As the summer winds down and school gearing up to start in a few weeks, the time has come to take an end of summer road trip. And not just any road trip. THIS road trip I worked out in complete detail, every mile and stop accounted for when I was on maternity leave with Holly! Four years later we finally hit the road to...
Dayton, Ohio!
First stop on our trip was Grandma's. We just can't head south, going right past her house without stopping in for a visit. Besides, there is just something simple and calming about starting your mini vacation off at the place of your youth. The place where time stands still, the place where memories live.
We also cannot stop at Grandma's without immediately stopping at our all-time favorite pizza place that, to our complete surprise, had a buffet for lunch! Never in my life have I felt that we got our money's worth of food as we did in that meal. Look at all that brown, bubbly cheese. The vacation could have stopped right then and there. How could it get any better? But I'm glad we pressed on.
Our second stop and first excursion (not to mention FREE adventure) was in Wapakoneta, Ohio in the backyard of this house:
It sounds bizarre and looked just as questionable when we pulled up, but Roadside America and Trip Advisor ranked it as a must do, so we did. Here in the middle of the city, on a normal street is the
'Temple of Tolerance"
Here is video I found on YouTube featuring the owner and his creation - a stone garden so amazing that no video or picture can do it justice. You just need to go!!
(Looking up at the Temple)
(View looking down from the top of the Temple.)
(View looking out at the rest of the rock garden)
Just when you think you're done and you've seen it all, a red gate grabbed our attention and the adventure continued.
The sign reads "In this tube is one shell casing for each American Military man and woman from Ohio who died in a war from 1812-.... 71, 288"
There were paths galore and so much to see. We spent about an hour there and would have stayed longer but we had an agenda to stick to so onward we went.
Second stop (and may be an unusual one to some, but also FREE) was...
Woodland Cemetary
Again, I know it sounds weird, but the hubby and I enjoy visiting historically significant areas and museums (and again) Trip Advisor ranked this as a must do, so we stopped. The Woodland Cemetery is one of our nation's fifth oldest cemeteries (started in 1841) and is the burial site of the Wright Brothers , George Mead (of Mead Paper), and Erma Bombeck amongst many others.
They even offer guided tours as even their trees have such historical significance.
One of the first tombstones you come across in the cemetery is "The Boy & Dog". Johnny Morehouse was playing near the Dayton Canal with his dog when he was 5 years old. One day, Johnny fell into the canal and his beloved K9 pulled him out. Sadly though, it was too late and Johnny had drowned. Just days after his burial, the dog showed up at Johnny's grave and kept watch morning, noon and night thus the monument built for him.
Since the Woodland Cemetery is set high on a hill with the city below, there is a great overlook terrace where many people go to picnic or just sit and think. Just beautiful.
We spent the rest of the time seeing who could find the oldest tombstone, the biggest, most unique. This is definitely a place that, without kids, we'd make a stop back to if we were in the area.
Our third (and again FREE, see a pattern) stop was the
'Miamisburg Mound'
As our town's mascot is the 'Indians' and Native American history is prevalent around here, I thought it might be nice to learn a little bit more.
The Miamisburg Mound is one of the two largest conical mounds in the United States. A partial excavation of this mound found skeletons covered in bark just 8 feet below the surface!
Further diggings and findings lead scientists to believe the mound is between 2,000 to 2,800 years old!
Although the history behind the mounds was fascinating, visiting the mounds was pretty much a bust.
The kids didn't really understand nor really want to stay still long enough for us to explain. It was a beautiful summer day and there was a park nearby. The history of the mounds didn't stand a chance.
We stopped at a local Mexican restaurant that, again, came highly recommended via Trip Advisor. Although I found it yummy and Bree wanted to order everything off the menu,
everyone else found all the food a bit on the spicy side.
Adventures were done for the day. The rest of the evening was spent in the hotel drinking endless amounts of coffee,
watching way too much TV,
enjoying the pool all to ourselves,
and staying up past bedtime playing games. But that's what vacations are about, even the road trip kind.
Saturday morning we hit the road at the butt crack of dawn to get to our fourth FREE destination
Jacob was surprisingly fascinated by the bombing planes and the fact our military can shoot down a plane. He talked and talked and asked lots of questions. Makes me wonder what his future may hold.
The fifth and final and still free adventure for the day was spent hiking at the Glen Helen Nature Preserve and the John Bryan Nature Preserve. Both completely worth visiting and re-visiting!
Who knew cliffs like this exists just two hours from home? I totally felt like I was down in Hocking Hills!
Lots of cracks and crevices to explore!
But my feet stayed firmly on the ground with Holly's.
Before heading home there was one last stop I wanted to make, if the kids were up to it that is.
Young's Jersey Dairy - a working dairy farm.
Sounded interesting to me and the kids were game if there was ice cream. Oh... my... was there ice cream... and ice cream.... and ice cream....
Then it was time to head home. We needed to catch up on some very much needed sleep so we could continue the second half of this weekend family road trip!
To be continued....
**I used Trip Advisor in most of my research for this trip. However, upon stumbling onto the 'Only in Your State' website, I read the following article and new we had to do all those stops too which added to our adventure.
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