Ohio Wanderlust

I was invited to participate in the Media Preview Night for Deck The Hall 2016 at Stan Hywet -- this is not intended to be a comprehensive post, because I absolutely want you to go experience Deck The Hall with your family. This is just a little taste of some of the new displays and decorations. Our preview took place last Friday on November 18, during the beautiful and unseasonable 70° weather that we experienced. You'll notice no snow in any of the photos and might note that I'm not even wearing a jacket. Deck The Hall certainly takes place in more chilly weather conditions, but there are places to duck inside to warm-up, and when the temperature is below freezing outdoor heaters will be placed throughout the grounds. Deck The Hall features over 850,000 lights with both indoor and outdoor displays. There are local musicians, plenty of places for photo ops, and opportunities for both children and adults to be dazzled by the whimsy of Christmas scenes. Deck The Hall is Stan ...

Last week Dave and I met up with some friends at Royal Docks Brewing Co., I'm a regular at Barre Fly Studio across the plaza and have been eyeing Royal Docks Brewing Company as a potential meet-up location for a while. The English Pub inspired brewery opened in 2015. We selected Thursday night as the night to check out the brewery due to most of us having a long weekend with Veteran's Day off work. Dave ordered a flight of beer including: Vlad; Baba Yaga; Docklands; London Sig; Prodigal; and Daemonium.  This was a diverse selection including an imperial stout, a coffee porter, a Belgian style, and an IPA. The samples were perfect, we were able to try out a few very different but still good quality beers. In classic form, Dave saved the best for last, and downed the assertive high hops beers earlier on, leaving the delicious and robust imperial stout to cap off the flight. I was happy to see that Royal Docks had Pimm's Cup on the menu. This is my second time ...

Last weekend Dave and I went to the Fabulous Food Show with two friends. This was my first time at the IX Center and the first time any of us had attended the Fabulous Food Show. We bought the most basic tickets as well as the smallest alcohol package available for both of us -- which provided us each six drink tickets. According to the Fabulous Food Show, the following demographics represented the 2016 attendees: "Demographics: Adults 25-54 Household Income: $60-$100k Attendance: 30,000+ Average Attendee Purchased $100 in Products" We attended the last day of the three day show and the IX Center was still plenty crowded with attendees.  Samples galore!  My first alcohol ticket was spent on Ice Wine! I selected the Riesling Ice Wine, it was perfectly sweet. Ice carving. One of my favorite samples was from Bissell Maple Farm -- the Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup and Rum Barrel Aged Maple Syrup were both amazing. Bissell Maple Fa...