Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Turtles & birds/caps & gowns


1. Turtle with racing stripes, 2. Hibiscus, 3. Grandma's Yard, 4. Zorniger Education Center

I have finally returned from my original home state of Ohio. Most of the week was spent with my grandma, who lives in Middletown, OH. Middletown is a steel town (home of Armco) that I always think of as the middle between Dayton and Cincinnati. As a kid I would always spend a few weeks in the summer with my grandparents, so this trip, which was over a week long, was somewhat reminiscent of childhood.

Some of the highlights from the trip included a trip to an ice cream shop with my Aunt Jan in Lebanon Ohio and a trip with my mom to a really lovely knitting shop in Springboro. I resisted the urge to stash more yarn, even though a sugar based yarn peaked my interest and overall the shop carried very nice colorways. We also spent some time at the Cox Arboretum on the edge of Dayton. And of course, the ultimate purpose of the trip was to attend the high school graduation ceremonies of two of my cousins (the only males of my generation on each side of the family are coincidentally the same age!) Which took us to New Albany, outside of Columbus. I'm not sure how many of you (who aren't family) are following all this geography, but basically we were near my grandma's for most of that, with the exception of making a trip requiring just under 2 hours of car travel to get to New Albany.

Overall, it was a nice time of year to be back in Ohio with birds chirping, lots of green and sunshine. Although the first few days were muggy and humid, it cooled off making the trip generally much more pleasant than the Ohio I remember. And being there at the start of summer definitely beats the mid-winter Christmas trips, or the heat that will come in the next few months. It's still cooler back here in Chicago but I think I am glad to be back before it turned into Ohio summer. Plus I had been away from Chuck and Lucy for long enough.

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