Family, Friends and Fall in Ohio

This blog is more for myself honestly.  I want to keep a journal of our journey and this is how I am going to do it.  So, some of what I write may be uninteresting to you.  I won't be offended if you don't read it or skip ahead!  :)

For some reason I cannot load pictures anymore.  I will keep looking into it, but for now you will have to be happy with words and no pictures.  I will place all pictures on my Facebook page until I figure out what is wrong.  Sorry!

We had four weeks in Ohio to visit with family and friends.  First stop was my sister's house in Columbus.  We had a few days together before Amanda and Chris went to New York.  Chris was speaking at a conference and then they spent a few days exploring the city.  The kids and I stayed behind to be with my niece, Hannah, and my nephews, Ben and Leo.  I really enjoyed seeing them and spending time with them when they were around, but with school and soccer it wasn't enough time.  We were lucky enough to find a cabin Halloween night at Salt Fork State Park and spend some more time together.  More on that and pictures to follow down below.

Next stop was my mom and stepdad's house.  We stayed there for a week and while I didn't see my mom and dad as much as I would have liked, we enjoyed ourselves very much.  Finn turned 13 and we celebrated with a bonfire, Smores and peach cobbler.  I took the kids to what used to be my favorite hiking trail.  I was really missing big trees. 

The next day the kids and I went to the zoo and had a blast.  It was a cool day so all of the animals were out and about.  We especially liked the lorikeets and the kangaroo with a joey in her pouch.

We also went to the beach and even though the weather was too cool for me, the kids still went swimming.  We found a waterlogged monarch butterfly floating in the water and brought it out.  We were hoping it would be okay once it was dry, but as the day wore off it stopped moving and was listing to the side.  Right before we left, I picked it up on the leaf it was sitting on.  To my surprise, it slowly opened and closed its wings a few times and then flew off!  We were so happy!

Our third week in Ohio found us at my dad and stepmother's house.  We spent a nice week hanging out with my dad during the day, going to Amish country and visiting Eileen at her office for lunch. 

I also can't forget visiting with old friends in Cleveland.  I went to lunch with two of my former students and while I really enjoyed seeing them again and loving on Evelyn's baby, Liam, it was difficult to hear about the increase of violence in the area.  Both of the young women would like to go somewhere else and do something with their lives.  Knowing those two, they will make it happen.

I got together with friends from my former school as well.  It was great seeing everybody!  Cathy and I had about half an hour together before everyone got there.  It has been two years since I've seen her.  When she came in, we both grabbed each other and started crying.  It was so emotional.  That was a great night and a lot of fun.

Our week in Columbiana was very nice.  We stayed in a cute, little motel surrounded by big trees and corn fields.  The room had two double beds and not much else, but it was cozy.  We did have a fridge so we bought some cereal and yogurt for breakfasts.  We went to see Grandma Franklin every day.  Some days were good for her and some were not so good.  She is 95.  She does not get out of bed anymore and so they have her on an air bed.  Most every day she did not know who we
were when we came in, but after a few minutes she would remember.  I don't think she ever figured out who I was.  She did seem to remember the kids though.  She liked to reminisce and talk about her sisters and brothers, but every day  had to be reminded that they were dead. She is very frail and now that she has seen Mark I am not sure she will hold on for much longer.  I am really thankful that he made it home in time to spend the whole month with her.  (Mark's mom died one week after we saw her last.
    
We had decided earlier in the month that we wanted to get together again with my sister and her family, so we rented a cabin at Salt Fork State Park for Halloween night.  We had a great time sitting around the campfire drinking beer, eating Smores and telling ghost stories.  Props go to my sister for scaring the crap out of all of us.
    
We went to the lodge for breakfast.  It was another gorgeous day and the grounds of the lodge were very pretty.  Unfortunately, the service at the lodge was terrible. We waited for 45 minutes for our food and finally asked our absentee waitress if it would be much longer.  She shrugged and said that she had no idea.  We had heard enough.  Even though we felt bad because it was a huge waste of food we got up, paid our drink bill and left.  We decided to head for Cambridge and look
for something there.  The only thing we could find was a small shady-looking bar/restaurant that had a sign out front saying "Sunday Brunch".  We were all worried heading in, but we were very happy to find inside an adorable restaurant with a great buffet.  We left satisfied.
    
We spent two more nights in Ohio with my mom and dad finishing up our odds and ends.  On Tuesday morning the kids and I took a taxi downtown to meet Pat and Mark at the bus station.  This time I bought tickets for the MegaBus and it was much nicer than Greyhound.  It took a couple of hours longer, but I think it was worth it.  We sat on the second floor and had panoramic windows along with free wifi and plugs for charging our devices. 
    
We arrived in Manhattan around 8:00pm and got on a train to Brooklyn.  We stayed in a loft apartment a few blocks off Jay street.  It was okay.  Higher cost and very artsy in a better neighborhood, but I would rather have stayed in the earlier one from a month ago, which was cheaper and had nice comfy beds.  Artsy does not always equate with comfort.
    
The next morning we put on our packs and headed to a place on the pier under the Brooklyn Bridge.  Patrick has used Uber a lot in the past and we found that it saved us quite a bit of money and time.  We found a nice wharf close to pizza and ice cream.  Patrick had heard about a place called Juliana's and was told that we had to try the pizza there.  We didn't realize that the place was quite shwanky.  In we walk all carrying big backpacks like we own the place.  Ha!  The guy looked at us with an
expression on his face like he had swallowed a lemon.  It was pretty funny.  But, he let us park our packs in the corner and we enjoyed some very tasty pizza. (I lost almost all of my pictures from that day! Poop!)



After that we headed to the Manhattan Public Library to print some things out for our trip to Italy.  Then it was over to Central Park.  Finn has been wanting to go since our first trip five weeks ago.  That time we saw the park from the outside walking along Central Park West.  It was raining so we   had decided to go home.  This time we were only able to walk in a few hundred feet before darkness fell.  What a bummer!  Maybe next time we will actually get there during the day so that
we can enjoy the place.
    
We took another metro to the airport and began our long trip to Italy.  We are finally on our way!!!