2014 OHIO East Liberty 1 - Sweet Valentine's Day

Headed to East Liberty, Ohio again for a fun weekend. Left at 9:42am. Started off snowy, but quickly turned to sunshine. 25 degrees. Roads wet, but not icy. A good day to travel.

The 236 mile drive down was uneventful, but lovely. A new coat of snow to make everything clean and sparkly. Hard to take photos from the car though because the windows were all spotty with mud and moisture. 

Mike updated the Garmin just before we left and it took us on a different route than usual. We followed the same route down I-94 east, I-69 south and east on Ohio-30 past the wind turbine farm all the way to the Lima exit. But instead of getting off there, we continued on toward I-75.

That was a nice bypass, as Lima is our least favorite part of the drive. Nothing against Lima, but traffic there is usually snarled. We saw some new territory, which is always a plus for us.

The only wildlife we saw was a lonely furry female deer eating out in a field. Obviously warm with a winter coat and safe because it is past hunting season.

Got to J&K's about 2pm. Went directly to the sun room for cocktails to mellow out our drive "stress." As we missed our regular quick Taco Bell lunch stop on the re-route, Kathy offered cheese sandwiches on homemade bread just out of the oven, to tide us over until dinner.

We played a good round of catch with their border collie, Jip, and gave a small little pet to their loving but  "anti-social" cat, Widget.

We so enjoy watching the birds at the feeders outside the sun room. Jim feeds them year round. There are cardinals, woodpeckers, juncos, doves, blue jays, and more I don't know the names of. With my Nikon P500 I can really get some close-up shots.

We went to Marysville (about 20 miles away) for dinner at the Crazy Burrito. On the drive we saw some wild turkeys and a coyote running along a ridge near the freeway. That was a real treat as we have not seen one in the wild  since a trip to Furnace Creek, California many years ago. 

Not especially fancy for Valentine's Day, but Mexican is something Mike and I have been craving for awhile. It was an excellent meal starting with beers, raspberry margaritas, chips and guacamole. My entree was enchiladas made with fresh spinach instead of meat. Mike had his usual combo, including a chili rellenos, which he said was GREAT. He had a flan dessert that we all nibbled on.

As we headed to the car it was snowing again and the restaurant had turned on their electric palm trees on the outside veranda. We got a few laughs out of that odd vista.


When we returned to the house, Jim pulled out a HUGE basket of sweet treats (Peppermint Patties, Reeses cups, M&Ms, chocolate covered peanut butter wafers, and more and more) and salty treats (Pringles, Cheetos, Doritos, and more and more) that neighbors had given him for plowing their driveway over this harsh winter. There were so many treats that it was impossible to count. And the calories, oh my!!

We said we were all too stuffed from dinner to break into it. But it wasn't too long before we dove in for "just one piece." I just had to have a Reeses peanut butter cup. Well, that was a joke and a big mistake because we couldn't stop eating.

We actually had to go to bed to keep from eating more. No will power today, after all it was Valentine's Day. Sweets for our sweeties.