Anyway, I'm digressing somewhat from the point of this post, which is to say that Labor Day is traditionally considered the end of summer. And as it has just stopped raining after 36 hours, it seems like a good time look back over our summer in Athens. Yesterday was also the one year anniversary of me moving to Ohio, so that's another reason to feel reflective.
So, summer in Athens - well, it's been crazily hot (like, 40c hot), which comes with some intense thunderstorms:
But in between bouts of thunder and lightening, we spent a lot of time hanging out around our local lake. Some times we went canoeing....
Other times, when we were feeling particularly brave, we waded in a bit further and went for a swim...
But mostly it was just nice to make the most of the view...
There are a lot of scenic places we tried to visit over the summer, mostly centred on the interesting geological make-up of the Hocking Hills area. Most of Ohio, north of Columbus, is as flat as a board, courtesy of the monster glacier that covered the region during the last Ice Age. Southern Ohio, however, escaped the ice and is now much more picturesque.
And speaking of pictures.... this is Ash Cave. Three weddings took place here during the hour or so that we visited, each of which with it's own horrible colour scheme (peach and navy blue anyone?) :-) That also explains why the guys in the foreground are in shirts and trousers, it's not just that people get dressed up to go hiking round here...
In the same region is Conckle's Hollow, named after some guy who carved his name in the rock there in 1797. This is not the way to punish vandalism, if you ask me....
But that aside, I really liked the views from the top of the ridge (once I'd recovered from the climb). With the view and the loudness of the chirping bugs, it felt like we were in a jungle wilderness. Or Jurassic Park. One of those two.
Our final stop on the Hocking Hills scenic tour was Old Man's Cave. I have more photos of this area in my post from last November, but here's a little refresher...
The next series of photos is simply entitled, "You know you're at a 4th July in rural Appalachia when...."
Yes, these are the highlights of Athens' 4th July parade and what I got up at 8am on a Sunday morning to enjoy. But it wasn't a complete washout, we were with some friends that have a young daughter, so people on the floats threw sweets at us. We also got to stand in a car park later on and watch some fireworks.
Independence from the pesky British wasn't the only thing to be celebrated in July. I celebrated my continued descent into the post-30 wilderness (also known as my birthday) by doing the things I do best, namely drinking beer...
....and making big cakes. And then eating them.
July also saw Athens' main street closed down for the internationally renowned (because I've just told you about it) 'Boogie on the Bricks' event...
Ok, so there wasn't a whole lot of boogie-ing, but there were bricks (just out of shot) and beer, some of which wasn't gross
We also ventured up to Columbus over the summer and ate at the capital's premier faux-German wurst emporium, Schmidt's Sausage Haus
Unfortunately, it's a beloved favourite of tour groups (there really isn't a whole lot to see in Columbus besides a replica of Christopher Columbus' boat), but once you get past the crowds and onto a table, the all-you-can-eat sausage and sauerkraut buffet is something to behold
They brew their own beer as well, which is surprisingly good. I suspect they may also paint their own artwork, which is less so....
And that's about that for the summer. Congratulations to everyone (anyone?) who made it to the end, have an e-cookie from me. It certainly made a change to actually have a summer this year, rather than a period of time that we euphemistically call 'summer', but is actually indistinguishable from 'spring', 'autumn' or 'winter' and it was nice to get out and about in the local area.
We did make one more trip over the summer, but I'll save that for another post....
