Ohio visit

We love visiting family and friends in Ohio. We only wish the drive was not as long. 

To make the best use of time, I picked Don up from work and we drove out to Ohio. This trip included a stop in Delaware for dinner and another one in Maryland for some Fat Tire Framboozen beer. It was either that, or hit the Schuylkill Expressway during rush hour, when it is impossible to rush on it.

Our Ohio trip included a stop at the Unofficial LEGO Museum in Bellaire, OH. Later that day I made my annual trip to the Eddie Bauer Salvage Store in Columbus. I struck out at the "salvage" side, but hit pay dirt in the warehouse side. My main goal was to buy new blue jeans. The $60 jeans were on sale for $10 each. I bought 3 pairs. Best of all, I could try them on. In the past I have bought them for $5 each on the salvage side, but they do not allow for trying on. I've come home with jeans having holes in bad spots and missing buttons. Hey, they turned into painting pants for $5.

We headed to German Village for dinner with Heidi. While we waited for her to come home from work, we walked over to The Book Loft -- one of the last, classic independent bookstores I know. The place is amazing. We did our best to support them.

After Heidi came home from work and had a chance to relax, we headed for dinner around the corner from her home. We had a great time catching up, and even made plans to meet next time in New Jersey later this month. :) Unfortunately, though, the snow was getting pretty heavy by this point, so we had to continue out journey to Cleveland.

After running the Christmas Story 10K and visiting the Christmas Story House. we drove back to Columbus. Thankfully the storm was over by this point.


When we started talking about this trip I was most excited about having some time to spend with my Ohio family. My Aunt Debra made a delicious bean soup for dinner. Unfortunately here is where Don and I parted. He drove home and I was lucky enough to be able to spend the night and then take Frontier Airlines back home from Columbus Airport (10 minutes from their house) to Trenton Mercer Airport (10 miles from our house) the next day.

Meanwhile, Laura had a concert (which sadly, I missed). Allie had a gig (which sadly, we all missed because it was too cold to walk far, and we did not score close parking). Debra, Tom and I stayed in and watched the OSU-MSU game. Okay, they watched the game and I got caught up on social media. Cousin David was upstairs studying hard.

The next morning, Cousin Laura picked me up and took me to church with her. We came back to their weekly bagel party. By this point, Davo was at work. Next time, Davo. I did get a chance to visit Jersey girl-Marge (Tom's mom).

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It was a treat to have a quiet day with family. 

Unfortunately, by then it was time to head to the airport for an unanticipated 45 minute delay. At least the Columbus Airport has a vending machine selling Jeni's ice cream, since that was the only thing that I did not do on my quick trip to Columbus that I really wanted to do.