Kayaking on the Cuyahoga

On Labor Day a carload of us drove out to Hiram, a tiny town east of Cleveland on the Cuyahoga River. We stopped at Camp Hi to begin a kayaking adventure!

My mom is a kayaking pro, but everyone else wasn't quite as experienced - it was only Matt's third time ever kayaking and my dad & Ruth's second. We set out super early, which turned out to be smart because the high was around 90 that day! The river was really nice because a lot of it was shaded, so we weren't in direct sun the whole time. There was hardly any current at all, and the water level was super low - the lady at the rental shack told us it was the lowest she'd ever seen it! So we ran aground a few times on sandbars/rocks, but it wasn't a big deal.

































(Thanks to my mom for the last four photos!)

It was so pretty and peaceful! Of course, since there was hardly any current helping us along - and since we paddled 7 miles! - our arms and shoulders were a tiny bit sore the next day...but it was worth it. It was lots of fun, even if some of us ended up less dry than others at the end :D A fitting end to the summer!

A Stroll and a BBQ

Some more pics from Ohio - a walk over to Horseshoe Lake, and later - a bbq and bocce in the backyard! (And a cute, tiny slug!)

Geauga County Fair

We came back from our trip to Cleveland last week - we had a great time! On the first full day of our visit, we decided to head out to the Geauga County Fair. It's an old fair (150+ years!) that's held really close to where my family lived when we first moved to Ohio from Texas - out in the country! So I guess I first went to the fair a long time ago!

We visited the fair the Friday before Labor Day, which worked out really well because there were hardly any crowds and it was easy to find really close parking. We also lucked out with decent weather, since the rest of the weekend was 90 degrees and humid...summer decided to throw everything at us for one last week.







We saw all of the county winners - best apples, arts and crafts, beer and wine (!), and all kinds of other things. There was a pretty cool area with a bunch of traditional craftspeople, like a broom maker and a smith.







After lunch, we stopped by the barns with all the cute animals. Unfortunately, we missed the pig race...but we did get to see a pig sleeping with its food bowl on its head, which was pretty cute. All in all, a fun day at the fair!

September

It's September, and it's the start of my favorite season! This September is off to a fun start with a visit to Cleveland over Labor Day weekend. It might involve kayaking, baseball, grilling, family time, a certain Maggie dog...or all of the above. I thought it might be fun to have a look back at what we've been up to the first week of Septembers past!

September 2014 + + +

At the beginning of last September, we were heading into the end of our stay in Portland. We tried to cram in a bunch of stuff before we left, so the first week, we went up to Olympic National Park for the second time. We did the famous Hurricane Ridge hike, used AirBnB for the first time, went to a cidery, and had a great time. Places like this are one thing we miss about living in the Pacific northwest - but I think in the end, living there helped us appreciate beauty in our surroundings, no matter what our surroundings are. (We keep talking about how when we lived in New York before, we never went to the park. It's such a nice park! It has huge trees and beautiful views! How did we not appreciate it?)








September 2013 + + +

We went to O-tsukimi at the Portland Japanese Garden, a nighttime festival that celebrates the full moon. It was so nice to walk through the garden in the moonlight, almost the whole thing to ourselves! We also made risotto with chanterelle mushrooms - the most delicious things in the world, that we'd never had until we lived out west.







September 2012 + + +

My dad and stepmom visited us for the week and we travelled all around Oregon! We went to Hood River and actually saw Mt. Hood (it wasn't even cloudy at all), stopped at Multnomah Falls and the I-84 gorge overlook. Then we drove out to the coast and stayed in Lincoln City, did a whale watching tour where we saw no whales but were immersed in a foggy world (just as awesome!) and visited the Newport aquarium. We always like showing people our part of the world, wherever that part of the world happens to be.









September 2011 + + +

Our first September in Portland! I think we spent most of the month looking for jobs even as Seaborn Press became more and more of a real thing. In the meantime, we went to Sauvie Island and the farmer's market so much that I started canning lots of stuff. Peach jam and pepper jelly and fig preserves - all kinds of stuff. Later we realized...maybe too much stuff. But in early September, it was nothing but canning!

Bye Bye, Cleveland!

Long time, no post! We've officially landed back in Brooklyn – but until we actually get everything unpacked, I thought it would be nice to look back on the last few months of our time in Cleveland! Here are some photos from the end of winter and beginning of spring – – –



Maggie was our studio dog during the days, even though she mostly just slept a lot.



We printed brand new wedding designs.





We visited small town Chagrin Falls in the middle of winter.



We had (lots of) yummy bagels from the shop down the street.



We saw snow mountains in the strip mall parking lots.



We went with my mom to see musicians play at the Cleveland Museum of Art for free on the first Wednesday of every month!



We ate pastries in Little Italy.



We went cross-country skiing twice!



We walked over to Horseshoe Lake - - - a lot.



When the snow melted and it got warm(ish), we grilled everything we could think to grill.



We went to family dinners once a month.



We ate lots of delicious bread, thanks to Matt.



We walked in the metroparks and visited my sister on the west side!



We spotted deer, so many deer, in the front yard.



We were so happy when we could go without snow boots again!



Thanks to everyone from Cleveland who helped make our stay so nice! It was lots of fun and great to be able to see family members on a more regular basis. Hopefully, you'll all be able to visit us here in New York soon – we're certainly thinking of when our next visit to Ohio will be!

(PS. We've moved the blog to Blogger and are still figuring out how to make it look nice and all that, so bear with us!)