Richland Carrousel Park

Back in August when we went to the Mansfield Reformatory, Antoine and I decided to check out the Richland Carrousel Park after lunch (at Doc's Soup Herb Deli) since we were in the area.  The Carrousel Park is another one of the spots, like the Reformatory, that I had never been to even though I grew up just 40 minutes away.  I had heard about the carousel before but had kind of forgotten about it until I was recently reading up on the Cincinnati carousel, named Carol Ann's Carousel, that is planned to go into the Smale Riverfront Park in the Spring of 2015.  The Carol Ann's carousel and it's creatures are all being created by the Carousel Works in Mansfield, OH, which created the Richland carousel in 1990!  (I highly suggest you check out the video on the parks website and those on the Carousel Works website...the whole process of hand carving and painting the characters is really cool!)  Anyway, Antoine and I had fun checking out the carousel and taking a ride (it went much faster that I expected) and we fully intend to return someday [hopefully] soon...

Look at that adorable token to ride the carousel!  One eyed pirate cat, which is the one I happened to ride right next to, on the Siamese cat!

Hand-carved/painted pirate cat!  How is that not the coolest thing ever?!  Also, not obvious from the photo, he had a parrot and a peg-leg!  Best. Carousel. Creature. EVER!

While the pirate cat might be my favorite of the creatures...the sea-horse is definitely my favorite of all the carousel horses!  And it also happens to be the one that Antoine rode.

If you're ever in the area I highly recommend you check it out, especially if you have kids (though we weren't the only kidless-couple enjoying the carousel that day)!  I'm really looking forward to seeing the Carol Ann's Carousel once it's completed!  There are supposed to be a lot of Cincinnati-specific characters...so there will have to big a couple pigs and at least one will have to be flying, right?!  Anyway, that's it for this week!  I'll be back next week with more camping weekend photos to share.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Mansfield Reformatory: Part 2

Hi!  Remember me?  The person who's supposed to run this little blog thingamabob.  Where have I been?  No clue.  All I can say is I'm a slacker and I'm sorry!  But, a miracle has occurred...I somehow managed to finish editing my photos from the Ohio State Reformatory!  ["Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles!" - let's play name that musical...do you know it?]

Anyway, if you need a little refresher from August, here's part one of the Mansfield Reformatory, which if you'll recall focused mostly on the administration office/quarters of the old prison.  Part 2's photos are all from the areas where the inmates lived, worked, and spent their free time (you can tell this when you're in the reformatory because you pass through a doorway with a very large steel door).  The first part of the prison you encounter is the chapel...

 Ceiling of the chapel.

 A standard cell. 

Next up...the library:

  The library was definitely one of my favorite areas in the reformatory, though surprisingly not my absolute favorite!

 

 I think my favorite area was probably the gym.  I'm not sure why, but as soon as I walked into that room/area, I immediately liked it...definitely not the normal reaction I have towards gyms!

 And this is probably one of my favorite photos of the bunch...but, again, I'm not sure why. 

 The shower was super creepy!  Amanda basically walked in and then walked right back out.  I pushed myself to take a couple pictures and then I was out of there. 

So there you have it.  There were two more sections that I didn't take photos of...one because it was too dark and the other because we ran out of time.  Just another reason to go back, I guess.  Also, this isn't actually the last of the reformatory photos, I have a bunch of outtakes and "haunted" photos to share, so stay tuned!

Life Lately (in Instagram)

 Okay, so remember when I promised to have a real post for you (part 2 of the Mansfield Reformatory) by the end of August?  Yeah, well...it's September now and that didn't happen.  And I'm really not sure when it's going to, to be honest.  We've just been so busy lately, but in the best way possible!  So here's a "life lately" via Instagram to hold you over:

Antoine and I celebrated three months of being married at the end of August, which is just crazy!  Seriously, where has the summer gone? [pretty flowers from Trader Joe's]

 Summertime-Jessica is a total lush, in case you didn't know!  I made a batch of strawberry simple syrup so I obviously needed to whip up some tasty alcoholic beverages: left- strawberry mojito, right- strawberry margarita.

 I had been craving a cobb salad so Antoine and I got all the fixings, including some Amish eggs and tasty Ashland-raised bacon.  It totally hit the spot!

 On the weekends Antoine almost always makes a delicious breakfast for us...but I decided to sneakily make him breakfast on Labor day!  I used this recipe; it was really tasty, but next time I would scramble the eggs firs before putting them in the nests.  

 So many pretty skies lately, these are just two that I happened to capture.

 Work has been pretty busy lately!  Recently I photographed a bunch of items from the Winkler Center that will be going to New York for exhibit.  All the pieces are from the Albert B. Sabin archives and are pretty cool.  The photo to the right is a box of Polio slides; Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine in the 1950s.

 On Friday Antoine and I left work early to drive up to Columbus for a Black Keys concert.  For our pre-concert dinner we got some tasty hot dogs at Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace.  It was my first time there and it was so good!  I got a bacon-wrapped "Classy Lady" (cheese sauce and crushed potato chips) and Antoine got the "Slappy Pappy's Super Sloppy" (bacon, coney sauce, cheddar, sour cream, topped with french fries).  We also shared a side of fried leeks, which were awesome!  It was all so good and so cheap (and they have a lot of vegetarian and vegan options!).  If you find yourself in Columbus I would seriously recommend you check it out!  After Dirty Frank's we still had time to kill so we headed over to Grandview so I could pick up some coffee and we could get some ice cream at Jeni's.  Always so good!

Antoine's brother (my new brother-in-law) got us Black Keys tickets for our wedding present.  Awesome gift, right?!  We had a great time, I particularly liked the leader singer from Cage the Elephant's dancing.  It was hilarious and mesmerizing!

The whole auditorium lit up by cell phone light before the encore. Craziness! 

We're going camping with my sister, brother-in-law, bestest friend, and her boyfriend in two weeks so I got this basic but large pour over (since Antoine doesn't drink coffee so we didn't have anything to make coffee with for camping, except a small French press).  Also, delicious coffee from Stauf's, one of my favorite Ohio roasters!

The prince on his pillows and some of Antoine's clothes.

This weekend and last Antoine and I did a fair amount of antiquing and walked away with some goodies I'm very excited about!  [this photo is from one of my favorite booths at Heart of Ohio Antique Center]  

That's all for now.  I'm going to try my hardest to get my photos edited sometime soon (i.e. this week or next).  I haven't really taken any photos since Mansfield, but I know I'll take a ton when we go camping!