Living Our Dream

Catching up on a Couple of Previous Trips to Pittsburgh and a Visit to Kingwood Gardens

Berlin, OH - Events of Thursday, August 3; Tuesday, August 15; and Friday, August 18, 2015

Over the past few weeks, we made a couple of trips to Pittsburgh to visit with Lora, J. Michael, and Lydia. There were some cute photos that didn't get downloaded from our phones in time to make it into the blog previously, so we thought we would include two of them here. The first one was from the trip we made in early August to Idlewild Park. On the day before we went to the park, Margery spent some time reading to Lydia. In the past, Lydia was much more interested in just turning the pages rather than listening. However, she now seems to take much more of an active interest in the story.

Grammy reading to Lydia

Last Tuesday, we drove to Pittsburgh for dental checkups. Beforehand, we dropped Freeway off at Lora and J. Michael's house, and afterward we stopped to pick him up and to visit. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we went outside to play with Lydia. Lydia's playhouse has a simulated grill on one side. In the photo below, she has grilled Poppy a hot dog (plastic), which he pretends to eat much to Lydia's delight.

Paul pretending to eat a plastic hot dog Lydia has grilled for him

That brings us to our visit to Kingwood Center Gardens. We first went to Kingwood two years ago. We liked it so much we went back last year and again last Friday.

Kingwood is a 47-acre estate located in Mansfield, Ohio, which is a little over an hour to the west of Berln. Kingwood was built in 1926 for Charles King, who was President and Chairman of the Board of the Ohio Brass Company that made electrical fittings for railroads and trolleys. King was married and divorced twice. He never had children so he left most of his estate to a trust that still operates Kingwood Center today as a public garden.

Admission is normally $5 per car, but when we were there last Friday, there was a special exhibit of whimsical frog sculptures going on during which admission was $5 per person. However, we got free admission through the annual membership that we got last spring in the Edison-Ford Estates in Florida. One of the reasons we got the Edison-Ford membership was the reciprocal agreement they have with many other gardens across the country.

We started our tour with a brief look around the conservatory. It has two rooms - one with desert plants and one with tropicals. However, we were more interested in the outdoor gardens so we didn't stay in the conservatory long.

Next to the conservatory are the rose garden, the peony garden, and the gazebo garden. There were only a few roses that were still blooming, but the rose garden had several beds of annuals to provide added color.

Annuals in the rose garden with some of the few remaining roses

The roses were fading, and the peonies were long gone; but the annuals in the gazebo garden were still going strong.

Gazebo garden

From the gazebo garden, we headed to the terrace gardens where there are 4 or 5 levels each with a slightly different color scheme.

First terrace

Walkway around the perimeter of the second terrace

Sunken garden terrace

Upper terrace used to be the swimming pool 

Colorful area adjacent to the upper terrace

From the top terrace we followed the path to the upper end of the daylily garden.

Walkway heading to the daylily garden

Daylilies bloom primarily in July, so there were only a couple of them still blooming since it was early August. In fact, there were so few of them we didn't even bother walking through the daylily garden at all, but headed directly to the mansion instead.

The mansion houses an extensive botanical library and also the offices of the foundation that operates Kingwood. However, the main floor is set up in much the same way as it was in Mr. King's time with much of his original furniture. Guided tours are available at specific times on weekends for $3, or you can do a free, self-guided tour any time during regular hours. We did a self-guided tour when we visited back in 2015 so we skipped seeing the inside this time. However, we did enjoy the container plantings by the front door as we passed by on our way to see the terraces that extend out from in front of the house.

Container plantings by the front door of the mansion

Looking down onto the terraces and lawn in front of the house

View of the terrace in front of the mansion

We enjoyed our visit to Kingwood, although we didn't think the color combinations of the plantings were as attractive or as striking as they were in previous years. There were two reasons for that. First and foremost, this year's visit was later than in previous years and many of the flowers had started to fade and others, like the daylilies, were done blooming altogether. The second reason the colors weren't as striking is Kingwood seemed to utilize many more plants with purple leaves in their garden design in several of the areas this year. While dark-colored leaves can provide a nice accent to brightly colored flowers, we didn't think they showed up well as a major component of the design.

Even though some of the flowers at Kingwood had started to fade, there were still plenty of beauty to see. The photos below show just a few of the many flowers we saw.

