Fourth of July Weekend '06

Well, I had a really fun weekend up in the Cleveland area of Ohio. I had four days off.

On Saturday (July 1st, 2006), I waited till my brother came back from his class, and we left around 6PM driving all the way up to the small village of Burton. The drive took about 4 hours and we didn't get there until about 11PM.

We met friends (Kevin and Luke) who were house-sitting for a couple who were doing missionary work in Africa for a year. It was a nice place, hidden away in the woods right off a hilly road. It had a nice backyard and a deck and I was really glad that Dan invited me to go up there with him to spend time with him and his friends. After working so much and being tired all the time, it was a nice setting to just kick back and relax.

July 02, 2006: The next morning, we went with them to their church and soon after, Dan and I had to leave to go to a family gathering that our aunt was throwing for her son, who was just back in the States from Africa doing medical work. He was only going to be home for a little bit, and they thought it'd be nice to throw a party for him. We drove over to Medina County from Geauga County and got there about 2PM just in time to eat some food. We stayed for a few hours and had the family picture pose for pictures (my aunt lives for this stuff). No doubt we'll see them projected up on a wall come turkey-time.

After everybody got tired of the heat, people started leaving and going their separate ways. I got a little face-time with my cousins and then, Dan and I headed back over to Burton where we would be staying for the rest of the long weekend.

Once we got at the house, Kevin suggested going to see a jet car/demolition show. We decided not to go, as we didn't think it was worth $15 to see. We instead went to see the local fireworks display for free, which was really well done and it was the first time in a long time I remember seeing fireworks this close (at home, I can see about 5 different cities' fireworks displays).

July 03, 2006: The next day, while we waited for Kevin to get back from work Luke took us to a nice small coffee shop that was set up like a mom-and-pop Starbucks. They even had a frozen cappucino which I bought and it was pretty good. When Kevin got back, we went to the Ox Roast, in Mesopotamia, where one of Kevin and Luke's friends was playing. It was quite interesting to see SO many Amish people and buggies everywhere (Geauga County is home to the fourth largest Amish population in the US). We got some BBQ sandwiches and went into a great historical corner store that had many varieties of soda in bottles, penny candy and lots of odds and ends.

Later, we drove around thinking about going to the beach on Lake Erie (Mentor on the Lake, I think), that Luke had told me about earlier. The only problem was it kept raining off and on. We instead stopped in Chardon, where we got some videos and ate at a nice Mexican restaurant (El Patron). After eating all that, we played some sand volleyball with Luke's brother and his wife.

After that, we came home and started a camp fire out back and I rode the quad for a bit, riding around through the woods and in the yard. I was really starting to get the hang of it. Dan got ahold of it and stalled it in the woods and I had to help him try to get it stared again, to no avail. After we pushed it back to the small barn, we talked around the fire for a bit, then watched one of the videos, Munich, we rented, though most of us fell asleep before it was over.

July 04, 2006: During the night, the rain just wouldn't let up its barrage and I woke up a few times. I was worried that the rain would affect our plans of going to Snowflake Lake, a private lake that was owned by a family friend of Kevin's. It did finally let up, but it was too wet to get a little quad riding in.

We drove over to the lake later in the day, after helping Kevin clean up some branchs that had fallen over at his parent's house. They gave me a tour of the surrouding area of the lake, driving by Don King's house and stopping for pictures of a covered bridge. The lake was pretty small but it was nice to have it all to ourselves. There was a small lodge with a fireplace next to it and some ropes to swing on. We swam around for a bit, used the small paddle-boat and swung on the ropes. Afterwards, we got a fire going in the lodge fireplace and cooked some hot dogs and had lunch. We played a few hands of euchre, then threw the frisbee around some. I had everyone pose for some shot on the ropes and we left.

We watched the other movie, Hoodwinked, we rented when we got back to their house and once that was over, it really was time to leave to go back home. I really would have liked to stay longer (Dan did as well), but I had to work the next morning at 8AM, so I really wanted to leave around 8 or 9PM and it was already 9:30.

We finally got out the door and said goodbye. I got a last picture and we were on our way. I was very close to falling asleep in the car, but I really don't like sleeping anywhere but in my bed. We got some food on the way back and we saw all of the nice fireworks from the highway while driving (kinda dangerous). We didn't get back until about 1:30AM, but I stuck it out and went to work the next day, tired, but getting paid. :D