27 Years!

 Jason and I decided to take a little trip for our anniversary. Since we're so close to Kirtland and our church now owns the Kirtland temple, we thought would be a fun place to go and get a tour from a slightly different perspective. We toured the temple and the Joseph and Emma Smith home before going to Biga down the street which I'm pretty sure is the best pizza I've ever had! The crust was so light and flaky, the flavors so well blended and all the ingredients are fresh! The salad was top tier as well. We even got canolis to share for dessert. I think I've only had them once before. So good!

Original banister.

That green is fresh basil they use!

We toured the village, including the Whitney Store, the sawmill, and the ashery. We watched a video at the Johnson Hotel, which we had never seen because we always had young kids in tow, and Jason's mission president was shown speaking Hebrew in it! 

We went to nearby Chapin Forest to hike to scenic loop there. It was nice and shady, so even though it was the afternoon, it felt better than the hot sun in the Pioneer Village. We drove about a half hour to Painsville after that to check into our hotel and clean up for dinner. 

This is where they got the sandstone to build the temple.

View from the top.

Let me say that it was the coolest hotel ever! It didn't break the bank, either. Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island is probably 5x the price! Though I haven't been inside that one, I feel like Steele Mansion Hotel is just as impressive!  (photo dump!)

While small, only 16 rooms, so definitely not big at all, the decor was so dainty and 1800s French. It was pristine with a bed and breakfast feel to it. Some past presidents have stayed there. They have gamerooms, a dining room, and banquet rooms. There's also the breakfast dining area which includes the complimentary breakfast that was so fresh and way better than regualr hotel breakfasts.

They even had real keys, with old-fashoined keychains, for the rooms. I give it a 10!

After we toured the manison a bit and cleaned up, we went for our anniverary dinner to a place we had looked into before called Rue. It had what looked like a good variety, including Indian, one of my favorites, but it wasn't as good as we were thinking. Probably because when your lunch and hotel are way above your expectations, you can't have the best dinner too. Don't get me wrong, it was very good, just not as good. While we were eating I was thinking that the service wasn't as good as at the pizza place, but then they brought us a piece of complimentary carrot cake to share at the end. That was when they informed us that they were closing, which explained a lot, so then I felt bad for them. 

After dinner, we walked around the historic district that's just down the street from Steele Mansion. It reminded us of Stars Hollow from Gillmore Girls. So cute!

We enjoyed our fanatstic breakfast the next morning. I had eggs, roasted potatoes, and very delicious fresh fruit. The eggs weren't the packaged kind, they were the real deal. Afterwards, we packed up and checked out and made our way to Holden Arboretum, the biggest on the US. Jason and I really love looking at landscaping together, and this time was even better since we're looking for ideas of things to change up our yard. We walked for hours, enjoying all the various gardens, and espcially the Murch Canopy Walk, the emergent tower (where we emerged above the trees), and the guided tram tour for more details about the arboreutm. We had a picnic lunch and finished off with the beautiful butterfly gardens and some more wandering. It was so peaceful and lovely and we got many ideas for our yard. 

canopy walk

emergent tower

At the emergent point.

Home stretch to the top.

The top. Sometimes you can see Lake Erie from here. 

A buckeye tree. 

On the way home, we stopped in Cleveland where we have gotten Puerto Rican food before. This time the restuarant Jason found was in the middle of a Puerto Rican neighborhood. There were flags on many of the houses, a boy wearing a Borinquen shirt (Borinquen is another name for Puerto Rican), and even a food truck selling Pinchos (meat on a stick). The restuarant did not disaapoint either. I got mofongo and Jason got a jibarito (sandwich with plantains as bread) and we split. We tried a new dish as an appetizer, a banana ball, they call it an alcapurria. And coco rico for a drink, a coconut soda.

The banana ball was more like a football.

They must have dancing there at night, due to this setup in the corner.

If you've been around my kids, you know they can get very loud. This mug explains a lot!

We returned well-fed and refreshed. It was a fantastic celebration of our marriage!