Some of the flowers at Kingwood

More flowers at Kingwood

From Kingwood, we drove to the Athens Greek Restaurant. Athens has three locations in and around Mansfield. We ate at the one in downtown Mansfield last year because we wanted to check out a couple of other things in the downtown area. However, we prefer the one that is only about two miles from Kingwood in Ontario, Ohio, where we ate the previous year so that's where we headed this time.

Athens Greek Restaurant

We both had lamb/beef gyro plates for $6.79, and we split an order of fries ($1.19 when added to one of the gyro plates). Paul liked the gyro plate, which is a deconstructed gyro with the meat, sliced tomato, sliced onion, tzatziki sauce, and a quartered pita served on a plate because it isn't as messy to eat. Although Margery decided she prefers a regular gyro served with all the ingredients wrapped up in the pita, we still both enjoyed our meals.

Margery with her gyro plate

With our bellies full, we headed back to Scenic Hills where we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing.

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Victorian House Museum

Berlin, OH - Events of Friday, August 11, 2017

We found out about the Victorian House Museum located in nearby Millersburg through Groupon. Although we have passed the house numerous times, we didn't realize it was a museum that was open to the public. Through Groupon, we purchased tickets for $9 for the two of us shortly after we arrived in Ohio in the spring. Admission is regularly priced at $10 for adults ($9 for seniors). Last Friday, we finally decided to use our tickets and pay the house a visit.

The Victorian House was built in 1901 by L. H. Brightman, who was a wealthy industrialist from Cleveland. He apparently came to Millersburg back then looking for inexpensive labor for his company, the Brightman Manufacturing Company, which made shafts and couplings for mill equipment.

The only way his wife Mary would agree to move to the small town of Millersburg was if she could have the biggest, grandest house in town so Mr. Brightman set about to fulfill her wishes by building a 6,000 square foot, 28-room mansion in the late-Victorian, Queen Anne style.

Victorian House

The cost to build the house was $10,000, which was a lot of money back then. It had hot and cold running water and electric lighting, both of which were quite advanced for the time, especially in rural Ohio. The light fixtures in the house were equipped for both gas and electric because the electric power plant in town only operated for a couple of hours a day. They would use gas lights the rest of the time.

Once inside the gigantic 8 foot tall, 4 foot wide front door, we were impressed by the English oak-lined entrance hall. At the end of the entrance hall is a beautiful English oak stairway with 78 hand-turned spindles. The stairway was made in Europe and shipped to Millersburg along with a crew of craftsmen to do the installation.

English oak stairway with 78 hand-turned spindles

L. H. Brightman, his wife, and 8 of his 12 children (the other 4 children were grown) only lived in the house about two years. The Brightman Manufacturing Company quickly outgrew Millersburg so Mr. Brightman moved his factory to Shelby, Ohio, in 1903. He moved his family there shortly thereafter.

It was difficult to find a buyer for such a grand house in a small town like Millersburg, but a group of physicians finally bought it in 1907 and converted it to a sanitarium. The sanitarium failed, and two years later the house was sold to H. C. Lee, who was the senior partner in a construction company.

The house remained in the Lee family until 1971 when the last resident, Lena Lee Unkel, was moved to the county home by her family. Lena was 83 and no longer able to care for herself. She died at the county home in 1975.

Because Lena was unable to afford the upkeep of the house in her later years, she had closed most of it off and was living in only two or three rooms on the first floor. When the Holmes County Historical Society bought the house at auction in 1971 following Lena's departure, the house was almost in ruins. The entire lower level was covered in thick, black, oily soot from the coal furnace. A total of 75 tons of clinkers (fused ash residue from burning coal) had accumulated in the basement and had to be removed. The third floor had been invaded by pigeons and their droppings were everywhere. Plumbing on the upper floors had frozen and the pipes had burst because of the lack of heat. Water to the upper floors had been shut off, but the plumbing had never been repaired. There were also lots of problems with roof leaks.

The historical society undertook the monumental task cleaning and restoring the house. It took two years before they could open just the first floor to the public (all three main floors plus the basement are now open). Except for electrical, plumbing and roofing repairs that were done by professionals, all work was done by volunteers. Cleaning the black grime left by the furnace revealed the beautiful English oak of the staircase, intricate carvings on the fireplaces, parquet floors, and stenciling on the ceilings.

The next photo shows the parquet floor and the fireplace in the reception parlor. The parquet floors are oak inlaid with cherry and walnut. Each room has a different pattern. The fireplace is one of four in the house. All are different, and all were imported from England. This one is made from sycamore wood.

