There is a certain comfort to coming home after a trip. Traveling away is part of the adventure but the traveling home is often just necessary, boring, and filled with longing. You trudge up the drive with your arms heavy with bags, fumble with keys, and opening the door drop the bags with a sigh that the house hears. Ahhhhhhh.... home.

I have a certain fondness for Bilbo Baggins and relating my returns to his. Part of that is due to my first exposure to the book which was when I was very young and my dad read it out-loud to my sister and I. It fills me with a comfort of home as a place, home as being with family, and home as a feeling. Being home makes you feel like you are now allowed to relax and put your feet up. It seemed only fitting to watch the latest release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies this weekend after my long trip.

I love the song at the end when Bilbo returns home after his adventures. It transports me to a place where time doesn't move and I could live to be 111 too. But just like Bilbo, after a few weeks, I'm rested and ready for another adventure!

“Go back?" he thought. "No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!" So up he got, and trotted along..." - J.R.R. Tolkien

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Whew! It's been a long day, TGIT, Thank Goodness it's Thursday and I get to travel home tomorrow! Being onsite with clients is exhausting in many ways, even when it is going as well as this trip is. At the end of a long day, I'm ready for anything that isn't more work. I'm also ready for some food to feed my tired brain cells!

Equally however, I do not (and I mean do NOT) want to hang out with more people. I need some alone introvert time to rejuvenate myself for the client and the people I care about. That means I have been going out to eat while business traveling less and less. Maybe it sounds like college cooking when all you've got is a minifridge and a microwave but I've upped my skills! Check this out!

Hotel-made (not homemade) chicken salad sandwich

Oh, ya. Classy bottled water and styrofoam plate. :-) But that doesn't matter. It has cherry tomatoes, apples, green pepper, chicken, salt, pepper, and yogurt and was yummy! All with a plastic knife and minimal ingredients.

So how does this become a fun vacation? Find a cool place to eat it! Pack up your lunch/dinner and do your own "drive-in picnic". It is way better than drive-thru in the car. Take your hotel-cooked meal on the go, turn up the heat and music, move into the back seat, and enjoy the view. Sure, maybe your weather is like mine and cold, rainy, and foggy, but still, this water view is pretty. I felt so refreshed after some food and some outdoor space.

Cedar Point, Ohio

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I love house hunting. When I travel I watch a lot more TV than usual because I have access to cable channels and the HGTV network is just filled with interior decorating ideas, dreamy vacation spots, and buildings full of character that I could imagine myself living in. But taking it one step further and seeking out real listings is just as fun. Zillow.com is public searching of MLS listings and you can totally scout out what is currently available where you are staying. It gives you a really good idea of what it would be like to live in the town you are visiting and you get to understand the people that do live here on a homey level. 

Here's how my little game works:

You have to find 3 houses to drive by, extra points if you find an open house! First find one that is the most expensive in the area. What is luxury in Sandusky, Ohio? Second, find one that you can afford if you were to actually move here. How far does your money go in Sandusky, Ohio? At this point, you've probably driven around the city a couple times. Pick a street that you like, and drive around until you find a for sale sign. Ooooh, pretty right?

Sandusky, Ohio is right on the water and because of that it is easy to know where to prime real estate is. But in winter/early spring there isn't much of water sports or beach going. It makes viewing the waterfront a little different... Regardless, check out this stunner!

Having your own private beach across from those windows?! Amazing!

Let me start out by saying that since yes, I do own my own house in Denver, CO, I will never go back to apartment living ever again. It may lesson your options in big cities but in smaller towns like Sandusky, most are single family homes. There is just something about being able to blast your music, slam doors, or have pets that you can't get in a place where you share a wall. The natural light is an added bonus too. This is the one I decided to drive by. Isn't the brickwork pretty?

I could stretch out on a plot like this

I got to spend almost 3 weeks in the area so I did drive by quite a few spots that had "for sale" signs out front that were tempting for me to list here as my pick. I settled on some cheap but character filled vacation spot in downtown. I see potential down here! There are some really neat buildings mixed in here like a stone New York pizza place 3 story next to colonial farm land shuttered ranches. Such a cool place to open a wine bar next to all of the little quaint boutiques.

