Staying in Hocking Hills

Each year for my family's annual cabin weekend my parents, sister, brother-in-law, Antoine and I usually go to either Hocking Hills or Gatlinburg and rent a cabin for a few nights.  We've been doing it for about 6 years now and it's almost always in November so we can celebrate my dad's birthday and Thanksgiving together.  This past November we decided to be a bit fancy and rent this vacation rental in Hocking Hills through Home Away.  It's definitely different from the log-cabin we normally get, but fulfilled our 3 bedroom and at least 2 bathroom requirements.  And while it was a good place to stay, it certainly was not my most favorite and had some definite design flaws.

The big windows and modern design totally drew me in, but the windows ended up being less than ideal since from 7am to 11am the sun shone through them relentlessly and made it impossible to watch tv (which is always what my dad does in the morning on such trips).

The main-level bathroom (which my sister, brother-in-law, Antoine and I shared) was my favorite part of the house...mainly the enormous bathtub!  The showers were enormous as well, like 8'x8', but the shower heads were positioned too high so by the time the water hit you it just felt like a light drizzle.

Loved that bathtub!  And I was so thankful that I brought a bunch of Lush bath products with me!

The first room you encounter in the house is probably the strangest!  It's a fairly large room and probably 75% of it is taken up by a gigantic koi pond.  It is kind of ridiculous and the fountain is slightly loud.  It is on an automatic timer and shuts off at night, but when it kicks back on around 7am it kind of sounds like someone is in the shower from the bedrooms....that didn't bother me too much though.  My main issue with the koi pond was purely design related.  So much of the main-level was dedicated to this unnecessary thing and the design/space for the kitchen and eating area suffered greatly.  Granted this would not be an issue if you weren't planning to do much cooking, but we always do during these family weekends.  We cook practically every meal, including your average, overboard Thanksgiving dinner.  And the kitchen was tiny!  It was tight if there were just two people in it (and Antoine and I are practiced at cooking together in a tiny kitchen...but this one was actually smaller than ours) and sometimes there were four of us in there at once.

The entry room also had a high-top table and chairs and a pair of big massage chairs over in the corner near the windows.  While I was not a fan of the massage chairs (they were a little terrifying and way too intense), my dad absolutely loved them!

One thing that we hadn't noticed in the listing photos for the rental was that one of the three bedrooms was actually an open loft.  We always try to avoid lofts (for a variety of reasons) when booking a place for our family weekend.  My parents took the loft, which had it's own bathroom with an equally enormous shower to the main-level bathroom.

There was also a really nice deck outside with a hot tub that looked out onto a yard below with a fire pit and little pond.  It was too chilly in November to really enjoy the deck, but my sister did take a dip in the hot tub...she can never resist a hot tub!

All in all, not the best place we've ever stayed for family weekend, but probably not the worst either.  I mean, that bathtub was pure magic and made the whole stay worth it for me.  Also, the weird koi pond in the front room wasn't all bad...at least there were cute fish to look at and feed!

Camping Weekend in Instagram

What a great weekend, but man, I'm tired!  And, is it just me, or did the weekend just fly by?!  Camping was a big success, but I think I need a couple days just to recuperate.  I took a bunch of photos this weekend, including some night-sky photos that I'm hoping turned out well, but until I have a chance to edit them here's some photos from Instagram...

 Antoine and I were in charge of all the food/cooking.  I was in charge of the coffee, something I've never made when camping before because Antoine doesn't drink coffee.  But since we had some serious coffee drinkers in the group this time I got this and this (which also came in handy for making some warm spiced cider Saturday night!) and some tasty coffee from Stauf's...and it turned out really well!  Plus my sister gave me this sweet set of metal mugs, bowls and plates (thanks sis!).

 These photos are from Saturday morning.  Antoine and I made an egg bake (somewhat similar to this one) with potatoes, onions, and peppers from Amanda's garden.  We topped it with Parmesan and aged white cheddar and it was very tasty!  Cheese, of course, wanted to help with the cooking process and kept getting way too close to the fire...but he managed not to burn himself, somehow.

 On Saturday we went to Apple Hill Orchards in Mansfield, OH, which was about a 30-40 minute drive from where we were staying near Mohican State Park.  I had never been to Apple Hill and just found them online earlier that week.  It's a great little place that I'd highly recommend (and they are dog-friendly which is awesome!).  We went apple picking, feasted on apple donuts, and sampled some delicious cider.  Good times!

