Ohio Wanderlust

I've been a little busy lately, most likely because I spent a significant amount of time travelling all across Ohio this weekend. Now that life has settled down slightly, I should be able to get back to a more typical schedule of blogging. Last Friday, Dave and I took a four hour road trip down to Cincinnati to see a concert. Neither us had been to Cincinnati before, but I have plans to attend a museum exhibit there in the next few months, so this will not be our last trip. The venue for the concert was Bogart's which is easy to get to once you exit the highway, although they do not have a parking lot, there was a parking garage across the street as well as street parking which is free after 6 p.m. You certainly will have many options to choose from whether you'd like to park close (we were half a block away) or down the street (our friends chose to park a few blocks away). The staff who checked our tickets at the door were courteous and professional. We arrived at...

When I first started this blog I envisioned it including a large amount of Ohio posts, with some "road trip" posts sprinkled throughout to help break things up. Ohioans don't just stay in Ohio! My youngest brother is currently in college about half an hour outside Pittsburgh, so we travel there frequently. One of our favorite locations when we visit Pittsburgh is P & G's Pamela's Diner on Forbes Avenue. There are six other Pamela's locations throughout Pittsburgh. One very important thing to remember is that these restaurants are cash only .  I ordered a side of the "Famous Lyonnaise Potatoes" to supplement my breakfast. I don't know why we never just get two orders, Dave and I always fight over the one side of these. Traditional lyonnaise potatoes are pan fried with onions and butter -- seriously scrumptious. I also ordered the Croissant French Toast which is topped with caramel and nuts. These are so light and fluffy. You...

Last weekend a large group of us went to Bricco in Kent to celebrate Dave's birthday. Bricco has four locations -- two restaurants, one cafe and one pub. The Kent restaurant is the first Bricco location outside of Summit County and the location in Acorn Alley is fantastic. Bricco offers valet parking on the weekends, but it's conveniently located near to the parking garage if you'd like to visit some of the shops in Acorn Alley after your meal. I made a reservation just because there were seven of us, the restaurant was moderately busy for a Sunday evening. Since they use Open Table, it doesn't hurt to make an online reservation to reserve your table. With such a wide variety of guests it was easy for us to order a range of items off the menu. A few of the people at our table ordered this beer cocktail to start, it included Victory Golden Monkey Belgian beer and strawberry daquiri mix. Dave enjoyed this drink, he finds Golden Monkey to be delicious, but very as...

Last week I found out about this event that was going on at the Akron Zoo on Halloween. What does the Akron Zoo do with all of the pumpkins left over from Boo at the Zoo? They give them to the animals of course! I know it seems silly, do animals really want to play with pumpkins? The Akron Zoo uses various items throughout the year to pique their curiosity, engage their minds and encourage them to be more active. There is a little secret to getting the animals to play with their pumpkins though (they're full of treats). Animals were provided with their enrichment treats in half hour increments, giving you plenty of time to travel between exhibits after watching them enjoy their pumpkins. First on the agenda were the penguins. The penguins were given floating plastic jack-o-lanterns to play with in the pool.      The penguins also had three penguin pumpkins, but they were pretty uninterested in those pumpkins.     According to on...