Parquet floor and fireplace in the reception parlor

Detail of the fine carving on the fireplace

The next photo shows the fireplace in the music room. This one is quarter-sawn oak.

Fireplace in the music room

In the next photo, Margery is checking out the wallpaper in the music room that was imported from England. It has an encrusted design and is original to the house. It was painstakingly cleaned and restored.

Margery checking out the wallpaper that was restored

None of the original furniture remains. It was all sold at auction back in 1971. The house is furnished with pieces appropriate to the period.

We continued our self-guided tour through the kitchen, butler's pantry and into the dining room. The photo below of the dining room shows some of the restored stenciling that is prevalent on the first floor.

Dining room

The tour continued to the second floor where we saw a couple of children's bedrooms and the master bedroom

Master bedroom

There are a whole slew of bedrooms on the second floor (the Brightmans brought 8 kids with them to Millersburg), but only a few of them are depicted as bedrooms. A few are used for office and storage space, and the rest are used to house exhibits on local history. The next photo shows the military history room which covers the Civil War through Viet Nam.

Military history room

We then went to the third floor where the servants' quarters and the ballroom are located. The ballroom had a set of double windows with a space between them where plants could be grown.

Ballroom

The tour then took us to the basement. The next photo shows one of the clinkers from the coal furnace. The original coal furnace has been replaced by a more modern gas-fired unit with a new boiler, but the original radiators are still being used.

Clinker from the coal furnace

The Victorian House and Museum is very well done, and is an obvious labor of love by the historical society members. Although there was disagreement among the members back in 1971 as to whether or not to purchase the Brightman/Lee House, we're glad they decided to proceed because it would have been a shame to have lost such a gem.

It was mid afternoon when we finished our tour of the Victorian House, which was a perfect time to stop at the La Palma Mexican Restaurant located only a few blocks away in downtown Millersburg for lupper. We were a little disappointed when we were there several weeks ago, and we wanted to give them another chance.

We thought one of the reasons we were disappointed last time was we ordered from the lunch menu and consequently felt like we didn't quite get enough to eat. Therefore, we ordered dinners this time.

Margery had chicken chimichangas (dinner gives you two chimis as opposed to only one for lunch), and Paul had a combo dinner consisting of a ground beef enchilada, a chili relleno, and a chulupa. This time it was Margery who got the guacamole salad served on top of her hot food even though she requested it on the side. Last time, Paul had that problem. Except for the salad (fortunately, Margery had enough room on her plate to be able to slide the salad off to the side before it got too wilted, and Paul's dinner didn't include a salad), we were much happier with our meals this time. The food was good, and we got plenty to eat.

After our lupper at La Palma, we headed back to Scenic Hills to relax for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

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Idlewild Park

Berlin, OH - Events of Thursday, August 3 to Saturday, August 5, 2017

Idlewild Park is an amusement park located about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Idlewild was originally built as a campground along the Ligonier Valley Railroad in 1878 as a means to encourage ridership on the railroad. It is the oldest amusement park in Pennsylvania and the third oldest operating amusement park in the United States.

Idlewild is in a rural area in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains so it has kind of a relaxed, rustic feel. Not only that, but it only has one small roller coaster and it doesn't have many thrill rides so it is kind of quiet for an amusement park. Since it is relaxed and quiet and it has lots of great kiddie rides, Idlewild is well suited to young children. In fact it was named "Best Kids Park" by Amusement Today and "Best Park for Families" by National Amusement Park Historical Association. For those reasons, we made plans with Lora and J. Michael to take Lydia there last Friday.

We drove to Lora and J. Michael's house on Thursday and spent part of the day playing with Lydia. J. Michael took Friday off work so we could get a fairly early start on Friday morning because Idlewild is about a two-hour drive from their house.

We arrived at the park by late morning, found a parking spot, and headed to the nearest entrance.

Lydia and Grammy heading to the entrance

Idlewild has an area called Storybook Forest. Rather than rides, this area has displays illustrating classic nursery rhymes. It was right near where we entered, so we headed there first. The entrance to Storybook Forest is through a large book.

Entrance to Storybook Forest

We stopped at a couple of the displays like the one for the Little Engine that Could in the next photo.

