{All In a Day} To Ohio and Back

It has been on my agenda for quite some time to visit our final presidential grave, the William Henry Harrison Tomb outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. More than once, we've cut it from previous road trips due to time, as it has usually been on the final day's agenda, and we are almost always pushing it by rolling in late at night with Hubby planning to be at work early the next morning.

So, I'd planned to incorporate it into a short weekend trip back in the fall, but couldn't really find a weekend that worked. Then, I loosely had it as a possible option for a little road trip over spring break, and well, we all know why that plan didn't materialize! Besides the fact that, other than a couple of quick trips to the beach visiting with family, we've been staying home, well, this grave happens to be inside a tomb that has to be unlocked each day, and it's been closed since mid-March!

Oh my word...hindsight is 20/20, right???

 With nowhere to go and no family adventure planning to keep me occupied (we are typically in full on "road trip" mode in July), I've been stalking, I mean checking, the website (more) frequently (than I should be) looking for it to open back up, and finally it did!

So, being that I have no interest in staying in a hotel right now, I figured we would pack some food and make a day trip of it...because it's normal to travel from South Carolina to Ohio and back in a single day, right???

Ahhh, my family knows me better than that.  Normal or not, it's doable in my brain, and we shouldn't catch anything from a dead president or any of his dead family members!

We got a bit of a jump on the road trip yesterday spending the night with my mother, an hour closer to our destination.

Being it a Friday, Hubby was at work, so my mother accompanied me on the trek - I get it honest, I suppose!

We headed out super early (like SUPER early), and things were going along just fine until we hit a little backed up traffic near the Tennessee/Kentucky line due to an accident. This put us behind about 30 minutes, but we were still making good time until...

Leave it to my GPS to toss me some sort of unplanned adventure...

Remember the "stuck in the 'closed for the season' state forest" incident??? Bless...

We planned our first stop as the William Henry Harrison Tomb, the main reason for this trip in the first place, and knew that we needed to cross the Ohio River to get from Kentucky to Ohio. I kind of figured we'd cross via one of those big bridges in Cincinnati, but no... That's not near adventurous for us, right???

My GPS evidently decided that we needed a little unexpected fun (actually it must've just been the closest route), but imagine our confusion as we turned onto what I thought was Anderson Ferry Road...

until...

So, it went a little something like this...

"Wow, we're heading right down to the river!"

"Hey, kids...  Help me look for the left onto Anderson Ferry Road, please."

"There it is! Wow, there's a company called Anderson Ferry there on the corner."

"Oh cool... They must offer a ferry service."

"Ohhhhh, looks like we are now TAKING the ferry service! Okay, then!"

Well, check that one off...  Kids' first car ferry (amidst a pandemic), floating across the Ohio River!

So, after that excitement, we were finally in Ohio...

The small community of North Bend is only about 10 minutes down the road...

We arrived at the tomb and checked off B's final dead president...

39/39

From there we checked off two more "plaque stops" visiting the former site of President William Henry Harrison's home, also the birthplace of his grandson, President Benjamin Harrison...

as well as the former site of Benjamin Harrison's boyhood home...

We'd heard that North Bend may soon be getting the William Henry Harrison statue that currently stands in Cincinnati, so figured we'd so see it while it's still standing...

President Garfield was there, too!

From there, we made a stop at the Cincinnati Bengals' stadium...

as B is checking off NFL stadiums these days, too!

We'd packed a picnic lunch in order to cut down on necessary stops and decided to stop in the quaint village of Mariemont to eat...

I'd read about it and have wanted to visit for awhile.

We picnicked (in our car) on the town square and grabbed ice cream for dessert...

before beginning the trek back home...

This is one place I'd like to visit again someday...when the pandemic is over...

We stopped to pick up dinner at Petro's in Knoxville, a favorite spot L and I discovered on her Ten Trip back in September...

and made it home before the clock struck midnight...

What a day!

{Spring Break} Days One-Three - Entry, Living Room & Dining Room

Today is the (much anticipated-maybe, just by me, but that's beside the point, right?) day!

Along with going on a "tour" of each of the items in the room, the kids have added a couple of games that go(ish) with that particular room or space for us to play each day...

In each room, each child can ask 1-2 questions (or ask for more information) before we start, & at the end they have to tell me either their favorite thing about the room or something neat that they learned.

I'm planning to type up a very detailed document for each of them to have ("in all of my free time" - funny, that statement is usually a joke, but right now it's pretty true), but for the purposes of the blog, I'll keep it short & sweet, including what they asked, what they learned & what we played.

Sooo, here we go!

FIRST STOP...the Entry (how's that for some excitement?!?!?)!

We actually spent about an hour & a half in this little space that measures about 5x7...

QUESTION
B - "Tell me about the plates on the wall."

PREDICTIONS
B - "I have no idea."

L - "I don’t know. I feel like they remind you of something or represent something special."

M - "I feel like they were your relatives or Daddy’s relatives, because we have them in our room too."

QUESTION
L - "Where did we get this umbrella holder?"

PREDICTIONS
L - "I don’t know. I feel like it was from some of your relatives because it looks kind of old."

M - "I feel like it was Grandpa’s because his canes are in it."

B - "I was going to say that I think it was Grandpa’s because I remember it in his house."

QUESTION
M - "How old were we when we took those pictures?"

PREDICTIONS
M - "3."

B - "I’m actually thinking 2 or 3."

L - "I feel like it’s in the range of 2-4, but I know that they were taken in different years."

