Roadtrip Post #2: Cuyahoga Valley National Park

The next day, we drove to Cuyahoga Valley National Park!  It's only about 45 minutes from Cleveland. We started out with a really nice hike around the park for a few hours, that included a stop by a very active bat cave!  They had the opening to the bat cave closed, because they were worried about the safety of the bats (because people suck). 

Speaking of people sucking, look at what they did to this tree! It's just shameful. So many people carved their initials and names into this poor tree. 

These trees were crazy!  They had crazy root systems that allowed them to grow basically out of the rocks! 

 

The bat cave!  They put some bars in front of it so people wouldn't try to go in, to protect the bats. 

A beautiful waterfall! 

After our awesome hike, we drove over to an area that was supposed to have lots of wildlife
(including beavers and otters). We, however, did not see any wildlife except for some ducks.  There were TONS of lily pads, so I was hoping to see some frogs since in cartoons frogs are always hanging out on lily pads, but there were zero frogs I'm sad to say.  Real question:  Has anyone ever seen frogs hanging out on lily pads?  Is this a real thing that happens?  I've seen it in a million cartoons, but maybe that's not a real thing.... haha :)

A million lily pads! 

After hanging out there for a bit, we drove over to an area with a cool covered bridge!  It was beautiful. 

 That was Cuyahoga Valley National Park!  It's a pretty small National Park, but we had a fun day there.  The next day, we drove to Niagara Falls, which will be the next post!

Roadtrip Post #1: Cleveland Rocks!

Hey guys!  Kevin and I just got back from our roadtrip a few days ago, and it was SO fun!!  We drove up to Cleveland, then over to Niagara Falls, and then finished our roadtrip in Cooperstown, NY!  I'll try to do one post for each destination, so I can try to break up the pictures and don't have posts that are crazy long!  So, this post will be all about our Cleveland adventures :) .

We started out our time in Cleveland by stopping by the house from A Christmas Story!  I didn't even know that was in Cleveland until I started researching our trip!  It was a super cute part of Cleveland, and we had fun stopping by! 

Me and Kevin in front of the house! The leg lamp is in the front window! 

The Bumpus House!  It's a Bed and Breakfast now. 

After our quick stop there, we drove over to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!  I took a MILLION pictures so I'm going to have to really limit them to just a few here, but if you want to see more just let me know! :)  

Kevin super excited to go into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

 

This was the funeral program from Ray Charles' funeral

This is part of the wreckage from the airplane Otis Redding was in when it crashed and he died.  Isn't that SO weird that they have that in the Hall of Fame? 

 

Here's the YOU ARE HERE shirt worn by John Lennon (this one's for you, Lindsey!)

DEVO!

A giant floating hot dog in the middle of the Hall of Fame.  Apparently it was a stage prop for Phish?

There were SO many people in front of the Long Live Rock sign!  

We also went to Great Lakes Brewing Company!  They make amaaazing beers, including one of my top 5 favorite beers of all time (Eliot Ness).  We went on a brewery tour, and also had dinner and hung out in their super cool bar area!  It was a great way to spend our evening.

I'm going to do a separate post for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which was in the Cleveland area, but we did it the following day so that we had a whole day to spend in the park!

Oktoberfest, and October so far!

Hey guys!  This post should catch up everything I need to post right now!  Whew!  So, at the end of September we invited a bunch of friends to a brewery right near our house that was having an Oktoberfest party!  And after the Oktoberfest, everyone came back to our house for some food and more drinks!  It was a super fun day, and we were soooo exhausted the next day! 

Here's most of our group!  I am not in this picture because I'd just gone to the bathroom!  Dang it!  A few other people were missing too because they were in line for food/drinks. 

Here's Kevin's sister Mo, me, and Kevin! And you can see my haircut!  I donated 12" of my hair to Wigs for Kids at the beginning of September!  They take 12" minimum, so it was a big cut! 

Here's me and Kevin holding the hammer of Philly Beer Week!  It was SUPER heavy! 

  

Here's Timmy and the fun hat we bought him for his birthday (which was just a few days before the Oktoberfest).  We decorated the side with some birthday stickers, but you can't see it from this angle.

Next I thought I'd just share some photos from around our neighborhood!  It's starting to look a little bit Fall-y (nothing major yet), and we're definitely seeing a TON of deer wandering around our neighborhood in the mornings and evenings! 

There's some leaves on the street!  The trees aren't looking super Fall-y yet though. 

Four deer in our backyard! This is the view from our bedroom. 

Two weekends ago we had a BUSY weekend and we knew we were going to be gone for a large portion of both days, so we made sure to exercise Guinness in the morning so he'd just sleep all day while we were gone!  On Saturday we took him to Valley Forge to hike around, and he had a GREAT time! 

After we got home from Valley Forge, it was time to get ready to head into the city to go see HAMILTON!!!  Oh my gosh, it was beyond amazing.  One of the best things I've ever watched in my entire life - SERIOUSLY.  I loved it so much, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it! 

 

That evening after Hamilton, we met up with Kevin's family in the city to celebrate his cousin's birthday!  We went to this amazing Moroccan restaurant called Figs, and it was DELICIOUS.  It was phenomenal food, and such a cute little restaurant.  

The next day (Sunday), we met up with our friends Michael and Jen for a Union soccer game!  It was the last Union game of the regular season (they made the playoffs though!!), and it was super fun.  The mascot was wandering around, so we had to get our pictures taken with it! 

Kevin and Jen and Michael! 

The beautiful view from the stadium. 

A cool Union sign that's in the area we usually hang out. 

The game! 

Kevin and Phang are having a serious discussion about the game. 

Me and Jen and Phang!  Phang is supposed to be a snake, but he has arms and legs... so... it's confusing.

That's our October so far!  I need to take some pictures of our Halloween decorations, and also do a Fall bucket list update soon!  I think I'm doing pretty good with it.  We also planned a very last-minute trip to Ohio and upstate New York, so I'll be sure to take some pictures when we go there!  I'm hoping the leaves will be AMAZING while we're there (so get ready for just like a dozen pictures of trees).  We have lots of fun plans, and we're going to be able to cross another National Park off of our list (Cuyahoga Valley National Park).  

I hope everything is going great for you guys, and that you're enjoying your Fall so far!!