One of the sweetest blessings of our training time in Ohio was that we could double it as a mini-getaway for the two of us. Our training was held in Holmes County, Ohio, which is about three and a half hours from where we live. It's also Amish country, which is not terribly new or different for us, since we live in Amish country, but it is always fun to see new places, and this was definitely new for us!
We headed over to Ohio on Sunday afternoon, right after our busy morning at church. It was a gloomy day, but we didn't encounter any bad weather, which was so nice!
We stayed at a hotel this time, rather than an Airbnb, and the Christmas tree was super cute!
We spent the whole day and evening Monday in training, but we got out a little bit earlier on Tuesday afternoon, so we were able to sneak in a quick trip over to Lehman's Hardware, in Kidron, Ohio. (Our conference was in Millersburg, for those of you who are familiar with the area.) Both my mom and our friend, Shari, had told us about Lehman's, and we knew it was a place we wanted to check out while we were in town. It's HUGE! Unfortunately, we didn't have a ton of time to explore it because it closes pretty early, and we didn't get there too long before closing time. But we trekked through most of the store and had fun looking around!
These are modern appliances created to look like antiques. Fascinating.
There was an art display set up inside The artist makes wood carvings. Here is the photo he used to create a carving, and then you'll see the art below. It was mind-blowing!
Photo opps were everywhere at the store! (There were even some parents in there doing a full-blown photo shoot of their toddler. We spent a while dodging those photos!
Fun visit! We left shortly before they closed and made it back to Millersburg just as it got dark. We were a bit nervous to be on those roads after dark. We are used to horses and buggies on roads, but they don't have many lights on their buggies in this area - AND there are tons of hills and curves. Bikes and buggies showed up out of nowhere all the time!
It's not a super great picture, but here is the courthouse. It was so pretty!
We went back to the hotel to get our free, bottomless coffee, but the machine was down. Fortunately, this area has coffee shops that actually stay open until 9. (We should move there just for that!) So we found some coffee and went back to the hotel to watch TV!
And then yesterday, we drove back home. We stopped by an amazing Christmas store in Berlin, Ohio before we drove back. I could have stayed for hours. I seriously don't know of anything else quite as happy as a year-round Christmas store!
Found our way back to this...
Sigh.
7 comments:
YAY for Holmes County and LEHMAN'S! Glad you got to check it out!! We go to that area every year or two. Always makes me happy to tour the country! :)
Fun! Loved that wood carving from the picture, that was awesome! - Michele
I grew up in Wayne county Ohio, which borders Holmes...have been many times to Kidron! Fun to see familiar places!
-Tara Reinhard
That looks so fun! Love that gnome, too funny.
Long time reader, first time commenter… It was fun to see your pictures! Imagine my surprise when I read your blog yesterday and saw my dear Pastor’s wife doing your Love Inc training! I see almost all of these places on a daily basis and it is fun to read what folks have to say after they visit. And I hear you on the buggy/light issue. Imagine sending a brand new driver out into the night to deal with that? It is worry inducing for sure and I’ve done it x 4.
When comments blow your mind in all the best ways! Today wins for that. :) Shari, thanks for the recommendation. It was a winner! Michele, there was a whole ROOM of these carvings. You would have loved it. Tara - What a fun discovery!! We've heard we should go back in the fall. :) Tamar - the whole decor of the hotel was gnome-themed, but the tree was my favorite. Lynette - WOW! What are the chances? I realized I did not say (and should have!) in yesterday's post that our presenters were the most genuinely sweet and kind people ever. They loved us so well. And then it must have been your church we visited on Monday night to see the ministries in action! That was really fun to see. Bless you for sending out four new drivers into the buggy-laden nights. I was nervous - and Ryan is a good and cautious driver! We really enjoyed our visit to your neck of the woods. I'm so glad you said something! :)
We enjoyed our trip to OH this summer and visited many of those places as well. We loved Lehmans and actually went twice!
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