Lydia, Lora, and Grammy checking out the Little Engine that Could

Lydia is not familiar with nursery rhymes so she didn't show much interest in Storybook Forest. Therefore, we moved on to the next area, which was Jumpin' Jungle located right next door. Jumpin' Jungle has a number of things kids can climb on, play in, and slide down. One of the things was a large ball pit, which Lydia loved. The video clip below shows Lydia's version of jumping into the balls. She would jump, land on her bum on the edge, then slide into the sea of plastic balls.

Video clip of Lydia jumping into the ball pit

There was also a giant slide, several smaller slides, and overhead walkways to climb through. Lydia also liked the Jungle Juggler where air blowing through plastic pipes can levitate a ball in the air. This phenomenon is called the Bernoulli Effect.

Air flow from pipes floats balls in the air using the Bernoulli Effect

From Jumpin' Jungle, we caught the train to Raccoon Lagoon over on the other side of the park. Raccoon Lagoon is Idlewild's kiddieland.

Train that goes to Raccoon Lagoon

Lydia had a good time riding almost all the kiddie rides in Raccoon Lagoon, and she went on most of those at least twice.

Lydia on the motorcycle ride

Lydia on the boat ride

Lydia (rear) riding the airplane

Lora went with Lydia on the Turtle...

Lydia and Lora on the Turtle

...but the Teacups were a little too much around and around action for Lora so Lydia went by herself. She didn't quite have enough strength to make the cup spin around, but she enjoyed the ride anyway.

Lydia on the Teacups

In between the kiddie rides, we crossed the bridge back over to the main part of the park so Lydia could ride the merry-go-round. It was good timing because a brief rain shower hit while we were there, but we stayed comfortably dry under the cover of the merry-go-round.

Speaking of getting wet, Idlewild also has a water park area called the Soak Zone with several water slides, a wave pool, and a lazy river inner tube ride. Although Lora brought Lydia's swim suit just in case, we decided early on in our visit we would skip the Soak Zone. Idlewild covers quite a large area, and we soon realized we would be doing a lot of walking. There were also plenty of other things to keep Lydia busy without the hassle of changing clothes.

After spending a lot of time in Raccoon Lagoon, riding the merry-go-round, and chowing down on French fries with cheese sauce and ice cream later on, it was getting to be late in the afternoon, so we eventually started making our way back to the exit.

One of the big rides Lydia could go on with adult accompaniment was the Loggin' Toboggan. While it is unlikely you will get soaked on the Loggin' Toboggan, you can get splashed a bit. For that reason, and since the Loggin' Toboggan was near where we had parked, we saved it for last. Lora, J. Michael, and Lydia went on it twice. We watched.

Lora, J. Michael, and Lydia on the Loggin' Togobban

Although we had plenty of snacks at the park, that was mostly early in our visit so we were all a bit hungry by the time we left. Therefore, we stopped at a Wendy's on the way home. We don't often go to fast food joints so we weren't aware Wendy's had such a nice selection of salads on their menu. They have strawberry-mango salad, Mediterranean salad, fresh mozzarella salad, and apple-pecan salad. All the salads are available with or without grilled chicken. Margery had apple-pecan-chicken and Paul had fresh mozzarella-chicken. They were both delish!

It was late evening when we got back to Lora and J. Michael's house. Lydia headed off to bed soon after we got back but we could still hear her talking to herself 2 hours later. Paul went to bed shortly after Lydia and fell asleep while she was still babbling away.

In the morning, we drove back to Berlin with a stop at Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek for the salad bar for lupper. It didn't take us long to unpack, after which we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

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Stan Hywet Gardens

Berlin, OH - Events of Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens (pronounced HEE-wet) is located in Akron, Ohio, about an hour from where we are staying in Berlin. It is the former estate of Frank Seiberling who, along with his brother, founded the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. back in 1898. The estate was built between 1912 and 1915. Seiberling and his wife, Gertrude, named the estate Stan Hywet, which is an Old English term meaning stone quarry. They gave it that name because there was an abandoned stone quarry on the property.

We first went to Stan Hywet two years ago. We decided to go back last Wednesday for several reasons. First, we like gardens. Second, we got free admission to the gardens through our membership to the Edison and Ford Estates in Florida. The third reason we went back to Stan Hywet was because there was a Mexican restaurant nearby we wanted to try.