FAVORITES
When we were finished with the room, the kids were unanimous in what they thought was the neatest discovery...this antique hat form that we use for a doorstop.

The story of how we acquired it is even neater. In the early 1970s, my parents restored an old Victorian house that was built in the 1890s. In the yard, they found an old foundation, and this hat form was uncovered in the dirt around the foundation. How cool is that?!?!? And, the kids just thought of it as a doorstop...

GAMES
Guess Who? (a family favorite)
There's a Moose in the House (bought this one for our road trip to Alaska and never played it!)

NEXT STOP...the Living Room (which based on our conversations, has now been renamed the Parlor by the kids)!

We spent so much time in this room that we actually had to break for lunch!

QUESTION

B - "What is this?"

(Come on, B...you know this!)

B - "Where did we take those pictures?"

(the Governors Grounds in Columbia)

L - "Is there any family history behind this quilt thing?"

(ohhh, yes, yes, yes, there sure is!)

L - "What are those sconces?"

(nothing historical...they are new!)

M - "Why does the torchere not close all the way?"
(no idea!)

M - "What is that crest on the fireplace?"

(the family crest...ha, ha, ha, nope...no significance!)

FAVORITES

B- "My favorite item is the reading lamp, & my favorite stories are about how your grandparents (my mother's parents) met & about how Grandpa first put the torchere together upside down!"

L - "I love the stories about the marble top dresser & how Daddy was bidding on it & Grandma stopped Grandpa from bidding against him (he couldn't see what Hubby was doing!) & how your grandparents met. I also loved looking at the yearbooks & seeing how young you & Daddy looked!"

M - "My favorite thing was seeing how young you & Daddy looked in the yearbooks. I also liked your special Junior League box with all of the letters in it (from Past Presidents)."

We got to talking about how my grandparents met when we looked through THEIR college yearbooks! My grandfather was a waiter in the girls dorm & actually dropped a piece of pie in my grandmother's lap. Way to get her to notice, right??? Anyway, he felt so badly & offered to have her dress cleaned. I guess the rest is history!

GAMES

Othello (this actually belonged to my grandparents)

OTRIO (brand new quarantine game)

Pente (this was mine as a child)

NEXT STOP...the Dining Room!

QUESTIONS
B - "Where did you get that green thing from?"

(my (great, great) Uncle Harry is an institution around here, or my grandparents, actually, who bought up so many cool things of his for my parents!)

L - "What is carved on the bottom of the candelabra?"

(ha! my dad's social security number...my parents lived in a very urban, downtown Atlanta community that was changing over at the time as more and more people moved in and restored old homes, and robberies were fairly common - one time their house was robbed and the burglar took time to make some orange juice! - okay, I'm off on a tangent...)

M - "Do you still have those dresses?"

(do they even need to ask this??? of course!)

FAVORITES
B - "My favorite is learning about Grandpa's social security number on the bottom of the candelabra!"

L - "I like the fact that we have a lot of things from famous families/people. I also like the story about the mirror & Grandpa's social security number being carved on the bottom of the candelabra."

M - "My favorite things in the room are the portraits of L & me!"

GAMES
Clue (not my childhood original, but one of my favorite games growing up!)
Scrabble (this was mine as a child)

More to come...

UPDATE (Fall 2020) - We never did finish this "road trip"...

We actually got sidetracked packing up and moving DURING THE PANDEMIC!!!

What a treasure to have these responses captured in time!

Maybe we need to revisit this in our new house room by room???

We will see...

{Spring Break} A TRUE Staycation

While Hubby usually only takes off a week or two in the summer for our family trips, the kids & I have done a couple of our beloved road trips, here & there, during Spring Breaks over the years. Some have been further away (& more adventurous) than others (I'm looking at YOU Spring Break 2019!), but they have ALL provided an opportunity to get out of the house & see something interesting!

{Spring Break} 2012 - PA

{Spring Break} 2013 - NY & PA

{Spring Break} 2014 - AL, GA, LA & MS

{Spring Break} 2016 - VA

{Spring Break} 2017 - Day Trips in the Carolinas

{Spring Break} 2019 - MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA & VT

All that being said, we are DEFINITELY NOT going anywhere this year. As with most of us around the country & the world, we are getting a little antsy as we quickly approach our 5th week of staying home (#goawaycorona), so I came up with a crazy idea for a true road trip - STAYCATION style!

We have intentionally filled our very own home with treasures - whether furniture, wall hangings, knickknacks, etc. - that are important to both Hubby & me + our families, for one reason or another. We also have quite a few stories to tell. The kids are also at the age where they really should know the meanings, the whys & the stories, behind each item in each room or space in our home.

I first told Hubby about my idea, & he was like...  "Cool. You definitely need to blog about it." To which I was like, "Huh??? What? WHY?" The more I thought about it, I figured he was right. This is our Spring Break this year, & while there are a lot of scary & sad things going on in the world right now, this is a memory we want to document.

With that perspective, I was looking forward to sharing the idea with the kids... Their initial reactions were hilarious...

B (the 14 year old) - "Ummm, what's the point of that???"

L (the preteen) - "That. Sounds. So. Weird. Mom."

M (still in single digits for a few more weeks) - "Will there be a gift shop?!?!?"

But...as the week moved on, they started getting excited, or at least started coming around to the idea & humoring me by deciding to go with the flow! I mean...what are their other options, right??? Ha!

The girls have even made cardboard cars for our "road trip", license plates & all...

Stay tuned...

Hopefully, it will bring a little bit of JOY to the monotony of our days, so here we go!

It is destined to be a true adventure!