My heart is in Ohio…

July 29th, 2010 → 1:55 pm @


At Aunt Jo's, with Grandma V and my mom

This past week Jony and I went to visit our family in Ohio. Though we both are born, raised, and met in California, our parents grew up in Ohio – talk about coincidence! We had a moment there with a possible family relation scare before we got married (lol!), but no worries, we come from different German Catholic clans. We were able to see his grandparents and my mom’s siblings (she is one of ten, whew!), and had a blast playing Euchre and eating Marion’s pizza.

Playing Euchre with the cousins; and yes, that's a dog, not a horse

But before I get into details, let me tell you my horror story of plane flights. I swear this was the most difficult vacation I have ever been on! First off, we arrived late to the airport due to some wacko walking on our public train system, BART, resulting in all the San Francisco trains being shut down for about 45 minutes. We missed the check-in deadline by 15 minutes, proceed in getting lectured by the ticket agent (*rolls eyes*), and told that there are no other flights that could get us to Ohio that day. We talked to about three other agents (one telling us we could pay $1000 one-way ticket, another telling us we’ll have to wait till the next day, and the third basically having no clue what to tell us) before finally someone simply put us on a later flight free of charge – why this couldn’t have happened three hours earlier, I’m not sure! After sitting for twelve hours at the airport, we caught the red-eye to Chicago/O’hare, then grabbed a 6am flight into Ohio. At this point I was just happy we arrived! But, the adventure wasn’t over yet. Somewhere along the way they lost both of our suitcases. We finally get our luggage the next morning after being in our clothes for 36 hours, yuck! Basically we are finished using United from now on, lol. Despite all of the trouble, it was actually a blessing in disguise – my husband and I haven’t had that much one-on-one time in awhile, and we actually had a pleasant time passing the hours together :) .

At the Englewood dam

Once we got there, we had a blast. I hadn’t seen my family in about ten years, and it was amazing catching up with everyone. I have to say, it was so bizarre not being the youngest anymore – many of my cousins have children, and let me tell you, they are the most entertaining kids I have ever met (picture two little blonde twin boys singing Tik Tok and dancing the robot). We got to see some family history and visited the Wright Brothers’ Bicycle Shop where my great great grandfather worked with Orville and Wilbur. We also stopped by the cemetery where my Mom’s mother, father, brother and sister are buried.

At Bob Evans with my dad and sister - apparently an Ohio staple!

Sitting on handmade rockers with my pops

In front of the Wright Bros Museum, picking Orville's nose

With the family in the bicycle shop

At the Wright Patterson Aviation museum, home of almost every plane imaginable

Doing what my family does best - lounging and talking

Pardon the picture quality – unfortunately I forgot my camera charger, so these are taken with Jony’s iPhone lol. Anywho, there’s a glimpse into my vacation! It feels great to be back home, but I loved seeing my family, and I think I’ve been bitten by the traveling bug. There is so much to see!

Where have you gone this summer? Where would you like to visit? Do you live close to your family? Let me know!

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