Galena, Ohio-Berkshire Lakes Campground

September 11-23,2017

Our next stop was Galena, Ohio where we met up with our friends Tara and Kevin and two of their children Colton and Asher.  We had so much fun hanging out with them and while we already knew Jacob and Asher got along well, they became two peas in a pod.  I loved watching Jacob have sooooo much fun.  (Not sure what happened with my pics.  So many are blurry!)

Our big outing together was to Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  In the town of Peninsula, we hopped aboard a train and rode about 45 minutes to our north to the Rockside station.  

(Jacob doesn't look happy here but he totally is.  These two talked to each other non-stop!)

From there, we rode our bicycles the 13.1 miles along the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail back to Peninsula.  So proud of the kids!

The Ohio canal opened in 1832 and one could travel from Cleveland to Cincinnati in 80 hours rather than weeks.  And somehow I missed this in my youth, but did you know that they used mules alongside the canal to pull the boats?! (totally makes sense now considering the year).  And as the canal brought growth, Ohio became the third most populous state by 1850.

There are a series of locks along the canals that are all in poor shape now that the canal is no longer used.  We stopped to check out a couple and found a few snakes!

We made several stops along the path, one of them being the Canal Exploration Center.  There we watched how thread was made, check out many of the exhibits indoors and had lunch.

(It was so cute watching them.  Jordan found some clothes to dress up in and was helping Asher with his attire)

On another day, our family went to downtown Columbus, where we stumbled into a small business festival and then checked out the splash pad area.

The rest of the days, we just enjoyed the company of our friends as much as we could.  The boys even had a couple of sleepovers.

And I saved the worst for last.....

The kids found three baby mice and decided they needed to try and raise them.  Bleck!!!  I was not in favor of this one bit, but they were determined.  In the end, I don't think they lasted even 48 hours (felt like weeks to me), but we learned quite a bit about trying to raise mice, like their development stages, what to feed them, how to feed them and that even those who try often rarely succeed.  They were sad when the mice were gone but they made a very good effort.

(There are two of them in the top left.  One is licking milk off of a paintbrush)

Our two weeks here flew by.  We were all sad to leave, especially the two boys but one day we will catch up with them again!