We took a long weekend to visit Steve’s family in Ohio. We were here about a week and an half ago for his grandmother’s funeral, but didn’t get to stay for much more than the services.

We got into Jackson Center late Thursday, July 6. On the way up, we made a stop near Dayton, in Bellbrook OH, to visit Steve’s college friend, Tim Frank—like Steve, a self-employed graphic designer. Tim and his wife Trisha have an old Federal style brick farmhouse they have renovated and a fantastic horse stable with indoor arena where they board about 16 horses. We got to watch the horses being let in for feeding time—talk about a stampede! Each one was let in individually, and rushed to its stall where a bucket of sweet feed was waiting. The largest horse was Chumley, a part Clydesdale and Paint, very pretty. Hawk is a white horse that is blind and needed some help to find the right stall. None of the horses wanted to have much to do with us until the feed was eaten, but then muzzles began appearing over stall doors and were duly petted.

We had dinner with Tim at a Mexican restaurant called El Toro. All enjoyed a good meal. We arrived in Jackson Center at Steve’s parents’ home about 9:30 pm.

Friday morning, July 7, Rosie was invited to go to the Columbus OH zoo with her Aunt Deanna. We didn’t know if she would go, but she hopped into the van without so much as a backward glance. Deanna stopped and met her daughter Devonne and granddaughter Isabelle on the way to the zoo. Isabelle is a few months older than Rosie, and they always have a good time when they get together.

What were Steve and I to do with an entire long, childless day stretching before us? Go sightseeing and antiquing, of course! We headed to Mt. Victory, a neat little town with a main trade of antique shops. Steve bought an old Agfa camera in great shape for $6, and I found several nice volumes of The Best in Children’s Books, with dustcovers intact. I also found several other odds and ends—squirrel figurines for Rosie’s collection, mice for mine.

Lunch was at The Plaza. Wow! What great food. I had a Turkey Manhattan followed by a slice of homemade pecan pie, and Steve had soup and sandwich and homemade peach pie. After lunch, we hit a few more antique shops and I found an excellent copy of Farm Ballads, which matches the City Ballads I already have. The last two shops we visited were the best in terms of quality. I am really surprised by the prices on antiques here. They are substantially lower than in the Louisville area.

Back to Jackson Center. We freshened up and took off for Wapakoneta, where we’d arranged to meet some of Steve’s high school friends for dinner and conversation. We allowed time to go to the Auglaize antique mall, the one I went to when we were here last. They have 3 floors of antiques and excellent prices. I bought several items, including a man’s valet like the one my brother has that came from Aunt Florence. I thought Steve could use it for his wallet, etc.

Steve’s friends Tammy, Miss, Robin and Carrie met us at the Cloud Nine Café. Miss’s brother Dave and his wife own the café, and their food and coffee is fantastic. We both had smoked pork enchiladas and a salad with Southwest dressing that was unbelievably good, as was the rice, pea and lentil side dish. We lingered and chatted until 9 pm or so, then had a call from home that Rosie had become weepy and wanted Mom and Dad. We got back to Jackson Center around 9:45 pm.

Saturday, July 8 was another busy day. Isabelle had spent the night here and she and Rosie woke us up at 7:45 am to tell us Aunt Deanna had promised to make them pancakes. We called her (she lives just down the street), and Rosie and Isabelle got dressed and walked down for their breakfast.

When they came back, we took a walk to the playground at Jackson Center School, and then took the girls to the Jackson Center pool for a quick dip after lunch. Steve’s parents returned from their packing and cleaning of his grandmother’s apartment, and we helped them unload.

We had arranged to meet Tod and Ronda Lament and their kids, Katie and Adam, for dinner. Tod is a life-long friend of Steve’s, from elementary school. He and his wife have a neat start-up business, Liberty Gifts and Awards, which does custom engraving and personalization of clocks, picture frames and other items. Tod showed us how the laser engraver works—it’s pretty amazing. They started their business from scratch, just like Earthly Goods, and are doing their best to grow it. We talked a lot about the difficulties in getting a business to take off; I think they’ve got great potential and it will be neat to see where they are in 5 years.

They took us to dinner at a great place in Urbana called Rothschild Farms. It’s sort of like a Huber’s, but smaller and in my opinion, classier. The food was good and the kids discovered two goats, which they spent the evening feeding green apples to, leaving moms and dads plenty of time for conversation. After dinner, we went back to their house briefly where the kids caught lightning bugs. Homeward bound and weary, we got back to Jackson Center around 11 pm.