer, weaver, potter) plus guides who sit in the historic houses, school, etc., and tell you about the specific buildings and what life was like.
Kristen
Thursday 29th of August 2019
Yep, we were a little outside of Columbus. And the Hale Farm and Village sounds kind of like Roscoe Village! They had a black smith, broom maker, weaver, etc.
Karen
Thursday 29th of August 2019
I grew up in the Cleveland area right on the lake so I always thought Ohio was industrial. We had a siblings reunion this summer and all stayed at my one sister's house. We did so many fun things on Lake Erie. Felt like a tourist in my hometown.
Also I was out west this summer and I loved the big skies. I was telling my husband it reminded me of Ohio. Where I live now NC, which I love, but there is so many trees no big sky.
Kristen
Thursday 29th of August 2019
Yep, we have too many trees here to see much sky!