Connecting

Ohio gets a bad rap.

Oh, in some ways it deserves it. The river did catch on fire, but that was a long time ago. And people of my general can never think "Ohio" without thinking "four dead in Ohio." 

But, to be honest, Kent State is a beautiful campus, albeit with a lousy connotation. 

And all of Ohio isn't shabby and run down. A high school friend of mine lives in Ravenna which is pretty close to Pennsylvania. It's flat there, but not quite as flat as much of the mid-West. And when you move north and east of Ravenna, toward where the little piece of New York touches Ohio, (Who knew?) it's even almost hilly.

There are wineries in that part of Ohio. I traveled to two of them with my friend Cece. I was doing stories for Country Folks Wine and Grape and she came along for fun. It is always fun to do stories on wineries, only partly because you have to taste the wine. 

Most small vintners are enthusiastic about talking about their businesses. They are especially proud of the innovations they need to attempt to keep business flowing. 

Some have lots of events on their vineyards. They play host to Renaissance Festivals and music fests. Some allow weddings on their property, although others find they are too disruptive to the regular tours and tastings. 

Cece and I were pleasantly surprised at how good the wine was, across the board. Not a bad or overly sweet wine in the bunch. That's what we had expected.

 The wineries are lovely, too. Ambiance means a lot.

The rest of my trip was pleasure.

Cece and I went to the West Side Market in Cleveland. There may well be more portions of Cleveland you wouldn't want to walk through unarmed than in most cities, but there are also some cool things, including the market which has a large green market and an inside area with bakeries, meat markets and pretty much everything else. Of course, we went on a Saturday which was probably not a good idea. It was about as crowded as it could get. 

The market is in what was probably an old factory building.

That night we went to hear the Cleveland Symphony in it's summer home. Beautiful outdoor venue. Excellent music.

And lots of people who wanted to hear classical music. Which is comforting. Many of the people under the pavilion were older, but plenty of those sitting on the grass were young.

Much of what we did was connecting. Re-connecting. It's nice to get together with an old high school friend once in a while.