Before Mom’s birthday bash, Tom and I took her out for an adventure day exploring Medina.  Mom grew up near Wooster and went to Medina a few times as a teenager.  But she said she had not been there since.  I think it has changed a little.

We had an absolutely gorgeous day for our adventure.  Mom really enjoys riding in the car and basking in the ever-changing view.  As we came into Medina, Mom talked about her memories of the place when she was young.  The downtown area, around the square, looks much as she rememberd it, but the shops in the storefronts have changed.

We took Mom to Sully’s Irish Pub for lunch.  Although we haven’t tried all the restaurants in Medina, we really enjoy Sully’s and thought she would too.  I order something different every time we go, and I haven’t had anything bad yet.  Mom got the meatloaf, I got a chicken wrap, and Tom got the BBQ burger.  Yummy as always.

After lunch we walked down the street to the used bookstore, The BookShelf.  I had a small pile of books I was going to donate, but, of course, I left them at home.  Oh well – we will be back.  You never know what you will find at The BookShelf so it is fun to look through the stacks.  I got several books and a puzzle.  Mom found several more.  We all left with wonderful books to read and feeling good about our donation to Project Learn.

Our last walking location was Nibble, a gourmet food and gift shop.  We had been there with Karen Graham and really enjoyed it so we wanted Mom to enjoy it too.  We looked at everything and found all kinds of fun mixes.  Unfortunately, when I looked up the web link for this blog post, the website said that Nibble would be permanently closing August 15.  I guess that won’t be a regular stop anymore when we are exploring Medina.

While we were in Medina, we decided to check out some Ohio historical markers that were in the area.  There are six markers close to Medina.  We saw the Root Homestead, the family behind Root Candles.  St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is the oldest congregation in Medina County.  First Congregation Church of Medina was active in the Underground Railroad and was the church home of the Root family.  The First Congregational Church of Weymouth was another abolitionist church, active in the Underground Railroad.  We saw the Weymouth School, which served the community from 1925 until 1956.  Our final marker was the Elm Farm Dairy established in 1934.  The dairy is closed, but the sign said it housed an ice cream museum.  If it did, it was closed on the day we were there.

Tom and I have noticed a lot of Underground Railroad sites on the Ohio historical markers.  It made me dig a little deeper.  I learned Ohio was the major passageway of the Underground Railroad.  Bordering slave states to the south and Canada to the north, it was seen as the best route to freedom.  More than half of all the enlaved freedom seekers came through Ohio.  There is an Ohio Historical Underground Railroad Trail that includes many historic sites.

Tom, Mom and I all had a wonderful time exploring Medina.  It was fun to get to know a part of Ohio even better.  None of us had ever been to Weymouth before.  Our visit made me dig deeper into Ohio history, which is always a good thing.