Travel Thursday: Pandemics and Birthday Trips

 

                I am so glad I scrapbooked my way through the pandemic. While it’s not a time in life I particularly enjoyed (though I didn’t hate working from home one bit), I find that I’m now far enough removed from it to find the documentation of it fascinating.

                Our 8^th annual birthday trip fell during the pandemic, though we had it scheduled long before “pandemic” was a household term. We planned to go to Hocking Hills State Park and even booked a genuine tiny cabin for our lodging. We didn’t know if we would be able to take the trip, because so much was still closed, and Ohio was reportedly a pretty strict state, but we heard some trails were open, and so was our cabin, so we went!

                As I read back over our adventures of this long-weekend trip, I’d forgotten so much of what made it so very odd.

                We took all our own food and cooking supplies so we could eat in our cabin every meal if necessary. We had no idea if we’d be able to find anything open for getting food out.

                We were in the application process for WillowBridge and needed to submit fingerprints to move on. Alas, most fingerprinting locations were closed entirely or only open one day a week and booked months out. Ryan researched everyplace he could find between Kokomo and Hocking Hills and found an appointment in little Connersville, Indiana the very day we would be driving through. So our first stop on vacation? The Connersville, Indiana Police Department to be fingerprinted. That was a new one for vacation.

                Our tiny cabin remains one of my favorite places we’ve ever stated. It was entirely secluded and had a hot tub. It was so clean, so well-labeled, and the perfect place to be alone for vacation! I declared if we ever lived in a tiny house, it should be set up like this one.

                We loved the hot tub but were sad that the fireplace on the porch didn’t work. The owners even came to look at it, but it was broken.

                We weren’t far from The Coffee Emporium, which was open for business and had open air seating on the porch. We went twice on this visit and loved it so much that we went back when we had our do-over of this trip a few years later. It was (and still is) SO GOOD.

                Hocking Hills State Park was closed entirely while we were there, so we had to hike in nature preserves and other parks. It was still beautiful, because it’s all the same gorgeous land, but we did miss out on a bunch of waterfalls. Apparently those all live in the state park. This was the one-and-done waterfall we found.

                We mostly had the place to ourselves, and that was fun. We like seclusion.

                Signs you are living through a pandemic: you get a blister on your foot and use a spare mask to wrap your heel so it doesn’t blister more.

                Ryan thought this was so fascinating he took a picture. It was the first time we were inside a restaurant (McDonalds allowed ordering in for carry out) after social distancing markers were added to the floors.

                It was one strange vacation, but we were glad we got to do something, anyway. And our do-over a few years later was worth the wait!