Halloween in Lakewood, Ohio

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! Derrick and I went to Maize Valley Winery for their Carnage in the Corn Haunted Corn Maze. It was a total blast! I didn't want to risk dropping my camera so I don't have any pictures to share with you. What I do have however, are pictures from Lakewood's Spooky Pooch Parade. Every dog that entered the parade looked awesome and I had such a hard time narrowing down my pictures to a select few. My favorite costumes were the Matador and Bull. They actually won first place in the costume contest. Enjoy the pictures!

Design Improvements to the Blog!

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to let you know I'm in the process of improving the design of my blog so if you see anything that looks off it will be fixed shortly :)

Sea Glass Convention!

This past Sunday Derrick and I drove to Erie, Pennsylvania for the 2009 National Sea Glass Convention. It was a fun and educational experience. I had no idea how serious people take Sea Glass. There were "Sea Glass Experts" that would identify the glass that people brought to the show with them. Kinda like Antique Road Show for Sea Glass. There were also venders who sold jewelry they had made. There was a lot of pretty stuff. My favorite vender was Suncoast Sea Glass from Florida. Her jewelry was elegant and not clunky like most of the jewelry I saw. We actually talked to her about designing an engagement ring.

After we left the convention we went to Presque State Park. It was beautiful! We explored the park for about an hour before we headed back home. It looks like a really fun place to visit in the summer.

Bigfoot in Ohio!

Noreen, who is basically Derrick's Aunt, is our fellow Ohio Adventurer. She always finds out about awesome events going on around Cleveland and then invites us to go. Her latest find was a presentation sponsored by the Lorain County Metroparks:

"Join us for an interesting night with Big Foot investigator and enthusiast, Marc DeWerth. Participants hear stories and investigate evidence that might suggest that the legend is real and then take a short easy hike!"

Well, how can you say no to that? I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard! I felt like the, "I'm too cool for school" kids who used to sit in the back row of class. The speaker was awesome! He was so entertaining to listen to and his passion for Bigfoot really came through in his energy. The highlight of the evening was the night hike after the presentation. We walked into the woods and he made us turn our flashlights off. So there we were, a group of about 20 adults and children, standing in the woods, in the darkness. If we weren't already freaked out enough, the guy said he was going to show us how he calls for Bigfoot. Then he screamed! LOL! I almost peed my pants. The kids started crying, the adults were freaked out and Noreen, Derrick and I were in the back dying of laughter.

When we made it back to the parking lot the fog looked really cool so Noreen posed against the fence for me. One of those times I wished I had remembered my tripod. I had to use the fence instead. Still pretty cool though.

For more information on Bigfoot, contact the Ohio Bigfoot Organization at 1-877-BFT-Ohio. Yes, that's a real phone number.

The Bridge Project

Words can't explain how amazing The Bridge Project was. We entered the Veterans Memorial Bridge by going into an old building and walking downstairs. When we reached the bottom of the stairs I felt like we were walking into some secret VIP club. There were colored lights, a fog machine, a DJ, films projected onto the walls and a million other details. Artists lined the length of the bridge and at the East end of the bridge there was a live band. If under the Veterans Memorial Bridge was turned into a public space, I would visit every weekend.

While Derrick and I were walking back to the West end of the bridge it started to rain. We sat on a bench made of recycled material and watched it pour. How many people can say they sat inside a bridge and watched it rain over a major city? It was one of those moments that takes your breath away.

Going on Safari in my Backyard!

The other night, Derrick and I came home from the grocery store and took the dogs out to go potty. While we were in the backyard I noticed the biggest slug I had ever seen! I ran back upstairs to get my camera and let the dogs back in the house (I was afraid they'd eat the slug) and then came back down to photograph this crazy slug, knowing my family would never believe me without a picture. It just so happens Derrick works in Pest Control, so while I was photographing the slug, he was doing research to find out what it was. This, my friends, is a Leopard Slug. Apparently it's common in the backyards of Ohio. We put a $5 bill down next to it so you could see it's size but when we set it down he got scared and scrunched up a bit.


While we were in the backyard one of our dogs, Mya, was upstairs eating 1/3 of our Amish butter we had just bought. That's a whole other story.

Tis Pumpkin Season!

Fall is here and that means Pumpkin Season! I have decided to dedicate my blog for the next couple months to all things pumpkin. This means pumpkin patches, pumpkin bread, pumpkin lattes and anything else you can possibly think of that involves pumpkin. Consider me the Forest Gump of Pumpkin. I even like the word "pumpkin." Anyway, if you have a pumpkin recipe you would like me to try out and share or know of a great pumpkin patch let me know!

To kickoff my pumpkin adventure I ate Pumpkin Pancakes at The Original Pancake House. They were very good and I would definitely get them again. What's awesome is there's an Original Pancake House in California so my family and friends out there can try them too! After eating breakfast, Derrick and I drove down to Amish Country for the day. On the way down we stopped in Wayne County at the Walsh Family Farm. They have an awesome pumpkin patch with rides for kids, mazes and giant pumpkins. It made me wonder if I was looking at The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown was waiting for. lol. I've been told other farms have Giant Pumpkins so let me know if you think you've found the biggest pumpkin of the year. If you happen to have a camera with you, take a picture and email it to me at vargievarg@yahoo.com and I'll put it on the blog. Don't forget to include your name, who's in the picture and where you found the pumpkin!

Fall Preview!

Today my friend Ariana gave me a tour of where she grew up out in the country. We stopped at Mill Hollow Metropark to skip rocks and while we were walking down to the river, there were tons of colorful leaves on the ground. On the way back to the car we collected a few and I arranged them on the hood of her car. I actually remembered to bring my camera with me so I was able to take a picture of my moment of foliage arrangement excellence. I love how the light reflected off of her car.

Veterans Memorial Bridge Tour

Yesterday, Derrick and I had the awesome opportunity to take a free tour of the Veterans Memorial aka Detroit-Superior Bridge in Cleveland. The tours are hosted twice a year and by some miracle we both had the day off! This definitely ranked up with the top experiences I've had so far in Ohio. There were lots of informative volunteers that were able to answer questions and I was really impressed with the details of their set-up. When you first walked into the old subway portion of the bridge there were tables set up with old pictures and information about upcoming events. There was music from the 40s playing from a stereo and two different old films about the trolley system projected onto screens set-up inside the subway. I felt like we walked into a time warp. I was a little freaked out at first walking across the bridge because you could see through the grate down to the Cuyahoga River. There were wood panels along the middle to walk on but of course Derrick and I had to freak ourselves out by walking on the grate. Plus, that was the only way to look over the edge of the bridge at the awesome view! Yet another, "This would never be allowed in California Moment."

After we made it to the other side of the bridge we walked around the flats and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Seeing all of the bridges and cool architecture while soaking up the sun made me fall in love with Cleveland even more. There's an upcoming event at the bridge on September 25th that you can get information about at www.clevelandbridgeproject.com.

Madison Library

Last month Lakewood had an Art Fest and the Lakewood Photographic Society (which I'm a member of) had a booth. After the festival our photos were put on display at the Madison Branch of the Lakewood Library. I wanted to check out the library all month to see my photo on display and I finally made it last week. Here it is in all it's glory! Thank you again to Alyssa for being a beautiful model!