Eden with a front porch

Ohio is absolutely gorgeous right now. All weekend, it was crisp but not cold, right on the cusp of all the leaves exploding into their flaming fall colors, and (except for one late-afternoon cloudburst) brilliantly sunny the whole time. And silly me forgot to take any pictures. ANY. I fully admit that I am le stupid. In an attempt to make up for that, here is a picture of the inn we stayed at, via bbonline.com:
It's a restored Victorian-era house, with gorgeous ancient wood floors, push-buttons instead of light switches, and all the details done to a tee! The website is here if you want to see more pictures. We stayed in a private suite on the second floor that was positively sumptuous - enormous bed (though still just a tad too short for the 6'2"-in-bare-feet giant I call my boy) that was insanely comfortable and did not squeak at all (wink wink), bay-windowed view onto a quiet, tree-lined street, shower with one of those showerheads that's supposed to emulate rain and does a pretty bang-up job at it...just wow.

And that's only just the one room! The innkeepers have obviously spent years perfecting the details of this place and adding to their fascinating collection of knick-knacks. Er, make that collections, plural. There's a little shelf in a corner with all sorts of glass and china figurines, an antique coat-rack draped with tiny bejeweled and embroidered handbags, a group of old perfume bottles on a mirrored tray in what was our room, a row of teacups hung on the wall in the dining room...you get the picture. You could wander around this house for hours just looking at all the fascinating little objets d'art.

The innkeepers, Dean and Vicki (short for Victoria, from whence cometh the name of the inn), are some of the sweetest people you will ever meet. They obviously love the work they put into keeping the place running, and it really shows. And they are FANTASTIC cooks. I took a break from paleo for the weekend to enjoy homemade pumpkin waffles with cheesecake filling one day, and fresh french toast with caramelised pears the next, besides fresh fruit and coffee every day and local sausage (as in the farm is right down the road) for those who would take it, which I hear was pretty much a foodgasm.

So yeah. Next time you're in Mantua, OH (which isn't too far from other, less backwoods areas), seriously check this place out. We paid 85/night, which, over the weekend, including hot breakfast and considering that the place is just drop dead gorgeous, was a pretty amazing price. Definitely on my list of favorite places to stay now.

I've got a list of errands and things to get done today, as well as going to Crossfit tonight (as well as yesterday), so I'll leave it here for now and post more later on exercise and food updates and how I actually spent my time in Ohio. It was not all oohing and ahhing over the figurines, let me tell you ;)

-N