It’s our favorite time of the year, with cooler temps and all of the colors of fall starting to present themselves. It’s one of the (many) reasons we are committed to keeping Northeast Ohio as our home base! We’ve spent the past few weeks enjoying some of the best parts of Ohio.
First up, we packed up Livvy and the needy bichon for a trip to the Cedar Point campground, Lighthouse Point. (The name itself makes me smile since my family and I used to have a condo in that Florida community.) But the Cedar Point campground is fantastic in itself for its proximity to the park, plenty of private space and great amenities.
We had the pleasure of having Julia and Andrew back with us for much of the weekend, now that Andrew is big time into the rides 🙂 We caught the shows, had some great home-cooked meals in the campground, and of course they all did lots of rides. This was our first campground visit for Halloweekends, and we shouldn’t have been surprised that the campers take the holiday seriously! We arrived shortly after the campground opened and nearly every site was not only occupied, but seriously decorated!
We also had a few nights at home!! We were able to enjoy a dinner out at a long-awaited visit to Il Rione. I have heard for years that it is the best pizza in Cleveland and that is the truth! If you know me/us, you know that we could basically eat pizza every day, so that rating comes with very high regard. Thanks to Michael for recommending it and enjoying it with us. We tried his favorites, the speck and green pizzas, along with yummy salads. We had a great evening together. Call us if you want to go, I would go back anytime!!
And then it was off to one of our favorite OH destinations, Hocking Hills. We have Steve & Jill to thank for our love of Cherry Ridge Retreat, who have multiple cabins on their property. We were finally able to enjoy their largest, premier cabin, the Lake House. It was even better than expected!
This trip was special on many levels. We have talked for a long time about including Rick’s Aunt Evette and Uncle Ron in a trip with Rick’s mom, so it was great to finally have it planned. In addition, we planned it to coincide with the 2 year anniversary of the death of Rick’s dad. We wanted to all be together to remember him and celebrate the great influence he was/is for each of us. He was definitely with us in spirit as we met up and got to this beautiful place.
Rick and I enjoyed being hosts and showing them around the area for a few days. I was so happy that they were able to see a couple of our favorite places, despite the challenges of the (relatively short but still challenging) hikes to get there.
We also took them to see the campground where Rick camped with his kids when they were growing up. I’m guessing we will probably make a visit there ourselves next year, because it is close to the fantastic hiking this area has to offer. Of course, he did tent camping with his kids and now we are camping in style with Livvy!
There is also a beautiful new lodge down there, so we had to check it out. We had a cocktail while trying to convince Evette and Ron that it was time to retire. They seemed to adjust well to the lack of a schedule…. we’ll see.
When we were done with our hikes, we spent the better part of our days lounging in the plunge pool. Rick was an excellent bartender (as always), and we shared the cooking duties for breakfast and dinner. It was really a perfect getaway for all of us!
One final note… we love Ohio. Many have asked us if we would move to a new area, but we are committed to Ohio as our home base. We have loved the place that we live the past 4.5 years, but have been talking for some time about moving on from the current condo to a ranch-style home. We have been loosely looking and even thought about building, but hadn’t found the “perfect” place. Until late last week. And so while having all of this fun, we have also bought a perfect-for-us ranch in Bay Village. We will be packing, moving, and listing our existing condo in the next couple of weeks. After all, we wouldn’t know what to do with a few weeks at home so this will keep us plenty busy! We are so excited to get set up in our new place.
I have always loved Bay, and had lived there for 12 years. It was some of my happiest times being married to Mark there, and also the absolute saddest time with the death of both my parents and him in 2015. I left in 2017 to make a fresh start, but have always had such fond memories of the wonderful walkability in the area.
Just two weeks ago, driving down Wolf road, Rick claimed that street, particularly the area where we will be living, as his favorite stretch of Bay. So… when the house was listed and checked all of the boxes, we just had to do it! No, we can’t store Livvy there, but we will have much more of our own space to keep her with us for prep/clean up for a couple of days surrounding trips. More to come on our new home soon! Good thing we are retired, we wouldn’t have time to work with all of this fun!
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