Road Trip Stops

With two kids and a dog in our car on the way to Detroit, we were pretty cramped. We also knew that we wouldn't be able to make the eight-hour drive all in one day since we would need to take breaks for our sanity with the kids. Consequently, we made plans to stop for a night in Kirtland, Ohio on the way to Detroit. Kirtland is a LDS Church history site near Cleveland, and we toured various church history locations around there.  The Church has purchased several historic buildings and the land around them, and decorated them how they would have been in the 1800's.  Here are the girls taking a look at the sawmill in historic Kirtland.

The highlight of Kirtland was taking a tour of the Kirtland Temple.  The LDS Church doesn't own this temple, but the Community of Christ church that does offers tours inside.  We weren't allowed to take pictures of the interior, but it was really interesting to me to see this temple that up to then, I had only read about.  Here we are at the front door.

And zoomed out for a sense of scale.

Karina loved the gardens. One of the gardeners clipped a flower for her and she kept it for the car ride up to Detroit.

After the tour, we went to the Isaac Morley farm, a Church owned historic site with missionaries there to teach us about the location. We took a little walk uphill along a path and Karina loved having these log chairs that were her size.

After the farm, we drove up to Detroit, met up with Mormor and Morfar, and had all the wedding adventures that we talked about in the previous two posts.

Then, on the way back home from Detroit, we stopped for a couple of nights in Amish Country, Ohio. We went to a farm to tour an older Amish house, barn, schoolhouse, and take a buggy ride. Karina loved seeing all the animals and was quite excited by the kittens.

Snoopy came too and just hung out outside. The other beagles at the farm were quite friendly. The black pit bull actually belonged to the neighbors and initially was friendly enough. Later on though, while we were waiting, the pit bull attacked Snoopy and I had to chase him off. The mean dog was snarling viciously at Snoopy with Snoopy laying helplessly on his back and the dog on top of him. The pit bull was then tied up and the neighbors were called.

The furnishings inside the home were very charming. The quilts, rockers, and toys were all interesting to look at. Most Amish homes are quite modern nowadays though, with indoor plumbing, nice finishes, gas refrigerators and stoves, but no tv's or electricity.  The house we toured was an example of how the Amish used to live.

Karina liked the dolls.

Inside the barn, they had goats, cows, horses, chickens, ducks, etc. but Karina didn't want to see anything other than this cute little beagle puppy.  The puppy's mom was in the picture two above.

She also enjoyed playing on their playground equipment and climbed up the ladder all by herself.

The buggy ride was underwhelming - we just went around an oval track several times and went back to the stables. But I guess it was an experience nonetheless.

Karina was reluctant to pet the horses, but was interested to see them.

All things considered, the kids did a lot better than I would have anticipated on this road trip, so for that I am grateful. I am also grateful for the trip as a whole - I guess it counts as Lydia's first vacation. I think it will probably be a while before we undertake a similar trip again, though. It might be time to invest in a DVD system for the car to help keep the kids occupied and entertained.