My Heart, our Stomachs… Ohio

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Corinna

While I’m sitting in this car, I’m going to backtrack a bit to our stay in Ohio. We stayed just a little over 3 weeks. Mostly to visit family, spend time with dear friends and of course indulge in our favorite gastric treats. Since all of our kids were born in Cincinnati, it only seems fitting that they’ve been feasting on nearly all their favorite establishments. Graeters, Skyline Chili, Buffalo Wings and Rings and the list goes on!
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We came in on a rainy day. Actually, we went through a blinding rainstorm. It was a white knuckle trip for about 150 miles. I was a mess because we discovered our Arizona native trailer has never really seen rain. Yeah, she’s got a few leaks that we would have never known about. I guess we do now 😉 and I suppose that’s our next project for Silvia to replace some of the failing seals around the vents and windows.

Ahh… lets see, what else? Oh! We drove up to the Airstream factory in Jackson Center, Ohio and took a tour. What a cool piece of history! Definitely worth a day trip to see it. The kids even got a shot with the one and only “Gold” airstream.
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I tell you, three weeks seemed like a long stay when planning but it went by so fast. We spent time with family in Cleveland, enjoyed the Clermont County Fair and Fireman’s Parade and had a great time at a good old Catholic Summer Festival.
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Yeah… Life is Good! So grateful to be living it!

Look where we’ve been!

Posted on August 6, 2013 by Corinna

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I’ll admit my blog posting on this trip has been sparse. We’re halfway through our trip and I’ve found using instagram has been the easiest way to capture our travel moments rather than going through my blog. I’m trying to figure out how to get them to just post to photogenicfood.com since I update through IG frequently. Hmmmf… We’ll see how I do with this.

Currently we are driving from Duluth, MN towards Fargo, ND. Wilderness, pines and birch trees for miles it seems. And as our relatives in Duluth mentioned, if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes. They weren’t kidding! Weather can change in the blink of an eye. It’s a peaceful stretch of road and I feel so blessed to share these experiences with my family.

Road Trip planning requires Coffee

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Corinna

After almost a year of short trips close to home, we’re going to do it! We’re hitching Silvia up and taking a trip back to the Midwest to see family and explore the country. We’ll leave at the end of June and return just before school starts at the end of August. Last time we did this trip was on our move out West. Having not explored much of the US, the changing terrain was amazing. I can’t wait to do it again now that we’ll have time to actually stop and explore. As a type A personality, I am fighting the urge to over plan. We have a few definite must stops: Kansas City, MO for our eldest daughter’s gymnastic competition, Cincinnati/ Cleveland to visit family, the Airstream Jackson Center, Chicago, Duluth, MN to see more family and Yellowstone. As far as all the places in between, I’m keep a list so that we have them handy for impromptu stopovers.

Looking forward to the trip with nervous anticipation 🙂 4 kids, hubs and I plus 3 little ‘keets along for the ride! Peanut our BCC (Black Capped Conure) won’t make this trip this time, she already saw the countryside on the first ride out. Instead she’ll have a wonderful resort stay at her favorite “birdie hotel”. With about 5000 miles of open road I’m sure we’ll engage in some entertaining adventures, interesting food finds and learn quite a bit along the way! Cheers to Summer!

Road Trip: Ten fun facts for road warriors (roadloans.com)

Treasures of Tombstone

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Corinna

Tombstone? What’s in Tombstone? Groans can be heard from the kids… doesn’t sound really exciting. Our response, “we moved to the Southwest, so we’re going to see what the Wild West is all about!”.

Famously known for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the BirdCage Theatre, we discovered that it was AZ most prosperous silver mining town and home to the famous outlaw characters of Doc Holliday, his brothers, Big Nose Kate and so on.

This town is a step back in time to horse drawn carriages and wagons, men in western wear and women in long dresses and corsets. The kids were delighted as it seems as though nearly everyone in this town is always in character. You could ask anyone a question about the town and they wouldn’t hesitate to go on in full historical detail to answer your question. It was like a live history lesson! The best part is that kids remember nearly every detail of it! But then again who could forget a saloon nicknamed Bucket of Blood or that ghosts reside in the Bird Cage Theatre!

We stayed the weekend at the Stampede RV Park. It is one of two RV parks we found within walking distance of the main street. Nothing fancy, but hospitable and a bit quirky. It was surprising to us at first to see cowboys and cowgirls walking through the park, but then we realized the whole town pretty much lived and dressed this way. In the two days we were there we saw gunfights, witnessed a bank robbery, ate homemade fudge, toured the famous silver mines and took a trolley ride around town. You can find more information about Tombstone here. It’s an interesting place, a gem filled with rich history about the outlawing days of the Wild West. They weren’t just stories from that Hollywood movie,Tombstone, starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer and Sam Elliott. While there is certainly embellishment, the basic inspiration comes from this old world town in the desert that is just “too tough to die”.