Geneva
Our next work week stop was about 5 hours north-east of North Bend, in Geneva, Ohio. We knew we loved it from the moment we arrived. It's a small town on Lake Erie, filled with little touristy places and a quiet, laid back atmosphere. It has everything you would expect in a small touristy town, plus a Ferris wheel that overlooks the Lake.
After we got set up, Jeff suggested we take a drive to check out the area. We drove over to the area known as Geneva-on-the-Lake and discovered tourist-lined streets, with all sorts of neat shops and restaurants. We were bummed that we looked like we did because we wanted to go check it all out! (We had hiked earlier that day, so we arrived in Geneva looking and smelling how one does after a hike.)
This park area is located at the end of "the strip" as they call it here. We thought we were probably presentable enough for the park, so checked it out.
At the end of the park, the path leads down to this dock area. We got our feet wet in Lake Erie and watched the sun set.
We shared the dock with some Amish youngsters. (I'm old enough to use the word "youngster", right?) We have seen a lot of Amish and Mennonite people here in Ohio. I was told that Ohio has more Amish residents than Pennsylvania, which is the state that most associate with this group.
Then we headed back up to the top viewing area to watch the last of the sunset. The sky changed to this brilliant pink and purple scene and I got some neat silhouette photos. No filter at all here!
Surprisingly, we haven't had any campfire's yet this summer. Probably because we've all been too hot to want one. But the weather here is perfect for it. Meg made a fire and we had Better-than-s'mores.
We couldn't decide what we wanted to do on Independence Day. We were told by the people here that finding parking for viewing the fireworks would be difficult, which I'm sure is even more difficult for people like us who don't know the area. But we skipped the festivities last year and Jackson really wanted to do something this year, so Jeff suggested we drive to Cleveland for the day. That reminded me about something I read a few months ago.
The Cleveland Orchestra does a 4th of July event each year at the Blossom Music Center in the Cuyahoga National Park area. It's a really neat program! Kids under 18 are free with the purchase of adult tickets. We hopped online to purchase tickets, then headed over.
Gates opened at 5:30 for the 8:00 concert, so we had plenty of time to have dinner and play games.
Catan, anyone? We had to get creative to make the board stay in place!
You'll never guess what Meg did while she waited... 📖
This is one side of the venue, and it got a LOT fuller by the time the concert started! We sat almost exactly in the middle, so were surrounded by thousands of people. Everyone was having a great time picnicking and being with their families. It was a great atmosphere.
The Cleveland Orchestra is ranked 7th in the world, so we were super excited to see them live! The concert was called, "A Salute to America." I could tell the kids were happy that they knew several of the selections. My favorite was when they played a medley of armed forces songs and asked people to stand when they heard their branch's song. It was touching to see so many service people stand and be recognized. Other highlights were when they played the 1812 Overture and had real cannons blast, and their ode to the typewriter! One of the musicians stood and "played" the typewriter along with the orchestra. It was awesome!
After the concert came the fireworks show to end all fireworks shows. Wow, wow, wow! The fireworks were set off just behind the trees to our left. They were the biggest I have seen, and the show just went on and on! At one point in the middle, I thought, "Okay, you've put on a nice fireworks show and now you're just being wasteful!" 😀 I didn't attempt any photos, but Jeff recorded some of it. I haven't ever been so close to the big show, nor have I seen one of this magnitude. Such cool experience!
We went swimming at Lake Erie's beach the next day. There were SO MANY PEOPLE! Jackson and I swam while the girls dug in the sand on the beach. The water was so warm! Jeff read that the surface of the water is 72 degrees. These Oregonians are used to swimming in the frigid Pacific and the icy river, so this was weird for us.
One funny thing during this trip: We were out in the water jumping over waves and being silly, then Jackson stopped and looked at me, suddenly serious. He said, "Mom, do you think there's a chance that the Canadians would be jerks and put sharks in this water?" Where does he think up this stuff? I assured him that Canadians are very nice people and would never prank us with sharks. 😂
Our allergies started to kick up pretty heavily toward the end of the week. Sinus pressure headaches and inflammation issues that I haven't experienced since we left the coast. You wouldn't think it, but this area has mold issues. I didn't realize how damp and moldy this part of the country can be, but at our last stop they told us that they had been battling mold in their buildings. That's a little unnerving for me since the current plan takes us into more of the same, so we're talking about modifying plans to travel to dryer climates sooner rather than later. That will be tricky given our current reservations, but we'll see what we can figure out. One thing I know for sure: mold is bad stuff and it wrecks my life!
We went back to the beach on our last day in Geneva. The kids and I wanted Jeff to get a chance to see it. The rain storm the night before had stirred things up, so the water wasn't as pretty as the first visit. This time only Jackson wanted to swim and the rest of us collected some really cool rocks.
He got a surprise when a dead fish floated right up next to his face! This was just after he did a hilarious maneuver to get away from it. I was trying not to laugh too hard. He yelled, "MOM! IT HAS SPIKES!"
Sydney started getting sick when we got home and it kept up all day long. We were prepared to take her to the emergency clinic if we needed to, but decided to hold off and see if it would pass quickly. Jeff read a few articles online and said that the general consensus was that we shouldn't give her food or water until it resolved itself. The girls and I had been allowing her to eat and drink all day, which kept the sick-cycle going pretty quickly. We thought that if she was willing to eat and drink that she should, but he read that dogs get better quicker if they are allowed to have an empty stomach for a time. We prayed before going to bed that the Lord would heal whatever was wrong with her during the night. She got sick until around 1 am, but then settled down and went to sleep. When I woke up in the morning, she was better! Praise the Lord! She seems to be a little weak but is eating and acting normal now. Now I know what to do if it happens again.
So that was our week in Geneva! We moved north-east again today, passing through Pennsylvania and into New York AND we only paid $17 in tolls, so I'm feelin' pretty good about that. 😉 I've made my peace with the toll roads on the east coast and know it's just part of what this leg of the journey is going to be.
We are so happy with this new spot. The weather is much less humid and it makes a big difference! It was 80 today, but we didn't even need our A/C. Just opened up the windows, got a good cross-breeze going, and we were perfect. We are on 30 amp and are going without sewer hookups for the first time, so we'll take showers at the shower house and do the wash in the laundry facility. They are both within a dozen yards of our rig, so it's no big thing. They put us in the rally section, where only a few others are camped. We love it when this happens and we have fields of open space around us. But the best news I heard all day came as Jeff sat watching me doing the dinner dishes. He said, "Hon, I think you're just going to have to take the week off from cooking to keep the dishes to a minimum. I'll barbecue instead." WHAT? YESSSS!!! Think he'd be okay with it if we ended up with no sewer hookup more often? Ha! So I guess I'll just swim in the pool and go for walks and let Jeff make me dinner every night? Alright...if I have to. 😉
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