Weekend away

[pixiecrinkle]

I got a much needed weekend away last weekend, kind of on the spur of the moment.



Friday night, automat76, spandita and I got in the car and trekked up north to Madison, which is about 40 minutes east of Cleveland, where our friends B&T moved with their 2 sons last year. Some of our other college friends were also there, so we had air mattresses in just about every room.

We got there late, so we watched the Spongebob Squarepants movie and then we all went to bed.



Saturday morning, we all got up and made breakfast, then we set off for Geneva on the Lake, which is kind of like a miniature Coney Island--lots of bingo and tattoo parlors and carnival rides right on the lake. We decided to stop for a quick bite at a local winery, but it took forever so it turned into more of the afternoon than we'd intended. Note to self: do not order Ohio grown wines ever again. We had the tasting flights, which were about 80% nasty, and 20% drinkable in a pinch. So then we ordered this bizarre concoction that was kind of like a Shirley Temple with wine. We got to keep the jugs, one of which is pictured here with J.



From there, we split off, and several hours later, we all re-convened, and went to Fairport Harbor, where they were having a carnival that they inexplicably referred to as "Mardi Gras." Sambot rode some rides, and I discovered my camera doesn't do good action shots at night when it's on "auto."



Back to the house, and to bed again. Then up on Sunday morning, and after some early morning lounging.



Farley stayed behind:



while we went to the beach down the road and swam in Lake Erie. After that, everyone dried off in the sun:



and Beerhenge and a sundial were erected:






automat76 took another nap



and we gave J. a spa treatment with the bizarre seaweed that was washing up



We finally went back to the house, and much cooking out ensued.

Then on Monday, we got up, went out to breakfast, and then it was back home to Columbus in the afternoon. Before we left, we took one last shot for the alumni news.



That's M,M, J, spandita and me in the back
automat76 T with Jackbot, and sullivancj27 in the front.

And now, we're back. More photos from J's camera later. The rest of mine are here.

Comments

[queensheba.livejournal.com]

Farley is too cute!

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he looks like the saddest dog in the world too. He's on a diet right now, because he's a bit portly, and the way he'd look at us, you'd think he was starving to death.

[feylin17.livejournal.com]

I like Beerhenge! :)

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

I tried to get a photo of it without the beer cans for scale, to try to make it look much bigger than it was, but the towel was in the way. :-)

[masterbetty.livejournal.com]

I am jealous. I haven't been to the lake in forever.

Have you ever been to Vintage Ohio? It's the first weekend of August up in Kirtland, and you taste wines from all over Ohio. I used to have a system. The first year all I tasted were reds, and managed to find a really nice raspberry wine from Greystone- here in C-bus. The second year? All whites, but mostly champagne. It's a lot of fun and I'd love to go again, but I'm no longer dating that guy and it seems like something's always happening that weekend.

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

I haven't been, but that might restore my faith in Ohio wine.

And I've heard that the "other winery" in Geneva is better than the one we went to. I should have known we were in trouble when the Riesling was on the dry tasting flight. But the champagnes weren't all that bad, and there was a good Chenin Blanc too. The reds didn't fare so well to me.

[pennywhistle.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you could swim in Lake Erie! My friend told me Michigan was the only great lake that was clean enough to swim in. I might need to make a trip up there!

[pixiecrinkle.livejournal.com]

Actually, the front page of the paper the day after we were in the lake had a headline that said Erie was far exceeding water quality standards. We weren't on any kind of official beach in those photos, but there are several (some of the kids went to a state park type beach in Geneva the day before).

And the seaweed didn't even bother me that much. The nuclear power plant in the distance (Perry is about a mile from where we were) was a bit odd, but I got over that too.