BEAUTIFUL OHIO!
It’s been a long time since Park Place was updated. There
wasn’t much to say about January through March since we just hunkered
down indoors and endured miserable weather. Many of the days were wet
and too chilly to encourage venturing outdoors. The nasty weather gave
me an incentive to trust Brandon to get from the school bus to my front
door. I stayed inside and measured his steps to arrival here by
watching the clock.
By April the weather made a marked improvement and spring
flowers popped up accompanied by flowering trees and shrubs. There’s a
note on my calendar written across the week of April 17 – one letter for
each day: SPRING with a smiley face drawn on day 7. For the first
time in the years I remember, we had no strong spring storms to knock
blooms from trees and batter flowers. Everything was beautiful for a
good six weeks.
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| Kelsi and Sophia at the park |
When weather improved, Sherry and I took the girls
out to the nearby park to play. She and I were as happy to escape the
indoor confinement as Sophia and Kelsi were. |
As
quickly as school was out, summer began. Brett flew in from San Diego
to spend a week relaxing. He had forgotten that when the kids knew he
was here, if they weren’t at home sleeping, they expected to be with him. And he obliged, often accompanying the kids on rides around the circle.
Our special outing during Brett's visit was a trip to
Wildlife Safari in Port Clinton, Ohio. The weather was perfect -- sunny
with the temperature in the mid-70’s. Wildlife Safari offers visitors
the opportunity to see and feed wild animals from their vehicles.
There were no lions or tigers roaming free as in the
days when we took Dawn and Brett to Lion Country Safari in Georgia, but
many of the animals were big – zebras, camels, elk, bison. We circled
through the park three times, photographing the animals and feeding them
numerous cups of food pellets and cello-packaged carrots. On our last
circuit, Dawn encouraged a bison, waving one of the carrots at it, to
come to her side of the car so she could snap a picture. While waiting
for it, she was distracted and didn’t notice as the animal approached
her window. As she turned back to await its arrival, she found its
head inside the car and now looking at her eyeball-to-eyeball. As she
screamed and tried to climb over Brett who was driving, it snorted,
blowing partially chewed grass over her face and into her mouth. It was
unfortunate for her that it happened, but very humorous for us to
watch.
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| The bison gets up close |
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| Dawn after the bison's visit |
Following Brett’s departure, Dawn and I left Matt to watch Sophia and
Brandon for two weeks while we took a cruise from Venice, Italy, to Barcelona,
Spain. This was the same ship and cruise itinerary I shared with Teresa
in 2003. I enjoyed the ports-of-call so much, I wanted Dawn to have the
same experience. Our weather was sunny and HOT, upwards of 85° every
day. With nine ports in twelve days, it was not a cruise which encouraged
relaxing. I told Dawn she’d have to come home to rest. Go to the Travel
link and scroll down to Western Mediterannean - 2006 for links to a review
and photographs taken on the cruise.
Copyright ©2003-2006 Kitty Park
