Covered Bridges

After spending almost all day Saturday at the Cincinnati Museum Center we decided we would just be homebodies on Sunday. Yeah, that planned was ruined the moment we woke up Sunday and decided we wanted to do something. We've been looking through our National Geographic Scenic Byway book for a while. A few trips are located within a days drive of us and we decided to check out one that we thought would be the prettiest this time of year. Covered Bridge Scenic Byway, a "2 hour" drive that winds its way through Wayne National Forest. "2 hour" doesn't really apply, unless the only thing you do is drive to each bridge, take an obligatory picture and move on to the next one. We don't roll like that, so we were there for close to 4 hours. : )

The first bridge on the tour is Hills Bridge, you can't drive across it, but you can walk across it. All the bridges have a place to pull over and wander around to take pictures and plaques to read about the history and style of bridge. 

 The Hune Bridge is next, the only bridge you get to drive across! Super fun, but it is one lane-be cautious.

Across the bridge is the Hune Campground, very cute. It's now on the list of places to camp. Getting across the river, though, was very hard. Be prepared for a water crossing. We felt pretty bad-ass going across his water crossing in our tiny Aveo ; )

Well, we felt pretty bad-ass until we continued on up this gravel road that got steeper and steeper until the only way to survive was to get up the hill. We were bouncing and grinding and the car was whining and skidding. When we got up it, we were both laughing, mostly to keep from crying...

 These pictures don't do the hill justice, I shot them from the car on the way back down. 1. We twisted this way, 2. Then twisted that way, 3. Then, whoops, where does the road go..., 4. Oh, God...the road drops... The point after picture 4 is where I could only hold on to the "Oh shit" bar and pray our car loves us. But, my was that fun!!!

Then onto Rinard Bridge, where we were still laughing about the things we do to my car. We mused about putting a lift-kit and BF Goodies on my car so it would be better prepared next time. Past the Rinard is another campground that's more secluded and on our list to camp too! There was a 4 wheel drive road by it that was closed. We parked the car and explored a bit. Andrew skipped rocks, while I watched my rocks hit the surface and sadly, ploop down to the bottom. 

 For some reason, I think this bridge didn't have a name...I'm going with Kissing Bridge which is the stlye of bridge it is. It was the longest and in the worst shape.

The last stop was this Ring Mill, there used to be a bridge, but something happend to it : ). The house the Ring family stayed in was cool.

After the mill we got back in the car for our lengthy drive home. It was such a nice and adventurous drive! The roads are nice and windy, which Andrew loves. The trees were beautiful and it wound up being a great day to visit. Wasn't cold and no where near hot, perfect weather. 

Cincinnati Museum with an Omnimax!

Remember in my last post, Working Weekends, I said I wouldn't mind if we stayed home and were lazy all weekend. Well, that didn't happen. At least not on Saturday. We woke up and decided to do something and that something was something we been thinking of doing for a while (enough somethings?). We went on down to the Cincinnati Museum Center which houses several museums in a train terminal.

It also has a true Omnimax theater, the big dome ones, not the regular old IMAX. We decided to get the All Museum Pass, which as it says gets you into all the museums and a ticket to the feature show. We got to watch Rocky Mountain Express.

 Outside the theater you could see the huge rolls of film and you can watch them change the rolls and hit all the buttons. Andrew sitting in the kind of scary seats that make you feel like you'll be pitched forward any second.

It was a beautiful movie, the history of the area and what the workers went through to put in that railroad is insane, and the scenery is gorgeous. It just sealed our desire to visit Banff even more.

We only went to two of the musuems, first up was the Cincinnati History Musuem.

On the lower level they had this little town built up with shops and a boat. My favorite was the printer, I even got a few free print outs that they printed there. 

Then there was the Natural History and Science Museum. 

 Neil Armstrong's suit makes an appearance.

 So do several, now extinct animals. Like the Elk Moose (top right), probably now my favorite animal that doesn't exist anymore.

 A real ice core! We were stupid excited about this, because we are dorks.

Too bad the fountain wasn't working, but goodness, there were a lot of pennies in that fountain. I wonder how much they scoop out of there each season. They should feature it in the museum somewhere.

It was a really good day, we packed sandwiches for lunch and ate in the car after the movie. It was a beautiful day and we were able to have the windows down. We took the long way home, went to bed early and prepared to do nothing on Sunday...yeah right. : )

Working Weekends

Not much going on around here right now. The weather has been distinctly fall-like; rainy, cloudy and windy. It's been really nice. Today is mix day of sun and clouds but still a fleece jacket type of day.

Last weekend Andrew and I did a lot of stuff. We went to all our favorite antique stores and didn't buy a single thing! We still have fun looking at all the stuff, though. We also did a bunch of yardwork and cleared a bunch of plants we didn't like or were getting out of hand. Overall, we both felt productive and relaxed last weekend.

Hopefully, we can have a good weekend again. We have more yardwork plans, but other than that, not much. I won't mind sitting around drinking hot tea : )

Whitewater State Park, Minnesota Trip

We recently got back from a trip to Minnesota. I had some stuff to do and we visited with family, since it had been six months since I saw my mom! Six months, that's a big deal people. Speaking of my momma, it's her birthday and I already told her happy birthday.

Anyway, while we were there we wanted to head down to Whitewater State Park near St. Charles and check out the fall colors. The colors weren't amazing, with the heat and wind everything dried to a crisp and blew off the trees. It was still pretty though.

Andrew may pretend to be an adult, but I caught him kicking the leaves!



That's all one snake, I didn't get a single perfect picture of the fast moving little bugger. I figured I'd show you all three, blurry ones.

Chimney Rock itself and us standing in front of it.

For some reason we decided this birch branch was our trophy and took a few celebratory pictures with it. No, we didn't keep it! It is a state park after all, we gently placed it back where we found it. : )

It was a nice climb, even it it was hot and windy(see my hair flying all over). I'm glad we went and stretched our legs where we used to spent so much time in high school and after.

Hiking in John Bryan State Park

Sunday was such a beautiful day in our part of Ohio, we woke up to a brisk 44 degrees and sunshine. after a yummy breakfast of two pieces of bacon and half a bagel each, Andrew and I decided to set off for another hike. More like, Andrew finally gave into my begging and we set off for another hike.

We decided to hike the trail where we left of last week from the John Bryan State Park side. South Gorge Trail.  

 This actually isn't South Gorge Trail, this is Camp Trail, we only went a little ways to see what was back there. But, we decided to stick with our original plan.

 The bridge leading over to South Gorge Trail, and one of the many crooked bridges for stream crossing. The picture is straight, the bridge is not. At least it wasn't slippery like many of the wooden boardwalks.

You can always tell when I've taken the picture of Andrew, I'm always looking up at him...



Back to the bridge where we left off last week. We crossed and took part of the Stagecoach Trail back to the parking lot. It was about 2.6 miles and super refreshing on such a cool morning.

If you're wondering, John Bryan State Park and Clifton Gorge are connected and right in the quaint town of Yellow Springs, Oh. It's not too far from our own little village, which is not as cute and quaint. Yellow Springs has bike trails, hiking(obviously), shops with local crafts and art, and cafes.

The rest of the day was just at gorgeous and I sat outside reading with Dakota for most of the afternoon, now that's what I call a nice Sunday.