Ohio Wanderlust

Photo Credit: Elevate Akron Facebook Page On Thursday evening Dave and I attended the 4th annual Elevate Akron event. Elevate Akron is an outdoor yoga festival held in Lock 3 park, the vinyasa class is free to all who attend. On Sunday, co-founder Tracy Rhinehart told the West Side Leader that this year the event was expected to have 2,000 attendees -- and there is space for even more growth in the future with room to hold up to 3,000 yogis.  I'm sharing the photos above and directly below from the Elevate Akron Facebook page, because I think it's so important to capture the magnitude of this event. A camera can only capture a portion of the yogis, in the video from Elevate Akron I shared earlier this week, you can see everyone. In the photo below you can see where we were for the class. Dave gets off work at 4:00 and I work at the University, so it was easy for us to be downtown shortly after 4:45 to get a good spot. This photo is from when I first arrived...

While perusing Facebook a few months ago I came across an event listing for the Blue Tip Parade and Festival in Wadsworth, Ohio. The parade and festival were founded in 1973 and are annual favorites in town. Like me, you might be asking yourself, why is there a blue tip match festival in Wadsworth? After a little digging, I found the an answer submitted by Michael Schario on the site Roadside America : "Ohio Match Company was one of four Ohio companies that helped move Wadsworth from a coal mining town to an industrial community. Established in 1893, the company made the world famous "Ohio Blue Tip" strike anywhere matches. The company was the largest employer in Wadsworth, employing 1,600 people, more than 600 of them women, but demand for matches declined significantly in the late 1960s when disposable pocket lighters became common. The company closed in the 1980s. The annual Blue Tip Festival every June starts with the lighting of a 17 ft. tall match during th...

In our continued quest to seek out local coffee shops, Dave and I found ourselves at Open Door Coffee Co. a few weekends ago. We hadn't set out to find a coffee shop (we actually set out to adopt a second cat, but that's a story for another time) and ended up in Hudson at Open Door Coffee Co. Open Door Coffee prides itself on selling Fair Trade Coffee and home-baked goods. They are located on Main Street across from the clock tower in the old Saywell Drugstore building. Open Door continues to honor the legacy of Saywell's which was in place for 90 years -- by refurbishing several pieces of furniture as well as the solid marble soda fountain counter. The wall on the art is modern and created by local artists. We settled into two leather chairs by the window to enjoy everything we ordered. We decided on a few pastries for breakfast, an Orange Cranberry Scone... and a Cheddar Herb Scone. Unfortunately on the morning we visited Open Door ...