Tuesday

 

My new t-shirt

Not much of a sunrise

We got an early start today because we were meeting Jeanne and Jay.  They had been in Cleveland and they were driving to Oregon, WI.  They left about 7:15 am and texted us with the ETA of 9:30 am to the Millcreek Coffee and Cones in West Unity.  This was only a little out of their way and it was about a 1/2 hour drive for us.  We left about 8:50 am. 

We got there about 5 minutes before Jeanne and Jay.

We had our coffee and/or hot chocolate and treats.  We were able to visit about 1 hour.  That was so nice, but way too short.  

Rob and Lisa were coming to Defiance for lunch and Nathan had wanted to make sure that he had a chance to see them.  When we left Millcreek we went directly to Sweetwater Chophouse.  It is connected with a golf course.  It was a very nice restaurant with a lot of art.

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Amelia

Valerie, Amelia, Ivan, and Dorothy

George S was there for a little while but he had to go to work. 

Ivan, Madeline, George, Nathan, Robbie, Martin, Lisa, Robbie, Dorothy, me, Valerie, and Amelia.  Roman was on a work call and Ed was at home on a meeting.  

Ivan, George W, Nathan, Robbie, and Martin

Ivan discovered that the lights for the tables were touch activated.

I ordered Garlicky Brussels which had Brussels sprouts, artichokes, cherry peppers and garlic vinaigrette. George and Nathan each ordered the vegetarian panini with the idea of splitting it 3 ways.  The Brussels sprouts were very tasty, as was the panini.  At this point I was pretty full.  

What a nice sandbox.  

We all headed back to Dorothy and Ed's place. 

We headed on a short walk to go see the horses.

Rob appears to be the horse whisperer

 

Ed's new solar panels installed last year.  He did not realize how much work they are to keep clear.

It was interesting to see what happened during the eclipse.

Saying good-bye to Nathan, Robbie and Martin.  They headed out about 3 pm to go to Chicago.

A neighbor came by to give Ivan a ride in her golf cart

Rob and Lisa.

We had a delicious dinner of ribs, vegetarian lasagna, mashed potatoes, and salad. 

For dessert we had a variety of cakes that Rob brought from an Italian bakery and several flavors of ice cream

The most popular "toy" for Ivan and Amelia, is the salad spinner.  Dorothy and Ed have a metal one because their plastic ones kept breaking.

Once Nathan, Robbie, and Martin made it to Robbie and Ice's place they sent these pictures.

Ice with Apollo.  They could not join us in Ohio because the puppy has not had his first set of vaccinations yet.

Nathan and Apollo - he will dog sit tomorrow while Robbie and Ice work.

Robbie with Apollo

Martin's cat, Tiger. Tiger stayed with Ice and Apollo.

We said most of our good-byes tonight.  Everyone will be heading out tomorrow morning.

Monday, Eclipse Day!!

 We had our usual leisurely morning.   

We packed up and cleared our of our cabin and headed to cabin 4.  We had a little easier time packing up because we did not have any 3 year olds to entertain.  Some of us headed over to play pickleball.

After playing pickleball and once everything was all packed up, we left Oregon and drove to Findlay, Ohio.  We had paid for a parking space at the the Northwest Ohio Railroad Preservation and Riverside Train Museum.  We stopped at Subway to pick up some lunch.

It was not too crowded.

It was a perfect day.  We were hoping that it would not get any more overcast.  Mostly it stayed with scattered clouds. 

We rode the little train around, but after the first time around we chose to sit in the open seats in the back instead of the inside ones.

Ivan liked the train

An eagle

Ivan gave the guy who was playing the guitar for us a dollar tip.

There was a little gift shop and museum as well as restrooms.  There were several food trucks but not ones which were good for vegetarians.

It was so exciting when it was starting.  

I finally figured out how to do the zoom with my camera. It was very awkward to hold the eclipse glasses over the phone and to try to zoom, hold the phone steady and then take a picture.  Got a lot of crazy shots.  

Solar Flare

WOW!! So impressive.  3 minutes of totality!! It was fun to hear all of the comments.  It was an amazing experience.

When it was over, we hung around for a little while because we thought that traffic might be bad.

We rode the train again, you can't see Ivan.

We went over to watch the kids play in the play area.

Then we headed to Dorothy and Ed's place in Defiance.  It was about an hours drive away.  The traffic was not bad. 

Our Air BnB at Dorothy and Ed's place.  It is a cute little apartment. 

This is a crewel work piece that I made for George's mom a long time ago.

Bedroom 

Dining Room

Looking the other way

Entry with the kitchen and stairs going up to the loft.  That was Nathan's room. 

The field we were on to watch the eclipse was very wet and muddy. I will have to figure out how to clean my muddy shoes.

After we unpacked we went next door to the main house.  The AirBnB is a converted garage.  

The AirBnB is the portion to the right.

Our rental car 

We played some games - mostly 10, 9, 8.  Dinner was a combination of soup, salad, leftovers and Chipotle.