Cleveland and Amish Country: August 16th

On our way back home we stopped in Cleveland, and were rather frightened by the number of homeless people. We parked our car, and the first thing we saw was two homeless guys asleep on the concrete sidewalk. Here is a picture of a bunch of homeless people (the guy standing up was chasing the pigeons like a crazy person...) in Public Square:No trip to Cleveland would be complete without a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We were too cheap to buy a ticket (See Cedar Point entry. Did I mention we are old? And Lame? Next time!), and settled for visiting the gift shop. We found out they have free concerts every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. The day we stopped, Ted Nugget was playing that night. Tempting?

We drove home the long way, through Amish country. It was so pretty! There were Amish everywhere, and we enjoyed seeing their horses, buggies, and little girls with bonnets.

We stopped at Heini's Cheese Chalet and ate our stomach's full with cheese of all types, sizes, tastes, and smells (including chocolate, peanut butter, and pinapple). They were very generous with the free samples, and we tried everything. So good! And yes, we spent a small fortune in cheese to take home.

Cedar Point: August 15th

We decided to celebrate Dj's taking the board and Becky taking the GRE by riding some major coasters at Cedar Point, aka, becoming ride warriors. We got to the park 30 minutes before the rides opened and kept going all day. We really felt our age! Remeber the day when you could ride rollercoaster after rollercoaster, the faster and higher the better? Yeah, our adrenaline ran out around 3pm. Old age.... We are determined to go back and ride all the coasters that we missed someday.

MaxAir: Becky's favorite ride

Raptor: Dj's favorite ride

OH: August 14th

We decided to take a little trip before Dj had to head back to school, plus I had some comp time to use up. We decided to visit OHIO. Ohio surprised us by being so pretty. We enjoyed the rolling hills driving up I-77. Dj really enjoyed the lumber mills. Everything was run by water power: only 2 inches of water were needed to get the water wheel pumping.
Next to the lumber mill is the ashery. Here they would turn ashes into riches, no joke. They would dump the ashes in the top of this funnel and heat until a black solid was left. Then they would take the black "rock" and heat it in this oven until it turned white. The white rock was then used for china and other things.

Boo and her Rose

Today, Kathleen gave everyone a red rose. I came home and Boo went crazy for it. She woke up from her nap and out of nowhere became my best friend. I put it up and she was heartbroken. So, now it is Boo's rose. She purred and cuddled with it all day.

Went blueberry picking today and this is a picture of our plentiful harvest, six quarts to be exact. I have never picked fresh blueberries before so this was quite an adventure. The guy that owned the farm was a nice fellow who let us pick his brain on how to grow and harvest our own blueberries someday. He also let us eat a few berries off the tree while we were picking, Becky loved that. I don't think that guy new what he was getting into. After eating twice the amount depicted above I thought Becky was going to look like the person depicted below and roll down the hillside. I finally wrestler her away from the field and dried her crying eyes as she exclaimed "Now I know what Heaven will be like".... It was a pretty good day.

Black Raspberries

Well, the black raspberry season has finally ended for us. We had a sizeable harvest this year: five fresh cobblers, seven quarts of whole berries, and eight pints of preserves, not to mention the millions eaten right off the vine. We had some adventures this year in our collecting. It seemed to rain everyday, and Dj and I repeatedly fell down the hillside on our butts every time we harvested. We have no pictures of the battle scars, just the canning.

Virginia for the 4th

We took a road trip with the "old people" to Keysville, VA over the 4th of July weekend. We had a quiet visit with Dj's great-grandma; she seemed such a charming, Southern belle with some personality! On the way back to WV, we stopped at Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson. George W. gave a speech there the day before, and somehow the crowds stuck around. In all of our pictures, there is always someone else croc'ing in the corner! We had to wait a couple hours, but were finally able to tour the house.
My favorite part of Monticello were the gardens and fruit trees. The garden was 1000 feet long and filled with all types of yummy things. The orchards contained peach, apricot, cherry, and apple trees at least. We could not resist and helped ourselves to some delicious cherries and apricots straight off the tree. Jefferson added a bunch of personal touches and inventions to his estate; the above sundial is just one of the many. Probably only Jefferson knows how it works... Monticello really is a unique place, from the stables and the kitchens, to the maps hanging on the walls and all weather passage. I recommend going on a non-holiday weekend.