Sweet hubby and I just got back from a lovely little get away. We were given a mini vacation at 5 Corners Bed & Breakfast (extra bonus: the B&B is blue!) in Amherst, Ohio. This is a beautiful little town not far from Lake Erie. We had never visited the area, and we were looking forward to having a couple days to explore.
On our first day at the B&B, we came across a brochure for the Patchwork Trails, and we realized this would be the perfect way to see Lorain County. Simply put, the Patchwork Trails is a series of 19 huge (8 foot square) quilt blocks that have been installed along a main tourist route in the county, know as Back Roads and Beaches Bike Route. Some of the blocks are on roadside barns, some are at various public buildings. This particular series of quilt blocks very new and there were two along the route that we couldn’t find. One in particular had a sign saying it had not been installed yet. We also happened to be driving on a day that there were activities at the fairgrounds, so we didn’t see that one either. Some were pretty tricky to find, and we had to backtrack a couple times. One could only be seen from a very specific vantage point. In all, we spent a few hours over two days following the scavenger hunt, and we got photos of 14 of the 19 blocks. Then, on the way home, we got a bonus treat and saw an extra one that wasn’t part of the trail.
It was a lot of fun. We got to see a lot of beautiful countryside and farm land, as well as a handful of tiny, sleepy towns. We ate our lunch on the shore of Lake Erie by the Maritime Museum. Then we devoured some yummy treats at Aunt Joe’s Ice Creamatorium, where the slogan is “ice cream to die for.” Sweet hubby got a couple scoops of Cave Man Chocolate and I ate Java Chunk. I got to sit where I could see the cow pendulum clock lick the ice cream cone on the wall. I kept imagining how fun the lime green walls would look with polka dots 🙂
Later in the day, sweet hubby was really sweet because he even let me stop at a quilt store that we saw while we were driving around. (He was probably still in an ice cream stupor and forgot to say no!) Quilts & Kreations is a great little fabric store in South Amherst. It is just packed full of great quilt fabric, all organized by color. They are the local Bernina dealer, too, so there were some really cool machines to drool over. While I was visiting, the owner was teaching a private quilt class to two ladies and it sounded like they were having a good time. Happily, I was able to pick up a few special fabrics to add to my stash, too.
As much as I enjoyed my special time with sweet hubby, I’m glad to be home now. Now I just need to get focused on some quilting!