Our Trip - Day 1

We left the house at 8:15 A.M. because we had made Eye Doctor appointments, since we were heading that direction anyway.  My eyes changed slightly, and I wanted new frames, so I tried on thousands dozens of frames and settled on one I felt would suit me to wear every day.   After putting the astronomical cost of new glasses on the credit card,  we drove awhile and stopped at a Panera Bread Cafe for lunch.  Very good indeed.

Next stop was here:

Velvet Ice Cream

This was a stop I was very excited about.  I mean, ICE CREAM!  How awesome is THAT?  I was in for a great disappointment.  The factory “tour” consisted of looking through a window at employees making boxes and waving at us.  The public restrooms were, shall I say, not nice.  “Oh well”  thought I.  “There’s ice cream!”  I spotted Black Walnut.  That is my very favorite flavor.  Ready for a real treat, I was nearly drooling in anticipation.  It was sadly lacking in walnut flavor.  I have had better ice cream out of a store brand cardboard box. *sigh*  I REALLY wanted to be blown away by the entire experience, and it fell flat.  Here is the best thing about the place:

Water wheel

We headed just a bit South to the city of Newark, Ohio. (and you thought it was in New Jersey!)  There we visited a couple of antiques shops.  But, we had gone to that particular city to visit a store front for “Buckeye Winery.” (Buckeyes are the official tree of Ohio)  Tasting samples could be had for 25 cents each.  We tried 6. (The samples were tiny! Come on!)   Although the labels were a bit tacky, ( an outline of the state of Ohio with Buckeye Winery across it) the wine was quite acceptable.  We bought a white and a red.  We tasted a dessert wine called “Buckeye Ice” which I found to be sickly sweet and something like taking medicine.  We did NOT buy that one.

Off we went to find our cabin near Logan, Ohio on the edge of Hocking Hills State Park.  We found it quite easily.  After unloading and settling in a bit, we drove into Logan to find a place for dinner.  We spotted a trendy looking place and were about to go in when a local resident stopped us and said if we wanted really good food to go down the street about a block and eat at a place called “Sandstone.”

Sandstone Restaurant

He was right about the food.  It was very good.  I had salmon crusted with buttered crumbs and served with steamed carrots, rice, and a nice salad with home made croutons which were crunchy and tender. Dennis had the ribs with a baked potato and steamed carrots, and a salad as well.  Mmmm… The place was fairly elegant with white table cloths and black cloth napkins.  It had a certain amount of ambiance as well.  Very pleasant.

We fairly easily found our way, in the dark, back to our cabin, and settled in for the night.

This is the end of Day 1.