Giant Fest 2

On Saturday morning we drove down to Berlin, Ohio and tasted cheese and fudge and bought baked goods and popcorn. Lana got bored with seeing so many buggies pulled by horses. When we returned my son headed toward Medina to meet up with his high school buddies and play some disk golf. My daughter-in-law and granddaughters headed for the festival.

The first thing we saw when we parked was a coach drawn by two horses. We took a ride.


Erika and Claire.

Lana and me

We went to the park and got chicken dinners. Lana chose a chili dog.Then I headed them over to the popcorn booth. Such great flavors, and we got to sample them all!! Also, at this booth they do a taffy pull. Erika and Lana sat down to pull the taffy and wrap it around a big apple while Claire and I ate popcorn and took pictures.

The man who runs the booth told us about how sugar used to come in cones wrapped in blue paper. He told us that the word fudge originally meant "nonsense" or "humbug". One day while some taffy was being made, it didn't go well and the girls who made it called it fudge. He also talked about taffy coming from Wales and originally being called tuffy -- which is still called in Wales today. He knew so much. We were really glad we met him.

I asked Lana to hold up her apple so I could take her picture with her work. Ham that she is she struck this pose. Not that she could have taken a bite with her two front teeth out.

Lana measuring up against her g-g-g-g-g Uncle and Aunt.

You could pet the horses while they were resting.

We had an official picture taken at the Bates picture. We also took some of our own. The funniest thing was after we stepped off the platform Claire kept trying to climb back up. We finally figured out that she was trying to get to the chair in the picture. She wanted to climb into it.

We again went to the memorial service for Anna and Martin. You could walk or ride a wagon to the cemetery.

Lana and Claire rode with Abraham Lincoln. Lana was in awe of Mr. Lincoln and asked him many questions. He gave Claire and Lana each a shiny new Lincoln penny when they parted.

After the memorial service, we went back to the park so the girls could play on the swings and slides. Claire had a great time. I took pictures. But Claire is starting to want to handle a camera, too.

Of course Lana has used a camera for years. I told her she should take some shots of our hotel room. She took pictures of the toliet, the sink, the bed, the door to the circuit breakers, the kitchen, the floor and then a few of herself in the mirror.

.

.

We did get to take a swim in the pool after the playground, and had planned on going out to dinner, but settled on having a delicious pizza delivered and hitting the sack.

.

.

On Sunday we wanted to go to the museum. I wanted to take a picture of Jason next to the statues that he had stood beside in 1983 and get pictures of the whole family there, plus let them look around at the whole museum. We had been told it would open at 10, but by 10:30 it still wasn't open, so we headed back home so Lana would get a good night's sleep before school on Monday.

.

.

Overall, it was a much smaller festival this year. We missed the civil war encampment and the children's play. There were no fireworks, but with the economy that wasn't surprising and isn't what draws us to the festival anyway. It was beautiful weather and a chance for me to show my granddaughters a little bit of family history.