Cute for a cozy rainy day after a day on the water

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EEP! Look at all that snow!!! Okay, so this picture doesn't make it look that bad, but what you don't see is that Winter Storm Linus was bad enough to cancel all flights into Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the day. So when I did finally get there a day late the worst had passed. I did see a lot of the aftermath though which always makes me nervous. You count the cars in the ditches lining the highways... 13 I think. There wasn't any one on the roads either outside of ______ other than semi trucks so that didn't help my nerves. At least I had Serious XM radio that I could turn up really loud if I wanted. Which I didn't want. :-)

Ah, so Garner, Iowa. It is a small town. And when I say small I mean so small that there isn't a stop sign (let alone a stop light) on the main street. Very cute one way in one way out kind of place with one restaurant that serves just about everything and one grocery store that well, doesn't. The funny thing is that the main street deadends at the County Building that looks like a CIA black box with tinted windows, square black walls, hidden parking around back, and a flat roof. I'm not sure who designed it but they must have been going for "modern".

Anyways, this post I want to take a break and talk to you about what I do. I install new 21st century software in Recorder and Clerk offices. Every county in every state has an office that is responsible for keeping record of deeds and liens, and marriage certificates. Iowa has 99 counties and California (for perspective) has only 34? I've learned a lot about how pieces of land are defined and it puts owning property in a new perspective. Every piece has a history and these are all public records so you can just go down to the county office and search maps and documents for who has owned those square inches of land over time. This is really cool if you own something or are doing a geneology project. You can go visit the house that your great-great-great grandmother grew up in if you knew where to look. Isn't that neat?

So even though Garner, Iowa is small, it is still worth a visit. I had a wonderful time in this town because the people were so jolly. They cooked lunch for me every day for 2 weeks. We had chili, and chicken casserole, and tortilla soup. They made these things called "________" which were a whole new level of not-good-for-you sweets. They were pretty much every childhood memory wrapped into one! It is essentially a peanut butter cup rice crispy treat. Yummy! Here is the recipe that they gave me in case you want tot try it! That is my take away from this trip: a family recipe and some mid-west lingo. 

Garner, IA

Butler County Office

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I always drink coffee in the morning when I travel. I don't always need the caffeine but it becomes a routine that helps being in a new place a little easier. Sure, you can do Starbucks but it is way more fun to check out the local spots.

I found this place outside of Cedar Falls, Iowa called Cup of Joe.

A little piece of downtown

Without a doubt I would take others back here. The coffee shop is at the end of this street on the corner and actually, the river is on the other side of the building. If it wasn't wintery snowy cold, it would be neat to sit on the patio or walk around here. At least the sun was out!

Coffee shops are either bold and colorful with local artwork and bring color block walls, or dark, and quiet like whispering a secret with a friend. It is easy to curl up with a book in an armchair, crowd around a patio table with too many friends, or grab and go with your boost of aroma and smile from the barista. Cup of Joe is one of the bright spots if you aren't going into Waterloo for the basketball game!

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There are some neat places here outside of Sandusky, Ohio!

About a half hour south (where I stayed) is the town of Milan, Ohio. Small town but with tons of history! There is a collection of buildings that make up the Thomas Edison museum.

Edison museum entrance

In Sandusky itself, there is so much more than roller coasters and indoor water parks. For starters, downtown in the park across from the county building is a merry-go-round museum located in an old post office. How cool is that??

Merry-go-round museum

About a half hour north west is Port Clinton we found a few fun food spots. First was some breakfast sandwiches and coffee at Rudders. And always one to check out the local food, here are a couple of my colleagues trying the drive-in ice cream place. I tried the classic buckeye sundae. It made my taste buds so happy! It's named for the buckeye tree or school mascot which are both big in Ohio. The ice cream has these chocolate and peanut butter pieces mixed into it. Yummy!

Lake life with the sunrise

It's never too cold for ice cream!

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