Ohio-gozaimasu. My Trip To Ohio.

This past week Maria and I went to visit our family in Ohio. Though we both were born, raised, and met in California, our parents grew up in Ohio – talk about coincidence!

We were able to see my grandparents and her mom’s siblings (she is one of ten, whew!), and had a blast playing Euchre and eating Marion’s pizza. (Ohio favorites – haha)

But before I get into details, let me tell you my horror story of plane flights. I swear this was the most difficult vacation I have ever been on! First off, we arrived late to the airport due to some wacko walking on our public train system, BART, resulting in all the San Francisco trains being shut down for about 45 minutes.

We missed the check-in deadline by 15 minutes, proceed in getting lectured by the ticket agent (*rolls eyes*), and told that there are no other flights that could get us to Ohio that day. We talked to about three other agents (one telling us we could pay $1000 one-way ticket, another telling us we’ll have to wait till the next day, and the third basically having no clue what to tell us) before finally someone simply put us on a later flight free of charge – why this couldn’t have happened three hours earlier, I’m not sure!

After sitting for twelve hours at the airport, we caught the red-eye to Chicago/O’hare, then grabbed a 6am flight into Ohio. At this point I was just happy we arrived! But, the adventure wasn’t over yet. Somewhere along the way they lost both of our suitcases. We finally get our luggage the next morning after being in our clothes for 36 hours (although it felt like an eternity)… yuck!

Basically we are finished using United from now on, lol. I think I’m going to be using Virgin Airlines. I’ve heard it’s really great.

Despite all of the trouble, it was actually a blessing in disguise – my wife and I haven’t had that much one-on-one time in awhile, and we actually had a pleasant time passing the hours together .

Once we got there, we had a blast. I hadn’t seen her extended family ever so it was really great to meet all of them. We got to see some family history and visited the Wright Brothers’ Bicycle Shop where Maria’s great great grandfather worked with Orville and Wilbur. We also stopped by the cemetery where my Mom-in-law’s mother, father, brother and sister are buried.

Pics:
– Wow… This was something I have never seen before… Automatic seat cover. You wave your hand in front of it and it automatically changes the seat cover. Lol. Ok… maybe I love technology a little too much.

This was so gross and amazing that I had to take a photo of it. Seriously, two grilled cheese’ with a hamburger sandwiched in between. No, I didn’t get one. Maybe when I stop caring about my heart!

We went to the college that my great uncle and father in law went to.

Apparently Bob Evans is another Ohio staple. My dad actually worked in one when he was younger. Haha. I took this for him.

At one of the family’s house. I love how much land people have in Ohio. Getting any land in the SF Bay area is super expensive.

Wright Brothers Bicycle shop.

Family just hanging out.