A mini vacation to try and beat the heat
Thursday, August 15 – Our first stop was the Ohio State Fair. We left the house with Michelle and Sarah and booked a room at a Comfort Inn North on Dublin-Granville road. Scott had gone up to the fair with a group from Kings Island and we met him on the midway. While Lynne and Jim attended the Trisha Yearwood and Vince Gill concert, the kids rode everything on the midway.
Friday, August 16 – I-70 eastbound took us through Ohio and West Virginia into Pennsylvania. We took I-79 into Pittsburgh and fulfilled one of Michelle’s ambitions – for reasons unknown to all, she is a Steelers and Penguins fan. We got a room at the Holiday Inn on Brinton Road and headed to Kennywood Amusement Park. Scott refused to take the skyride from the upper parking lot to the park entrance and rode a shuttle bus but the rest of us opted for the skylift. Kennywood is on the National Register of Historic Places and does an outstanding job preserving its older rides. Some of the highlights included the Turtles (one of the last Tumble Bugs), Noah’s Ark (one of the last two in the world), the Racer (one of only three Moebius coasters in existence) and the Old Mill, celebrating its 101st year of operation. We ate dinner at the Parkside Terrace in the park.
Saturday, August 17 – We ate breakfast in the Holiday Inn’s restaurant. U. S. 30 took us to Ligonier. We hoped the Laurel Highlands would provide some relief from the summer heat but no such luck. Ligonier was pretty but other than walking around town, we did very little else, opting to lounge around the hotel. We ate dinner at the hotel.
Sunday, August 18 – We ate breakfast at Erin’s Cafe in Ligonier before heading to Idlewild Amusement Park. Run by Kennywood, Idlewild is one of the oldest parks in the U.S. It’s also one of the most beautiful with big trees, rock-lined paths and historic rides including a Caterpiller and the Rollo Coaster which dates from 1938, a rare Depression-era installation. Idlewild also has a trolley ride based on the Mister Rogers children’s television show. After Idlewild, we ate lunch at a diner on the way back to Pittsburgh and drove back the way we came. At one point in Pennsylvania we were bothered by a tailgater. One of the kids had won a Spongebob Squarepants stuffed toy so we had Michelle put Spongebob up in the back window and start waving to the tailgater who promptly backed off.
Milestones on this trip: Michelle finally got to see Pittsburgh.
States and provinces we visited: Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania.
Capital cities we saw: Columbus.
