Travel Thursday: Holmes County, Ohio

 

                As you know, Ryan and I tend not to revisit places more than once (or maybe twice) because we have so many places we want to see! But Holmes County is one of those places we have been to three times now, and I’m sure we’ll be back multiple times in the future. The first time we went, Ryan was still working at Love INC, and they had a training session there we needed to attend. The second time we went was last year, when we went to Marriage for Life. And now…we’ve been back a third time!

                The beauty of going back to a place is that you start to recognize businesses and find favorites. It starts to feel like home. And we’re starting to feel like Holmes County is a little bit like home…away from home.

                This county is in the thick of Amish Country and is quite the tourist trap. There are Airbnbs, Bed and Breakfasts, cabins, and hotels everywhere. You can probably find anything you want, including a Bed and Breakfast that is for sale, if you want to start your own business adventure in the area!

                Both times we have gone to the marriage conference, we have stayed at the Encore hotel in Berlin, and we love it. We would stay there if we just went to Berlin on our own. Last year we had a big room with a kitchenette, and this year we had a standard room, and we loved them both. They were clean and had everything we needed.

                The breakfast at this hotel is amazing. Ryan is a huge fan of the biscuits and gravy. I am a huge fan of the cinnamon roll cake. I could eat a dozen pieces, but I make myself stop at one.

                Because the conference is so short and we spend most of our time at sessions, we haven’t had time to explore things like the pool or workout room at this hotel, but they do have them. (And the conference is held in attached theater, and they do have shows throughout the year.

                Each time we’ve been to Berlin, we’ve stopped at Ginger House Coffee Shop. It is probably our second favorite coffee shop…period. We love it that they play Christian music, and it’s so clean with great food and great coffee. We went twice on this trip. The first time we got coffee and a snack (yogurt parfait for me and a blueberry muffin for Ryan) and before we left town, we had lunch: southwest protein bowls. We remembered them from last year and loved them.

                This year we had dinner at Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen in Mount Hope, about 15 minutes away from Berlin. We went with our friends, and the guys got the buffet. They loved it. I got cheeseburger soup, and it was so tasty!!

                The one other place Ryan and I checked out this time was Mission Thrift. We found some fun things there! The thrift store was very well organized, and it felt pretty clean! We would go back, and we’d love to check out some of the other thrift stores around there. (Why is thrifting more fun when it’s really far from home?)

                There are so many other stores in Holmes County, and maybe one day we’ll have enough time there to check out even more! But these were some of our favorites from this trip!