Ohio State Reformatory

Shortly after moving to Ohio, Andrew and I realized that the place where they filmed Shawshank Redemption was in Ohio and only a few hours away from us. We knew instantly that we should try and tour the place when mom was here. At first our plan was to do an overnight ghost hunt. Yeah, we are all nerds. Sadly, by the time they listed the tour dates on the website, they were all booked and we had to settle for a day tour.
The cool thing about weekday tours at Ohio State Reformatory is they're self-guided tours! No body pushing you along, no boring speal about this and that. We got to walk, look and take pictures at our own pace. Perfect.





This tour is not recommended for pregnant people. All that flakey stuff on the walls and ceiling: lead paint and asbestos. They also say to wash your hands thouroughly after your tour and the not touch the walls. We are such daring, dangerous nerds. : )


The staircase to nowhere. A funnier picture would have been that both my mom and Andrew went that way and got stuck. I was the smart one who went the right way.


Man, look at those doors!


This was a spiral staircase up to a watchtower. The welcome people said we could go anywhere there wasn't rope or caution tape. Well, there was some tape, but it had fallen...That counts right?

The watchtower at top, and a very small turn around, and I was asking why on earth I thought it was a good idea to climb up the stairs. But, I'd do it again in a second.

Andrew's feet going down.



Solitary cells.



All the shanking tools, and the pictures, you're lucky you can see them well. They were after pictures of shanking victims at the prison. yuck.




It was pretty awesome to look around. I took about another 200 pictures, it was hard to pick these but, it gives a nice overview of what we saw.

Arson Adjusting

My mom coming to visit meant something else exciting coming to town. My kitty, Arson. He's a strange, abnormal cat and we worried about how he was going to react.
I was envisioning my orange furball running in circles hissing and growling along the way. Or a giant orange fuzzball jumping on my face to inflict pain for his months spent away from me. Or Arson, huddled in a corner, rocking back and forth...mumbling to himself. Or...ok, you get it.

Well, there were some weird moments. He seems to have picked up a new habit of hanging out under shelves with very small clearance(my cat is not small).

There's even less space underneath this bookshelf.

A fearsome kitty yawn. You see why we are terrified of an angry, non-adjusted Arson? See those fangs?

Ok, maybe he'll be fine.

Herb Garden and Antique Extravaganza

My mom bought me way too many housewarming gifts. (love you mom!) Some of which are pictured here. She knows how much I love plants and didn't have any herbs yet so she helped me pick out some of my favorites and the ones I'll use most.

This awesome metal tags are a gift from my mom and grandma.

The final lineup from left to right: cilantro, thyme, greek oregano and basil. In another place I have planted rosemary, chamomile, mint and lemon balm.
These fragrant herbs are right by our back door by the office and really close to our outdoor seating area. I'm looking forward to these getting larger and filling the air with their smells.





I planted our herbs yesterday morning while it was still cool. Andrew decided he wanted to check out the local Antique and Flea Market Extravaganza. I'm not joking, that's what it was called. It was at our county fairgrounds so we headed over.

It was just about 11 and was very busy, we were expecting a few rows of things but oh my. We were more than a little surprised. Row after row of household items, antiques, collectables and the more typical flea market finds.



We found a few things that piqued our interest but nothing we were 100% in love with. And we can be picky about the things we buy. In the second to last booth we found these two pieces of art. Love!


From what I can tell this is a watercolor and pencil combination. Through the frame it's definitely yellowed watercolor paper. Which makes me think it's a few years old. The white frame is in rough shape and I'm undecided on whether I'll fix it or leave it.

And this wonderful beauty. I'm not sure if you can see the price, but $20 is all we paid for it.

It was a wonderful Saturday. We came home sunburned and with two new pieces of art. If we ever have to PCS again (non-military: permanent change of station) the movers are going to think I am crazy. The last guys made fun of my book and shoe collection! What are they going to think of our expanding art collection?

Ohio Caverns

We decided that while mom was here we would go to the Ohio Caverns again. Remember, the one we went to and I didn't have my camera. Well this time I was prepared with my wide angle.

This cavern isn't super deep, you don't feel much of a desent, the hill actually rises above you and that gives the impression of depth.

It has the nickname of the most colorful cavern in Ohio.

Wonderful piece of cave bacon there.

Can you tell what this rust formation looks like?

Donkey! From Shrek. Awesome.

Such a pretty cavern. No equipment besides buckets and shovels were used to dig out this cavern.

A Foggy Morning

I have a lot to be blogging about right now. My mom just spent a week with us in our new home and we spent several days exploring and showing her our daily life. We saw a "haunted" prison, toured a cavern, went antiquing and talked. A lot. Of course, several hundred pictures were taken, but they will have to wait.

When Andrew left for work I knew I wasn't going to fall back to sleep. A few minutes down the road Andrew called and said I should take a walk down the road and take some pictures in a nearby field. The combination of fog and early morning sun was really pretty.

It didn't take much convincing.

The road going back into town. My failed skills photographing fog make it hard to see how beautiful of a morning it was. It's just 9am and the fog is finally burning off.

The last picture is definitely my favorite. Keep and eye out for adventures with my mom!