Oh baby it's Hot outside!

Today has been a rather lazy day. Probably because it is so hot outside right now. I decided to start a blog about how my family and I take these small and inexpensive trips around Ohio that have given us such joy.
Growing up my father traveled a lot with his business. We were lucky to have such an involved father who wanted to be with us as much as he could. He never missed a game, a play, or any other event in our lives. So when he had to go and we could either get out of school or were on vacation or had the weekend free, it wasn't uncommon for him to come home from work and tell us to pack we were going to head out that same night! My mother was an expert packer. Having two daughters and a cockapoo to figure out what we needed for x number of days, it was amazing how we would be able to get everything together and head out the door with little confusion. Every time was exciting. We did have certain demands of our father though, we always wanted to stay at a Holiday Inn "Holidome" where they would have a pool, games, and other activities to do there at the hotel while we would wait for our Dad as he did is business. These trips took us all over the country and even different countries. On the way to and from our destination was the true spirit of travel. We would stop and quaint places to eat, and see random billboards about attractions coming up. Some were awesome and became favorites, while others we still can laugh at to this day (a petting zoo with over 1000 animals...turned out to be 995 deer and 5 baby osteraches). We would stop at little historical sites and small festivals all over. It was thanks to my parents I got this type of travel bug.
When I left for college it was a whole new world for me. I grew up in Michigan and then attended Ohio State. I had traveled to Columbus before and all over Ohio so I wasn't ready for such a culture shock. But I got a great job at the Schottenstien Center/Value City Arena on campus and made some awesome friends. It was here where I met Dave. We became fast and furious friends and worked together quite often. I thought that it was hilarious that he was going into Animal Science specializing in Poultry and Natural Resources. And his hobbies included showing chickens at competitions! But I also found out what an adventurous spirit he has and knew that we would have a great time together. He didn't know what was good to see or do in Columbus even though he had been attending OSU for two years longer than me. So I challenged him to explore with me. Horribly early one Saturday where a campus of over fifty thousand people looks like a ghost town, he picked me up to go explore. I had about ten dollars on me and he had about the same. He asked me where we were going and I asked him "which way is the wind blowing?". He laughed thinking that I was joking until I openned the window to find out. "Really?" he asked, "Really." I responded and we took off. We came home with money in our pockets, bellies full, and a whole day of fun. We felt like we had a whole vacation. We have been traveling like this ever since. Granted, over the past 10 years we have made some modifications with getting a dog, getting married, buying a house, getting a second dog, and having a baby....but the concept has still been the same. We are still learning how to travel like this with our daughter.