Irwin Prairie Preserve | Toledo, OH

The second outdoorsey excursions we took near Toledo, OH was the Irwin Prairie State Nature Preserve. The tiny, rectangular green spot on the GPS map didn't look that impressive, but we're glad we stopped in there - the preserve has a great boardwalk weaving through some tree covered areas, and the seemingly barren straw-fields of the prairie. To my great enjoyment, there were also birds everywhere (I have a thing for birds...), but Amanda was less than thrilled when we looked back at pictures and realized I had taken more pictures of birds than the landscape (these non-bird photos ended up coming off the iPhone). Oops...

The boardwalk provided for an easy trip through the land and kept us on our toes - there were constant rustling noises coming up from underneath the wood planks and we kept expecting some giant creature to jump out at us. I know - city folk... Of course, nothing came, and it was probably just chipmunks and squirrels.

-Taras


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Have tips on where we should go, what we should see and do? Submit suggestions here or e-mail us!  We're passing through Iowa right now and will be in Minneapolis in a couple of days.

Toledo, OH

Toledo was an impromptu stop on our way out of Ohio. Both Amanda and I knew the name, didn't know too much about the city, and decided to see it for ourselves. We ended up driving through downtown and taking a few iPhone photos from the car. Toledo had a vibe of a one-day booming mill-, or industrial-, town. Lots of red brick, warehouse-y buildings. Nowadays, the town seemed somewhat deserted and quiet. We didn't find any interesting culinary options, so we spent some quality time outdoors.

The park across the river gave us some cool views of the sunset over the city skyline. We got in some scenic hiking in the nearby parks. The pics from Oak Opening Preserve park are below and there will be a separate post on the prairie preserve.

We did stop by a local brewery, Maumee Bay Brewing Company, for a sample of their craft. The small batch offering of Agave Chili Wheat beer was phenomenal!

-Taras

For travel updates as they happen, follow us on facebook, twitter, and Instagram (@amandabouzakine).

Have tips on where we should go, what we should see and do? Submit suggestions here or e-mail us! We'll be in St. Louis, MO this weekend.

Ohio Bike Trail | Cleveland, OH (Plus a Video!)

While visiting Cleveland, OH, we stayed about 20 miles south-east of the city. One morning, we took a bicycle ride on the Ohio Metroparks' Bike & Hike Trail. This was our first real bike ride on this trip, and we were excited to clock some miles on Theodore and Shelby (we went 12 miles that day). The 33.5 mile trail is one of the first "rails to trails" conversions in the country. We've had some previous experience with converted railroad trails - part of our Portland, ME to Portsmouth, NH trek was along such a trail in southern Maine, and Boston has its own Minuteman Bikeway.

The ride was just great! It's exactly what our bodies needed after all the highway miles in the car the week before. The trail wasn't crowded at all, the weather and scenery were beautiful, and wildlife accompanied us the entire way - we saw a ton of birds and one wild bunny.

At the end of our ride we decided to go another mile to cool down, and it's a good thing we did!  We found a very pleasant surprise: the 65-foot Brandywine Falls. Coming from Niagara a few days earlier, there was no direct comparison, but the Brandywine falls were awfully cute and had a great trail around them, allowing visitors to get pretty close to the waterfall.

-Taras

PS: Here's a looks at the waterfall in action.  This was before we learned to flip the iPhone for filming!

Cleveland, OH

We had no preconceived notions about Cleveland, OH, except maybe some humorous ideas from the tourist-guide video our friend Stephen sent us.

We began by exploring the Tremont neighborhood. There happened to be an art walk that day, so we wondered around to some cool galleries, photography exhibits, and boutiques. The area was perfect for the art walk! The whole neighborhood feels very cozy, with mostly single family homes where people sit on their porches enjoying the warm weather (Amanda said the whole atmosphere, combined with the weather, made her imagine what an evening in Richmond, VA would be like). After grabbing some tasty bites at Michael Simon's Lolita (which was pretty cool! We love the concept of offering $5 bites at the bar during happy hour), we grabbed a beer at one of the local bars and were happy to find the Cleveland Indians playing the Red Sox on TV! This was a cool experience of cheering for our home team in the rival's city (and the Sox won!). We even made some friends after dinner, who upon seeing us walk around the neighborhood that evening called us "Hey, Boston!"

In the early 20th century, many eastern European immigrants settled in Tremont while working in the area's steel mills. Because of this, there are many beautiful churches surrounding the area, most notably the St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

We were very happy to see many people riding bikes and even some type of an organized ride with 30-some participants. Unfortunately, when we tried to go ride around downtown, we discovered the first flat tire of the trip on my bike, so we stayed afoot.

As far as downtown goes - we did see some great architecture, namely the library and the courthouse. We took to a touristy elevator ride up to the Terminal Tower Observation Deck, only to be somewhat disappointed by the views from above. The deck is all enclosed in glass and pretty small - just not what we expected.

-Taras

Lanterman's Mill | Youngstown, OH

We sourced Lanterman's Mill from an Esquire article about the Great Outdoors (yes, sometimes I like to flip through the glossies). The current mill structure was built in 1846 using 7-ft thick stone walls, after the previous log building was washed away by a flood. Today, the mill runs much like it did in the 1800's, grinding corn, wheat, and buckwheat. The flour is available for sale at the mill store and we picked up a bag of whole wheat, ground up fresh that morning! Inside the building you can see all the machinery, including the main water wheel, the wooden-teeth main gear (the wood is designed to snap off in case of a jam or other malfunction, preventing damage to the rest of the mechanism), the clutch, etc. - my engineering self totally loved all the moving parts!

-Tarars

Surrounding the mill, there are miles of hiking/walking/running trails. We did a quick loop, making the mistake of not changing from our "city folk" shoes to something more trail appropriate. That'll be the last time!

Photo fails!

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For travel updates as they happen, follow us on facebook, twitter, and Instagram (@amandabouzakine).

Have tips on where we should go, what we should see and do? Submit suggestions here or e-mail us! We're in Wisconsin for the next few days.