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This past weekend, my husband and I went away again~this time we went north to the Cleveland area. On Friday night, we stayed in Chagrin Falls. It’s a little town just east of Cleveland, and actually does have a little waterfall. I booked a room in an Inn that was an old Tudor mansion. It was a bit different for us~we usually just stay someplace easy, like a Holiday Inn. But, wow, was this place gorgeous! It was built in 1900 by one of the steel barons of Ohio. Tom and I wandered the grounds and peeked in every open bedroom, just to see what the whole house looked like.
On Saturday, we were out the door by nine am, and off to Geauga County, the setting of my Families of Honor series. We went straight to Middlefield, and right away felt like we were in Amish country! There were buggies everywhere, and the main road even had a white line painted on the right hand side, so the buggies had their own lane. That was so nice for everyone. We went to Mary Yoder’s Amish kitchen for a late breakfast, then headed over to the WalMart.
Yep, the WalMart was on my list of ‘sights to see’ : ) The reason is because the Middlefield Walmart was built with the Amish in mind. I had heard it had hitching posts, but in actuality,the area for the buggies was far neater! They had a whole covered area for the buggies, so the horses could have shade. There was also a place for them to have water. I counted twelve buggies parked in the area when we visited. Of course, I dragged my husband inside to see if that store was carrying my books, and they had the whole ‘Sisters’ series, plus ‘winter’s awakening.’ I was thrilled about that.
Finally, we visited the local Christian bookstore, then visited all kinds of Amish craft stores. Some of these stores are no bigger than a person’s garage. But I just love these family owned stores. They often have handmade baskets and dolls. I bought a very pretty emerald green and black checkeredboard mini quilt from a little girl who couldn’t have been more than twelve. It was her day to man the front counter.
We ended the day by driving to downtown Cleveland and staying at the one of the big hotels down by the Museums. We got dressed up and celebrated our 21st anniversary at a fancy restaurant. Nope, it wasn’t very Amish-like, but so fun, too!
It was so nice to get away, but now I’m looking forward to staying home, writing, and seeing my kids! They come home on Friday.
I hope everyone had a nice weekend, too.
3 Comments
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Marge Hicks 
Hey Shelley!
It sounds like you had so much fun! I’d love to go traveling to areas like that. And an Amish-friendly Wal-Mart?! Who knew!!! I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.