Cheeeeeese

Well this week I went with the fam to Ohio's Amish Country. If you know me, you know I love cheese! So, I fit right in with the Amish (other than their lack of technology use, lol.) Anyways, I thought what better way to describe the places we went than by making a link list. So here it goes!

AWESOME restaurant that serves German and Amish food: (also, we sampled their Polka Punch, very tasty!)
Chalet in the Valley

Everything you could possibly want AND the cheese:
Walnut Creek Cheese

Lots of homemade crafts, foods, furniture, and much more:
http://www.solsinberlin.com/

So far, THE lowest prices on bulk foods I have come across in Amish Country, it's a little out of the way, buy definitely worth it!
Ashery Country Store

So, I can't seem to find a website for this place, but here is an article about it. I got a great coffee table there for $12 and just needs to be sanded and finished!
Article on Walnut Creek Antique Mall

In addition to their signature trail bologna, they have lots of other great foods and snacks!

Troyer's Country Market

Lots and lots of great antiques at reasonable prices:

Berlin Village Antique Mall

The cutest little cheese factory ever!

Guggisberg Cheese

Not sure which cheese to choose? Stop by Heini's. They have tons of samples of cheese and their cream cheese fudge. Dee-lish!!!

Heini's Cheese Chalet

I also cannot find a website for this thrift store, but they have LOW LOW prices on everything. And this last Friday and Saturday everything was 50% off! Don't know how often they do that, but I got some baby boy clothes and toys there for Liam.

Share and Care Thrift Store

4663 US 62
Berlin, OH 44610

(330) 893-3890

So, that about does it for our trip to the land of the Amish. Be sure to make your trip soon, before all the cheese is gone! LOL

Yummy- Ranch Bread

Well I actually heard about this from a Hidden Valley commercial for their packet of ranch powder, but lo and behold when I got to the store to buy the Hidden Valley brand it cost about twice as much as the store brand, so sorry Hidden Valley, thanks for idea, but I bought the store brand.
Anyway, all you do it butter a piece of bread, sprinkle it with the ranch powder and toast it in the toaster oven and voila... you have tasty ranch bread! Fast and easy solution to add a little something extra to any meal. I love it!

Lakeside, Ohio (Geocaching)

We just got back from a wonderful, relaxing week with family at Lakeside on Lake Erie. It was so beautiful up there and the weather was great the whole time, not too hot or cool and very little rain. We hung out at the beach some and the park, mini golfing and Shuffleboarding. But actually, Craig and I ended up doing a lot of geocaching there. Most of the time, we had Liam with us, so we took turns looking. I did really well finding some of the more easy ones. There were a few we missed, but most of them we got, 12 total. If you don't know what geocaching is, check out The Official Geocaching Website.

A great place for geocaching was on Kelley's Island. We had taken the ferry over and looked at some historical/scientific places, glacial grooves and Inscription Rock (site of an Earthcache) and gotten something to eat. Everyone else was ready to head back, but we wanted to at least check out a few geocaches. The most interesting one by far that we found, took us to a spot inside the island that was very bizarre. There were painted rocks arranged in formations and what otherwise looked like just plain trash lying around. It is apparently some type of golf course that someone created known only as Kelley's Island Country Club, or KICC as the large boulder indicated. Anyways, we found this cache and got the heck out of there as it was starting to creep me out. I also learned about underwater geocaches, although we didn't attempt to look for this one. It was on private property for one thing, but I do think I would be awesome to wade through the lake searching for something attached to a rock at the bottom. And extremely awesome if you actually found it, maybe somday...This was difficulty level 4 out of 5. So that was the gist of our adventures on Kelley's Island. You may want to check out the Kelley's Island website to find all sorts of cool stuff to do there.

Hocking Hills, Ohio

One of my greatest summertime pleasures is hiking and what better place to do it than Hocking Hills? With terrain that hosts trails ranging anywhere from flat and straight to curvy, steep, narrow and bumpy, the Hocking Hills has something for everyone. The whole family can find something to do here. We decided to take a drive down there on Thursday to take a look at some different cabins to choose one to stay at for our anniversary in August. Well, we did end up deciding on Cassady's Hilltop Cabin. There was actually no one staying in the cabin when we were there, so the owner showed us around the inside, very nice. Anyways, while there, we decided to stop at Rockbridge, which for anyone who hasn't been there, is just as the name implies, a bridge made of rock. Well, in order to get to this bridge, you have a significant hike which is very rough terrain. We were even warned before we went when someone saw our stroller, even though it was an off-road stroller, that we might not want to try the trail with it. Haha, guess the guy didn't know us very well... So, though we didn't end up walking all the way to rockbridge, we did get in a little "extreme strollering," a word my husband coined that day and had a wonderful time! Can't wait to return in August and hope it's a little cooler, especially so we can enjoy the hot tub!