Birthday Weekend Extravaganza
Monday 08/04/2008 5:34 PM
On Thursday, Alex, Freya and I headed to Pennsylvania to see Christina for what was quickly dubbed my "Birthday Weekend Extravaganza." Before we made it to Christina's, though, Alex and I stopped to see the world's biggest basket building in Newark, Ohio, which would be the Longaberger Basket home office building. Note that this is not, however, the world's biggest basket, which is located in Dresden, Ohio. Nor is it the world's largest apple basket, located in Frazeyburg, Ohio. Nonetheless, we pulled off the highway on our way to Pennsylvania, saw the building and said to each other, "Yep. That's a big basket (building)." Alex decided it didn't get a thumbs up or a thumbs down:
Once we got to Christina's place in California, PA, she made a fabulous dinner for us and then brought out the birthday cake (even though it was still two days early -- we'd be camping on the night of my actual birthday):
She and Alex decorated it themselves, but they (thankfully) didn't put all 36 candles on it:
The next day, we headed to the highlands for camping. I didn't take many photos of the actual camping this time, but while I started to pack up the next morning, Christina and Alex enjoyed raw poptarts in the tent:
And here's the site (after we'd packed up the next morning -- just imagine a tent resting on the spot of dry straw):
On Saturday afternoon, we drove to Wheeling and spent some time at "Good Lake" in a park there:
Then we met Jim, Christina's boyfriend. Alex was more than delighted to see Jim roll up on a motorcycle, and yes, he got to take it for a spin (with Jim sitting behind him and controlling the bike) ... twice!
We went out for sushi and hibachi near Wheeling that night (where I didn't take any pictures, though I probably should have), and then drove back to California (PA, again) to spend the night at Christina's. The next morning, Jim called for us to meet him at a truck stop for breakfast a few minutes away. Not only does he own a motorcycle ... he's also a truck driver. And he was with truck, which meant Alex got to check out the inside of a semi-truck too:
And here's Jim explaining something to Alex about driving big trucks:
Alex was mightily impressed, to say the least:
So that did it for the Birthday Weekend Extravaganza. And that does it for the out-of-state travel for this summer. Alex wants to see those other two big baskets, and we're thinking about an afternoon at Olentangy Indian Caverns (only 30 min or so from us), and we'll probably post pictures from those trips once we make them, but other than that, we've got to get our minds back on school for a while. The next big trip will be to the UP of Michigan at Thanksgiving or Christmas (or maybe both?) ...
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