Our GPS always wants to take us northeast to Akron and Canton by way of SR62 through the towns of Wilmot and Navarre. We prefer to take the slightly longer route following CR77 and SR241 that goes through Mount Hope and Mount Eaton because it is more scenic. This time we also decided to take a slight additional detour and go through the town of Dalton so we could stop at the P. Graham Dunn factory and gift shop located there. P. Graham Dunn manufactures inspirational plaques, pictures, and decorative items. There is a 165,000 square foot manufacturing facility and a 20,000 square foot gift shop. Dunn has stores in several other locations, plus they also sell through thousands of other outlets like Hallmark Stores, Cracker Barrel, and numerous independent gift shops and Christian book stores.

Entrance to P. Graham Dunn

The gift shop stocks over 30,000 items including not only finished products, but also unfinished wood blocks, panels and plaques for do-it-yourself crafters. The gift shop is on the second floor and when we got to the top of the stairs, our first impression was that the store goes on forever. You can see how far away the fellow in the red shirt looks in the next photo, and he is about half way from the back. There are two more large rooms behind him.

Gift shop

Margery checking out some of the items in the gift shop

The gift shop has windows on both sides so visitors can look down to the manufacturing floor below. In the next photo, the ladies are unloading and boxing wood plaques after the plaques have come out of one of several machines that apply finish. Some plaques are laser engraved, some are silk-screen printed, and some are carved by CNC routers.

Part of the manufacturing floor at P. Graham Dunn

We spent more time at P. Graham Dunn than we thought we would, but we eventually were on our way again to Stan Hywet. In addition to free admission to the gardens, our Edison Ford membership would have also gotten us a half-price guided tour of Stan Hywet Hall, which is the 65-room, 65,000 sq. ft mansion built by the Seiberlings. We figured the house hadn't changed much since we toured it two years ago so we skipped seeing the inside of the house this time. If you would like to read about our tour of the house from our previous visit and to see photos of the inside, click here.

Stan Hywet Hall

We started our garden tour to the left of the house where the English Garden is located.

English Garden

From there, we continued around to the back of the house. Below are just a few of the beautiful plantings and garden areas we saw.

Interesting combination of textures

Container planting with a complimentary color scheme

Japanese garden

Courtyard

Attractive container plants flank a bench in another courtyard

The 3-acre Great Garden is located on the northern side of the house. In addition to being an attractive addition to the landscape, it is also used as a cutting garden for flower arrangements inside the mansion.

View in the Great Garden

A lone sunflower overlooks a bed of purple cone flowers

Another view in the Great Garden

Adjacent to the Great Garden is the Playgarden. It has a number of things of interest to children like a giant bubble machine and a castle with a climbing wall and a slide. One of Paul's favorites in the Playgarden is an old truck surrounded by flowers.

Old truck in the Playgarden

Also adjacent to the Great Garden is the conservatory. It is a replica of the original Gothic-style conservatory that was built by the Seiberlings back in the day.

Conservatory

Waterfall inside the conservatory with a pink-flowering mimosa tree

Next to the conservatory is the butterfly habitat. Not only are there butterflies...

Monarch butterfly in the butterfly habitat

...but they also have caterpillars. They remove eggs and caterpillars periodically and take them to another location to allow them to feed because the caterpillars have voracious appetites and they can wreak havoc on the limited plantings in the butterfly habitat. After the caterpillars pupate (form cocoons), the cocoons are brought back to the habitat so the butterflies can eventually emerge. The butterflies mate, lay eggs, and the cycle continues over the summer. It takes about a month to go from egg to butterfly.

Monarch caterpillar

After our tour of the garden, we headed to the Mexican restaurant as planned for lupper. The restaurant, called El Meson, is located in a little strip mall in Cuyahoga Falls about 10 minutes from Stan Hywet.

El Meson

El Meson has lunches for around $5 to $7 and dinners for about $6 to $14. We were both pretty hungry so we both had dinners. Margery had a chicken chimichanga, and Paul had a shredded pork burrito.

Paul with his burrito

Although the restaurant got excellent online reviews, we thought the food was okay, but not great. The chips, while very crisp, were kind of thick. We like thin corn chips. Margery's chimi was nice and crisp, but the chicken didn't have a lot of flavor. They served the guacamole salad on top of Paul's burrito, so the lettuce wilted in no time. Not only that, but the burrito had all the beans on one end and all the rice on the other rather than an even distribution throughout.

After lupper we headed back to the RV with a stop at the Walmart in Massillon to pick up a few items. The Walmart we normally go to in Millersburg is a relatively small one. There are a number of things we like they don't carry plus they were out of several items we were looking for the last time we were there. Back at the 5th wheel we relaxed for the rest of the evening.

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