For Labor Day weekend, Ryan and I had plans to go to a wedding in Ohio for some of our friends. We debated whether to drive or fly but the flights were kind of expensive and we certainly hadn’t budgeted for this weekend trip. So we decided to drive up to Ohio for Labor Day weekend – and I’m so glad we did! We would have missed out on some pretty fun things if we had flown in and just stayed near the hotel.
Ryan had to work on Friday but I had the day off so I got to go for a bike ride, do some chores/cleaning and then I got to take the ALS Ice bucket challenge. I’m sure you’ve all seen it but the premise is that the instant pain/shock that we feel when a bucket of ice water gets dumped on our head somewhat emulates the pains someone with ALS feels regularly. In order to increase donations and awareness, they turned it into a social media challenge that exploded. If someone “challenges” you, you supposedly have 1 – 2 days in order to take the challenge or donate $100 to the ALS society and then you pick 2 – 3 other people to challenge as well. It’s been getting a little crazy but I did get challenged and it was for a good cause so of course I participated. You can see the video on my facebook page if you want.
I spent the rest of the afternoon packing and getting everything ready for our trip. After Ryan got off work we had dinner and dropped Willow off at a friend’s house. We got on the road right around 8pm and settled in for a nice long drive. When Ryan and I go on a road trip we tend to rotate drivers once per gas tank (around 4 – 5 hours) so it really isn’t too bad. Plus, since we drove at night there was no traffic and no need to stop for any meals. We cruised all the way there and got in around 11am. It was too early to go to the hotel yet so I looked up a place for lunch and found this awesome old grain mill and restaurant.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g50210-d559558-r229122244-Clifton_Mill-Clifton_Ohio.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g50210-d559558-r229122244-Clifton_Mill-Clifton_Ohio.html
While I was looking for a place to eat on the Trip Advisor app (I love that app, I’m addicted), I also saw there was a Frank Lloyd Wright house nearby that we could tour. It was only 20mins away and not very expensive so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately you aren’t allowed to take any pictures of the inside of the house so these exterior photos are all I got to take. It was a pretty neat place but apparently they don’t have any photos of the furniture/inside so they just left the house empty. I’ve never been to any of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses but the little taste I got left me wanting to go see his other houses.
After the tour we made a quick stop at Buck Creek State park (more on that in a minute) and then headed to our hotel to check-in (and take a nap, lol). We only had about half an hour to nap and unwind from the drive before it was time to head out for a BBQ at the groom’s parents’ house. It was fun to meet more of their family and hang out with everyone – and they fed us which was very nice of them. Once the parents got tired of all us rowdy youngsters, we went to a local bar for a while. It was a neat place with pretty cheap beers and a big outdoor patio with live music. We didn’t stay too late though because I had to get up early for... you guessed it – a race!
