Mystery State Part Deux

On our second day in Kentukhio , we had a lot planned. We were meeting up with Jason’s sister and her husband to go, well, pretty much everywhere. Turns out Cincinnati has all kinds of places we want to go. I was not helpful. I got us lost. We were supposed to get on to 75, at the split, but instead we stayed on 71. After we got off on “our” exit and there was nothing there, we stopped at a rest area and got a map. I planned us a secondary route through a small town called Lebanon. Boy am I glad we got lost. We saw the neatest little town! The thing that made us stop was this.

The Texaco had great vintage cars out front. When we found a parking space, we saw the rest of these, the Golden Lamb, the oldest hotel in Ohio, and a great public library.

It was the cutest place!! We think we might go back sometime to stay at that hotel.

Eventually, we made it to our first destination, IKEA! I love IKEA, but there isn’t one in Indy. We went up to the café and grabbed some lunch. It was good, but nothing life altering. Then, it begins. There’s a path to follow through the store and I thought it was pretty intuitive. They have all kinds of cool stuff, most of which was furniture. Jason and I really liked a lot of it, especially the neat cabinet/drawers in one kitchen, but we don’t have space for any more furniture now. We saw a tiny whole house, and we felt like we were drowning in space. There was a lot to see, but Jason had a mission. A stainless steel toilet seat cover. Accomplished! We got that, and a giant drying rack to replace the one the cats broke during the earthquake, a vegetable peeler, an herb chopping board with curvy knife and an octopus. Plus a giant blue bag that I hope comes in as handy as I think it will. When we left, we headed straight to Bass Pro Shops.

Also known as “The Store for Jason”, Bass Pro had lots of stuff that was interesting. I think the giant fish tank is really neat, and the giant stuffed fish that now inhabit our bed are cool too. I like to look at the camping stuff there. There’s so much CRAP you can buy for camping! I will never need a holder for that many eggs, or a camp slow cooker. But I like to look at them. Jason found lots of fishing stuff, and is actually, right now, out there using it. One of the strangest things we saw was a package of disposable “instant towels”. Just add water. What? Then you have a wet towel? But I want a dry towel if I’m at a lake. Hmmmm. We were all hungry.

On our first little honeymoon, we went to a restaurant in Cincinnati that I had been to in Ft. Worth. It’s called Pappadeaux. There are many delicious things there, not least of all the lobster bisque soup. This is where we chose to eat this weekend too. We ate and ate and then we were too full for desert, which was too bad because it looked so good. So, we went grocery shopping.

Okay, not really, we want to go see Jungle Jim’s. We had heard about this place from friends and it was held up to be the Mecca of food. It is huge. We were expecting some kind of hoity toity fancy grocery store, but that’s not what we got. What it may have lacked in snotty finish (something no-one needs) it made up for in sheer volume. There was a regular grocery section, but then a bazillion each of the following:

Cheeses

Wines

Baked goods

Candies

Hot Sauces

Vegetables

Etc.

There were fish so fresh that they were swimming around in tanks. Plus, there was an ethnic foods section so large, I don’t think there was any country left out. Then cookware, flowers, and giant singing cereal mascots. We are definitely going back.

Tired and with a full car, we headed for home. Who knew there was so much to do in Ohtucky?