Onion Slices

Julie and I just returned from a trip to Toledo, Ohio, to visit friends and family. It’s been a bit over two years since I was last in Toledo, and that was for our wedding. This time, Julie and I flew into Dayton, spent a day in St. Henry and then popped up to Toledo for the remainder of our time. It was an excellent plan and I had a good time driving around. I’m using this post to compile all the random thoughts that I had about the trip.

The Hotel

The hotel we stayed in was a Staybridge Suites. Julie and I have stayed at one before and the service and facilities were wonderful. This hotel was no different and we are sure that we’re going to keep staying at the chain, when possible. One of the advantages, to me, is a large refrigerator so that I always have cold drinks to hand. It’s rather minor, but it’s still nice. I didn’t partake of much of what the hotel had to offer as far as the pool and lobby and other amenities, but I have to say that they LOOKED nice! The one complaint was that the hotel was rather far from everywhere we wanted to go. When Julie made the reservations, she was under the impression that the hotel was more than a little bit closer. Toledo isn’t that big, however, so it wasn’t ever a real problem. The one problem was the roads in Toledo.

Toledo Construction

One of my good friends in the Seattle area always complains about the condition of the roads, and I just smile and nod, because I’m used to FAR worse. Driving around Toledo and Detroit makes the roads in the Seattle area seem like a dream. Making our way up from the Dayton area, as soon as we hit Toledo, we hit huge construction. The construction wasn’t just simple, either, but rather bridges torn up, on and off ramps closed, whole long tracts of road ripped down.

After talking to some of the people around town, it turns out that the federal government gave Toledo a bunch of money, so they went APE and started 15 or 20 projects all at once.  This is nice for the job situation in Toledo, but it made it really hard to get around.

Training in the Dojo

This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Okay, who am I kidding? It WAS my favorite part of the trip. I was a bit nervous since I am a bit gimpy right now, but I went, anyway, and had my mind blown. There was a lot in there that we’ve talked about before, and I want to write more on it in a separate post, but I haven’t stopped thinking about all the changes that I now have to learn and understand (what I mean by this, is that I hopefully will “get” some of the concepts that we talked about). One of the things that I love about training in a martial art is that there are so many levels to each thing that is said and done. When I train with my teacher, I have almost always felt like I was starting over, because I would find another layer to explore. This happened again, but I have a whole onion to decipher now!

The FOOD

While I did love training, the reason why I had such a hard time picking what part was the best is because I was looking forward to the eats for so long. Getting to eat at some favorites like Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans, Don Pablo’s and Tony Packo’s really made me miss Toledo. I’m not going to get into the details, but I was quite happy with getting to eat at those places where I have so many wonderful memories. It really is too bad that Julie and I have NOT been impressed with the dining in this area.

The Ford Escape

Julie had the great idea to plan our trip so that we would get to really spend some quality time with her family in a little town named St. Henry, in Ohio, before we went on to Toledo. As part of that, we ended up renting a car from Dollar Rent-a-Car. I was a bit skeptical, but considering the price was literally HALF of the other companies, I was willing to give it a try. We ended up going with a mid-size SUV and that turned out to be a 2010 Ford Escape. I was quite impressed with the “car” and actually really enjoyed driving it. I got great gas mileage (24-26 MPG in city), which is close to what I get in my Toyota. The one small complaint that I did have was that the driver’s compartment was a little smaller than I would want in a SUV. While driving, my right leg ended up being pressed against the center console and I had a bruise on my calf from hitting the edge of the console repeatedly. I am REALLY interested in test-driving the Explorer, since that is the next size up. For a long time I was DEATH on the idea of an SUV, but I have to say that I think I might be convinced. I do think that the next vehicle I get will be something along that line.

The Flights

Going down and coming back was VERY easy. We had one layover on each trip and I never felt rushed. Julie used her superior planning skills again, and on each leg we had two aisle seats across from one another. Other than leaving EARLY in the morning to head east, I really didn’t have any complaints about the flights. There were all the classic jerks on the plane (one ended up spilling an entire cup of coffee on Julie), but with a good book and some headphones, it was a VERY easy trip.

Our iPads

This is quite short, and I don’t want to go crazy with this, but Julie and I did not get out our laptops for the whole trip (I got mine out once when we were in Panera with one of Julie’s friends, but I didn’t actually USE it). Everything I needed to do, I was able to with the iPad, and Julie was the same. The only complaint that I have is that when using it as an e-book reader, you have to shut it off for the take-off and landing on the plane. It’s quite annoying to have to put your book away for those periods, but it’s something that is a minor irritant. If I flew all the time, I might be unhappy about it, but it’s not really a big deal. Once more for all you iPad haters, if you want to use it, you will, and you will enjoy it. If you don’t want to use it, don’t buy it!

The Importance of Hygiene

Not going to get into the details, but I just need to make it clear that a clean home, clean kids and a clean self are things that I consider some of the basic goals of life. Ever since I stopped living with a room-mate, having a clean home is VERY important to me. I bent one of the rules of the trip and entered a FILTHY house, and that just strengthened my resolve. I will NOT raise kids (or cats for that matter) in those conditions.

Overall

I have to say that I had a really good time, overall. It was really nice to be able to put down work for a couple of days and just enjoy life. Of course, there was never enough time to do everything that we WANTED to do, but I think that is the nature of any vacation. With a house looming in our future, and jobs always intruding, we have to take the time that we can get. It’s only going to become more complicated as time goes on, as is the nature of life. I want to expand each of these issues, since I really do have a lot more that I’ve thought about, but I wanted to get the notes posted so I can have a place to start from.