A few days ago we returned from a trip to Ohio, Kentucky & West Virginia. My mother was born in Columbus, Ohio, and my grandmother (who we called Nannie) lived most of her first 18 years in the Ohio Soldiers & Sailors Orphanage (O.S.S.O.) in Xenia, Ohio. Both my mother & grandmother have long since passed away so my family history has been pieced together. Talk to your parents & grandparents now, then write things down!
I’ve always been curious about the orphanage where Nannie grew up. She had “sisters” and “brothers” from “the home”, as she called it, who she remained in contact with her entire life. On day one we found ourselves 20 miles from Xenia with a couple hours to kill before our tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House in Springfield so off we went.
I’d done some research online and found that the home had closed in the 1990s. The grounds were sold to a Christian foundation & only a few of the original buildings remained. I knew there was a small museum dedicated to the O.S.S.O. With an address & a few helpful Ohioans, we drove right to the museum. As expected it was closed in the early morning but the area was serene & beautiful – green grass, trees, beautiful buildings, streams. Although it certainly doesn’t make up for not having a loving family, I was glad that it was so picturesque and felt inviting.
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| The O.S.S.O. Museum in Xenia, Ohio |
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| A building on the grounds of the former orphanage where Nannie grew up. |
After our FLW house tour in Springfield we headed east to Columbus where we made it with five minutes to spare for the last capitol tour of the day. Both of us thought the volunteer tour guide looked a little dismayed that she had to stay another hour to give us a guided tour.
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| Frank Lloyd Wright's Westcott House in Springfield, Ohio. |
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| The Ohio State Capitol in Columbus. |
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| An interesting optical illusion on the interior floor of the capitol. |
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| A Viet Nam War Memorial next to the Ohio Capitol Building. |
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| One of Columbus's downtown skyscrapers. |
The following morning we headed to the top of the State Office Building for a 40th floor view of downtown Columbus. Even though Columbus has over 700,000 citizens, it was easy to get around and had more of down home feel than Cincinnati which has half the people.
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| A view of the art deco LeVeque Tower & the Scioto River from the 40th floor. |
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| These little sparrows all lined up nicely for my photo op. |
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| The seagulls didn't want to be out done by the sparrows. |
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| Us enjoying the swing on the newly opened Scioto River walk. |
We loved the art museum in Columbus – not too large, but with an impressive variety of big name artists' works. And best of all, thanks to PNC Bank, there was no admission fee in July and August!
The weather was horribly hot & humid, so where did we decide to spend the late afternoon? We visited the Franklin Park Conservatory where the heat and humidity is magnified by the enclosed glass habitats. It was a photographer’s paradise with numerous flowers, plants & butterflies. But I must have 20 blurry photos of nothing trying to capture the butterflies.
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| The Columbus Art Museum & Franklin Conservatory had blown glass sculptures that I loved. |
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| Another of the blown glass sculptures - I may have to take a class to try this. |
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| One of the numerous unique flowers and plants at the Conservatory. |
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| Cactus in one of the incredibly hot desert habitats. |
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| Some large gazing balls in an outside display. |
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| Lou managed to snap this shot of one of the butterflies. |
Our next stop was Cincinnati where we had tickets to see our World Champion San Francisco Giants play the Cincinnati Reds. Sitting outside for hours in stifling heat & humidity was not even a little bit comfortable – we were literally dripping wet. But even more uncomfortable was watching our Giants lose in the 13th inning! Having to pay $5 for each 20 ounce bottle of water & $7.50 per beer to keep from keeling over in our seats wasn’t a barrel of laughs either. I mean, really - $5 for a bottle of water???
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| The Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. |
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| The scoreboard at the ball park. |
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| The view from our seats during the game. |
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| Lou's photo of the fireworks display after the game. |
Cincinnati is a beautiful city with rolling hills, a river, lots of bridges & a fair number of skyscrapers - almost like a mini San Francisco. We stayed in a great little bed & breakfast just across the Ohio River in Newport, Kentucky. Unbeknownst to us there was a jazz festival going on in Cincinnati that weekend making the hotel rooms expensive or nonexistent. The b & b was only about $20 more than the Super 8 Motel miles away.
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| A scenic West Virginia state park with small waterfalls. |
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| We startled a mama deer & her baby when we rounded a corner. |
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| The New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. |
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| West Virginia State Capitol Building in Charleston. |
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| Charleston's memorial to all their citizens who died in World Wars I & II, Korea & Viet Nam. |
Our final full day was spent in Frankfort, Kentucky, where we arrived in time to tour the Buffalo Trace Distillery. I’m not much of a hard liquor drinker – give me my wine and beer any day – but I did learn that to be called bourbon, at least 51% corn must be used in the distilling. It was a great tour led by a really enthusiastic guide named J.W. He almost made the bourbon taste good!
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| Buffalo Trace Distillery water tower in Frankfort, Kentucky. |
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| A couple of barrels used to age the bourbon to perfection. |
The next morning we took our third capitol tour of the week followed by a tour of the Kentucky Governor’s Mansion across the street. I think every capitol we have visited has its own claim to fame – the tallest, the widest, the oldest, the something or other. Honestly, I’ve seen so many now that I have a hard time distinguishing between them. They all have marble & columns & grand staircases & a house & senate chambers (except Lincoln, Nebraska, which has the only unicameral legislature in the country). Most are beautiful buildings & we have set a goal to see all 50 of the state capitols. I think we are over halfway there, but I need to copy Lou’s notes so I’ll know where I’ve been. J
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| The Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort. |
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| The floral clock - one of Frankfort's attractions. |
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| The Governor's Mansion in Kentucky - a gorgeous home. |
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| One of my fun flower photos. |
Our final stop enroute to the Indianapolis airport was a quick side trip to Louisville (pronounced “Lou-a-vull” a southern friend instructed me years ago). It turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip for me when we decided to do a tour of the Louisville Slugger factory that manufactures bats for Major League Baseball including many of our Giants. We were able to hold one of Buster Posey’s bats! Pretty cool!
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| The entrance to the Louisville Slugger factory with it's giant bat out front. |
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| No photos are allowed inside but we snuck this one of the wood waiting to become bats through the window. |
All in all we covered over 1200 miles through 4 states in 8 days. We visited 3 capitol buildings, 2 museums, saw 3 FLW houses, numerous bridges, art deco buildings & other sites (and took around 1000 pictures between us) – not a bad little road trip.
