Road Trip - Ohio

Last weekend we went on a 15 hour long road trip to Ohio. You might think we are crazy for attempting such a thing in a short amount of time, but since we were taking Atenas with us, it was cheaper to drive than to fly (her roundtrip flight would have cost $300). The main purpose of our trip was to celebrate Nancy’s birthday and spend time with our family. We did so much in such a short period of time and we enjoyed every bid of it.

Birthday girl (high school picture):

On Friday, Nancy and I pampered ourselves with pedicures and then we had lunch at Penn Station while the guys went to the golf range to test John’s new golf club. Later that day we all went shopping and ended up going to Jungle Jim’s to buy buffalo burgers for Sunday’s cookout.

Jungle Jim’s is a huge grocery store (over 6 acres of food) where you can find almost anything you can think of. Every time we go there we try to buy Mexican items that we can’t find in New England. There are interesting displays throughout the store that make shopping fun (especially for the little kids).

In front of Jungle Jim's (pictures taken with cell phone) :

Mexican section:

Old fire truck:

Seafood sectoin:

On Saturday, Cameron and I had breakfast with Grampa and aunt Jan and then we all joined Grampa in his daily 2-3 mile walk. We really enjoyed our time with them. Later that day, Nancy and I went shopping (again) and had lunch at a Japanese restaurant.

Nancy asked me to cook enchiladas for dinner on Saturday. We thought we could find all the ingredients at Wal Mart, however Wal Mart only had a large bag of red dried peppers and we didn’t need that many. Fortunately on our way home, we stopped by the Super Mercado (small store in the middle of town) and to my surprise they carried tons of authentic Mexican items! This is my new favorite store in Ohio!! The enchiladas came out very good and as a side dish we had home grown squash.

Sunday we all gathered at Grampa’s house and had the cookout in celebration of Nancy’s birthday. Uncle Mike grilled the burgers, Nancy made the side dishes and aunt Jan baked the cake. The food was excellent, the weather was perfect, and Atenas went crazy running in Grampa’s backyard (she even saw a deer).

John, Nancy and Cam:

With aunt Jan and Grampa:

Uncle Mike:

Father and Daughter:

Sisters:

Nancy and John

-this one is one of my favorites-:

Atenas and her abuelos:

Nancy spoiling her grand-dog:

Mom and I: