Zoe's Buckeye Birthday Tour, Part 2

Moving out of our little cabin in the woods took longer than anticipated. I was up until midnight the night before squaring away the secret compartments in the car, packing all food and clothes we wouldn't need the day of our departure. At 10am I told Dan to take the kids to the playground next door because constantly providing them service was keeping me from finishing our packing. Someone from the staff checked on us for 11am checkout, nice and prompt, and I insisted I was just packing up the cooler. I finished the dishes, packed the cooler, loaded the car, texted Daddy to get them back for final potty breaks and I think we were on the road by 11:30 - terrible because we'd have to stop for lunch before we made any good distance. Thankfully, Zoe napped through to the far side of Akron, a good hour or so. Thank goodness for GoogleMaps and being able to see every Wendy's at key driving intervals!

The rest of the trip was pretty in eventful, though I think Dan declared a moritorium on visiting Wendy's. We got to our swanky hotel and checked into what seemed like the equivalent of their presidential suite - we had a whirlpool! More importantly, we had a door that closed for bedtime. Penny and I enjoyed a lovely evening swim in the pool where she tried out a life vest I can't even remember purchasing. It was so freeing to go swimming and not have to hold onto someone. We played a little Marco Polo, chased a ball, I got to go underwater, lots of fun all around.

On Saturday, we went to Triangle Park, right across the street from the museum where I grew up (Dayton Museum of Natural History at that time, Boonschoft Museum of Discovery now). It was like walking into Roman ruins. Everything was overgrown, with grass up to our knees. The swings each had a spiderweb filled with holes and old dead bugs, evidence that no one had swung in them for days at least. The structures weren't excessively rusty or overtly dangerous looking, but their style belied their age (likely similar to mine). There were a series of nice looking pavilions and a family was setting up a birthday party in one. Other than that, we had acres of parkland and play structures all to ourselves. The kids were thrilled by the unusual lack of competition and explored each structure in turn.

Not a garden, just a tall weed in the grass

It was such a stark difference from NYC parks. Here we were in a giant open space, no fences in sight. No need to open and close a gate each time we went from one structure to the next. Big, fat, old trees with no low branches lent their cool shade everywhere, from pavilion to play structure. I didn't have to hide on the sidelines so I didn't sunburn while they played. No need to constantly shout, "Take turns, you have to share the slide!" Of course, I did wonder if ticks hid in that tall grass. Both parks seemed to have similar amounts of trash lying about, but Dayton's seemed to be ancient, bleached by exposure to the elements and cleaned out by critters and teams of ants. The kids insisted on collecting bottles like we do at home, though I told them Ohio doesn't give us money for bottles like New York does.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the parks around here. They're cleaned daily, there are plenty and they have some variety in the kinds of structures. It's just that they're crowded and I feel like a caged animal in them. Sometimes a good feature when you've got someone who likes to run away. It made me a little sad to see the parks around home so abandoned, though. Each one we visited seemed to be SOOO empty, so filled with exciting animals and plants taking over.

Going to church on Sunday was a bit of a challenge. The population of Dayton has shrunk so much that most Catholic churches share their priest with one or two other parishes. So finding a Mass in the vicinity with a time that worked for the kids and had a cry room for us to escape to if they decided to be a bit more unruly involved some memory and web searching. St. Rita fit the bill, but we were a little too embarrassed to walk all the way to the front to the cry room. Of course, we were the only family with kids in the entire service, so even their quiet chatter was a bit of an intrusion. So many grey heads. Aunt Helen mentioned that my old grade school, which had become the grade school for three parishes, still might not have enough enrollment to continue. As I drove through my old neighborhood, noticing all the now-empty lots where homes, schools and businesses used to be, I could see why. According to Aunt Helen, as many as 25% of homes in Dayton are unoccupied and even enticements like property tax forgiveness can't keep people in them. So sad.

Driving tips from Great-Grandpa Saluke

On the up side, though, the important people are still around town! My Dad joined us for Mass and then we went over to Amanda's to celebrate her birthday. We enjoyed some lovely cheesecake and just hanging out for a while.  On Monday, we ditched the hotel to head over to Aunt Rose's house. They'd been making some serious preparations for welcoming us. For Memorial Day, we broke in their brand new patio, complete with huge inflatable pool. Penny was the only one brave enough to dive into the cold water. Paul tried, but requested to be removed immediately. Zoe loved kicking the water while seated on the edge. I'm not sure what the kids did for the day. All the Salukes came over to say hello and Zoe was a little clingy and shy. While I took care of her, the other kids played badminton, splashed, drove in the house and generally entertained themselves and those around them, I'm sure. Dan eventually figured out that he was in charge of ensuring they ate and what not.

I had never visited Uncle Joe's new farm and meet his bees, so I was excited to incorporate that into our trip. Uncle Joe just retired a couple of weeks before our visit, so he was settling into retired life. He introduced us to his six chickens and we went into the coop to watch him collect some eggs. He also showed us how he helps them hunt for food in the yard. They're about as free range as one can get - coop is just there for shade and protection from predators. Penny was thrilled to help collect a bountiful harvest of strawberries. The asparagus was also ready to go, but she left that to Uncle Joe to handle. We then ate an entire hatful of strawberries in the cool AC of the house. Though he doesn't have grandkids, Uncle Joe did have some nice farm-themed toys at the ready for the kids. What does Uncle Joe farm? Bees! He's had to restart his hives recently, but I get the impression the new ladies are working hard. The rest of his land he rents to someone else, who does all the farming action. Sounds like the best farmer gig there is.

We went back to Aunt Rose's for a lovely spaghetti dinner with my grandparents, Aunt Helen and a few other folks we had missed the day before. Then goodnights, a whole lot of packing and a bit of sleep before heading back to NYC. We passed through Northern Ohio again, this time staying with Aunt Cindy. Apparently, our travel schedules coincided just enough so we could catch her after her return from Florida. My cousin Andrea stopped by with one of her daughters and Penny latched onto her for a whole lot of fun. Penny loves playing with iPads, so was happy to have an opportunity to play a few games at Aunt Cindy's with an experienced friend. Aunt Jayne and Aunt Pam came over in the morning to hang out, play a few online games with us (a little weird when you're sitting across the table from someone) and enjoy another yummy feast. Then we were off again to Pennsylvania. After our last successful layover, we headed home and were more than happy to arrive at our little abode in time for dinner. It was an awesome trip. I, for one, was glad to be finished with packing up and moving every few days. Penny misses the pools and play dates. Paul has asked to go back to some of the playgrounds. Miss Zoe had some kind of revolution on the road, switching from massive quantities of spoon food to insisting upon self-feeding finger foods. She also seems to be pointing with meaning quite a bit more. Who knows what adventures our summer will bring?!