Our Trip Part II

We broke up the 12-hour drive back home by stopping for two nights at our friends' home in Johnstown, PA. Maryann and Sam have a full house with another adult female, her child, and their own 3 sons and daughter! They are one big, happy family. Seriously, you should see the dinners they put out--like feeding an army. And it was all good, too!
The littles were so cute and I finally got to meet their youngest. Garrison took to me and Mike very readily, which Maryann says is not his usual way. Makes me feel special. The girls, Abi and Bri, got Mike to buy a rock from them for a buck each.

It was nice to see the older boys, Tyler and Logan, too. Hard to believe they are both teens! We enjoyed our dinnertime discussions, especially hearing Tyler's very grown up points of view.

It was also great to see Lisa, Bri's mom, again. Lisa is a very nice woman who's come out of her shell quite a bit since living with the L. family. And she was nice enough to give up her level of the house for our use for two nights.

We had one full day with the family and took a long drive to see some sights. It was fun to go to Baldinger's, a really awesome candy store. There was candy there I haven't seen in years, like Kit-Kats and candy cigarettes. I spent about $30 on candy and really cute cookie cutters. I walked out with probably 3x as much as I would have gotten in New York for the same money--including the biggest jelly beans I've ever seen!

More on the visit next post, whenever I get around to it.

Our Trip

We headed to Ohio this past September 15th. Two days before (and one day before a wedding we attended), I walked into a table leg in the middle of the night and broke my toe--the second one from the small toe, on my right foot (of course).

So I spent most of the trip limping. For the record, I did get an x-ray when I got home and yes, it is broken. Still is as of this date. But that's another post.

Anyway, after a 12 hour trek, Mike and I arrived at Mom's. We were originally supposed to go to the Country Living Fair on Sunday. But mom had taken a trip there the day before and said you had to wait on a 45-minute line just to get in the place. And it was huge, twice as big (she believed) as the Ohio State Fair.

So, much as I really wanted to go, I opted out after all. Mom was okay about that. At 89, she isn't so keen about long walks on uneven ground. And my foot hurt so much walking was a big negative for me.

Honestly, I enjoyed our annual visit to Der Dutchmann restaurant and the little Amish-run stores more than I probably would have liked the fair. The prices are so cheap and there are no crowds. I came home with a few cute things, including a glass cat-shaped candy dish. I also bought some candy for our friend Patty and for Dr. Ahuja. Dr. A loves this stuff and it is about half what you'd pay for chocolate here!

Mike and I took a drive every evening. One night we went to Dairy Queen, just for nostalgia's sake. We found it wasn't all that Mike remembered. (I'm more of a Carvel type.) So the next night we hit Graeter's, a famous ice cream company that is mostly in Ohio. The ice cream was amazing!

Mom, of course, cooked great dinners. We had beef stroganoff and sausages and peppers. The peppers were from her garden. Yum! (And I only gained 3 pounds the whole visit!)

We cut our trip home with a visit to friends in Pennsylvania--

--to be continued!