 After Apple Hill, my sister and brother-in-law spotted a sign for the Ohio Bird Sanctuary just down the road.  It turned out to be a really great impromptu stop!  Cheese was allowed in most of the areas, they had a cool selection of owls, hawks and falcons, and they even had an enclosure that you could walk into (but no dogs!) that had all kinds of birds in it, quails, blue jays, chickens, killdeer, etc.  And then as we were getting ready to leave we spotted one of the very friendly staff exercising one of the hawks.  And then another one of the staff members brought out this little screech owl, Lazarus, to talk about!  I have better photos that I'll definitely share later!

 As you can see Saturday night got a little silly!  We were all drinking and playing cards against humanity and then this happened...don't worry, that's not cocaine it's powdered sugar for campfire pies!

It was a fun, but exhausting weekend...especially for the Cheese-man!  All the smells, all the random people petting him and rubbing his belly...it's so rough!

Stay tuned for more camping photos, though it might take me a while to get to them since this weeks is Midpoint!  Happy Monday everyone!

4th of July Backyard Fun with Cheese

After our long walk in French Park on the 4th of July Antoine and I ran some errands and then headed over to my sister's house to relax for the evening.  My sister and brother-in-law were out of town for the weekend and we were supposed to feed their cats that night so we decided to take advantage of their newly finished patio and grill up some dinner while we were there.  Hijacking your backyard is what family is all about, right?  Anyway, we decided to bring Cheese along since our backyard isn't fenced in so he doesn't really have the opportunity to run around unleashed unless he's at the dog park.  And we also obviously brought his beloved ball to keep him company.  He loves that thing!  And I brought along my camera, because obviously it's been too long since I dedicated an entire post to Cheese.  Prepare yourself for some cuteness...

Playing fetch is awesome!

Except when mom won't give you the ball!

Not surprising, but after a while he usually gets tired and gives up.  

Basset hounds need to relax too!  But once they get their second wind, they're back at it...

That face!

Antoine snapped this photo of me and Cheesy and I'm in love with it!  I usually hate having my picture taken, but I had had a couple drinks and look at him posing like a little angel.  So cute!

That was our 4th of July; a nice long walk in French Park, running errands, and some fun with Cheese in my sis' backyard.  It was laid back and relaxing, just the way we like it.  I have some more photos to share from that weekend, but I'll probably save those for next weekend.  Until next time...

Happy Graduate!

All they way back in mid-May my sister, Michelle, graduated from Xavier University (my own alma mater)!  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to share the photos I took of this momentous occasion, you know what with planning a secret wedding and all, so I wanted to share them now since I am beyond proud of my big sis!

Here's the thing you need to know about my sister...she's kind of amazing!!  She's been a travel agent for like 22 years now (can you guess where I got my passion for travel from?!) and an awesome one at that.  Before I moved to Cincinnati in 2003, Michelle was not only working full-time as a travel agent but also part time at a local pub.  Then she opened her own tea house, The Tea Cozy Cottage, where she served high tea two weekends a month (all the while still doing the travel agent thing), until December 2011.  And throughout all of this she was taking classes part time at Xavier.  We were actually lucky enough to take a couple classes together while I was going to school there, which was pretty cool...even if she drove me a bit crazy sometimes!  And on May 17th she finally graduated with her Associates degree!  It was such a big accomplishment that has been many years in the making and I couldn't be more proud of her, her never-ending energy, and her admirable drive and passion!

 See the adorable red-head in the middle who looks so excited...that'd be my seester!

Family and friends ready to cheer on Michelle.

 Oh, seester, you are so adorable!

  Making her way up to the stage!

 Do you think she's excited!?!

 It's time!

 Yay!

After graduation we had a little party for Michelle at Swaim Park in Montgomery.  Antoine and I had this sweet banner printed for the party...

 Amanda and Aaron being adorable!

And a moment later...hahahahaha!  I have no words.

  Michelle posing with our mom and dad.  And yes, she did wear her cap and gown for the rest of the party and I think most of the day!

 Christian and the happy graduate!

Swaim Park.

 The best friend bunch, back together again!  I love these ladies so much!

We definitely had a good time celebrating my sis and her big accomplishment!  As you can tell from the photos she was all smiles, all day (though that's her most of the time)!  Then the following day, over breakfast, Antoine and I told my parents, sister, and brother-in-law that we were eloping in Hawaii!!  That's right, they had no clue until the weekend before we left for Hawaii!  Antoine and I had been nervous all weekend (and for a long while before, to be honest) and when Sunday came around we were relieved that no one was upset and everyone was just happy for us!  So, all in all, it was a pretty eventful weekend!