We slept in Lima Wednesday night and then got up early the next morning and headed to Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH (2.5 hours north...again). When we got there is was super hot, sunny, and muggy. Not the most fun. I must be getting old or something because I could not handle the roller coasters like I used to. I've never had problems riding them before but I got so lightheaded and nauseous this time. It was really rather annoying, especially for Nate who wanted to ride as many rides as we could.
(As a side note, our first "date" was to Cedar Point, just a month after he got back from Brazil. I surprised him in Ohio (I was working in Idaho for the summer) and we decided to go because neither of us had been there in two years. Until that day, I don't think I'd spent more than a few hours with him, and definitely not alone with him! I'm not sure what we talked about all day but I guess it went well!)
After only three rides I had to sit down for 45 minutes with my head on Nate's lap to try and recuperate. Nate convinced me to go on a few more rides and then said we could leave after that. Our next ride was the Magnum. For those not familiar with Cedar Point, it's one of the older steel roller coasters. It has no loops and you're held in by just a lap bar...it's also quite jerky. Well, this was the fourth ride of the day and before riding I put my phone (my "new" iphone) down my shirt because my pockets were really shallow. It was under three shirts and a bra so I figured it was pretty secure. I was wrong.
The second hill on the ride must be pretty steep because one second all was normal and then the next second my phone was literally floating in front of my face, slowing turning over on itself. WHAT THE WHAT?! I could NOT believe what I was seeing, and it was happening in slow motion! After reaching for the phone and missing I finally was able to secure it and snapped it to my chest where I held tight for the rest of the ride. Nate missed the whole thing but for the remainder of the ride I was screaming at him "DID YOU SEE THAT?!!? THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD!! THAT WAS SUPER NINJA SKILLS RIGHT THERE!!! HOLY COW I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!" etc. And I kept it up even after the ride finished. I didn't realize it but Nate said that everyone around me thought I was talking about the ride, which is not that great of a roller coaster haha Oh well. I wish I had a movie of it though because it was seriously the coolest thing I've ever done...and totally ninja of me.
That got my adrenaline pumping and the nausea left for a bit. But after a few more rides it came back. Not that I'm going to complain about super short lines (like 10-20 minutes for the big coasters) but it didn't give me much time to recover haha Such was the case after our second time on Millennium Force. We got off and saw there was basically no line so decided to go a third time. We literally (and I mean literally in a very literal sense) walked onto the ride with no wait, whatsoever. It was amazing and I don't think that will ever happen again.
We went on the Ferris Wheel...
We ended up leaving the park around 6:30 which was just perfect for me. I'm sure Nate could have stayed longer but I couldn't bear to get on any more rides. We decided to go eat dinner at Chili's and then I thought we would be on our way back home for the night. I fell asleep in the car on the way to Chili's (which was not more than 15 minutes away) and awoke to realize that we were not at Chili's but at a hotel in Sandusky. It was a wonderful surprise!!!! I was so exhausted and a night at a comfortable hotel with a huge jacuzzi was just what I needed. We changed clothes and then went to dinner. I got some chili-mango tilapia which was....not my favorite. I won't be getting that again!
We slept in the next morning and then headed down to Columbus at noon. We got there just in time to see a movie at the Easton Mall. We watched Guardians of the Galaxy in IMAX. I quite enjoyed it! After the movie, we went to exit the theater and followed the wrong exit signs because we ended up in the behind-the-scenes area of the mall and "exited" out the loading dock area hahaha
After the movie we drove to the other side of town for dinner. Nate had made us reservations at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We ate there the night we got engaged last year and wanted to go on our engagement anniversary this year but it's in Salt Lake so we couldn't. Celebrating our one year wedding anniversary seemed like a good occasion though! They were so kind to us and even had rose petals on the table for us :)
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| Their ahi tuna is to die for!!!! |
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| He's so cute. |
They also treated us to dessert which was heavenly. It even included a candle for us to blow out!
My sister Meredith just moved to Columbus to start school at Ohio State and so I begged Nate to drive us to see her even though it was a bit out of our way. It was great to get to see where she lived (which is basically a dump...sorry Meredith) and meet one of her roommates.
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| Bad quality. Good picture. |
Friday night we also spent at a hotel in Columbus. We watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman (we started it the night before and neither of us remember falling asleep....) which is hilarious and I definitely recommend it! It's a kids movie but I thought it was really well done and unexpected.
Saturday noon we finally headed back to Lima so I could see my family for a bit. We hung out at my house, got my "new" phone activated (I had it at CP just to take pictures since Nate's camera on his phone doesn't work) and went out to dinner with mine and Nate's parents. My phone died before I could snap a picture so I'll have to get it from my mom sometime. We went to a Japanese steakhouse in town. Our waiter probably thought we were crazy because we stayed for an hour after our meal was over and just talked. The place wasn't busy at all though so we didn't feel too bad.
Sadly, my flight was to leave at 7:30am out of Dayton so we had to leave my house at 4:45 am.
Oh, also, my family is moving November 1st to North Carolina so this was the last time I would be in our house that we've been in for 11 years. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to everything but I'm happy for my family so I just tried not to think about it. I was going to go swimming one last time and swinging one last time and sit in the hammock one last time etc etc but couldn't really bring myself to do it. It was just too sad.
Back to the story. Nate dropped me off at the airport at 6:00 and I was an absolute wreck. I couldn't stop crying and just looking at him made me cry more. I don't even know how I made myself walk away and into the airport. But I did. And then I called him as soon as I got through security (which is a breeze if you are TSA precheck, by the way! I highly recommend it for anyone that flies even just once or twice a year! SO worth the money.). At 7:00, the airline attendant came over the intercom and said that our flight was going to have some weight-balance issues (whatever that means) and that they needed 6 people to change their flight before they could take off. They offered $400 delta dollars to anyone who would change. I figured I was in no hurry so I got some information and called Nate to see what he thought. The flight they would get me on wasn't going to leave until 12:15 so long story short, Nate turned around and came to pick me up so we could spend a few more hours together. As if that weren't great enough I told the lady I would change for $500 instead of $400 (that Peruvian bartering spirit works well for me sometimes!) and then she transferred me to another lady to give me my voucher and that lady ended up giving me $600 since that's what she gave the guy before me. SCORE!!!! That's a roundtrip ticket home for Christmas...for free!!
Nate got back to the airport around 8:00 and we decided to go get breakfast at Bob Evans. That idea lasted until we parked in the Bob Evan's parking lot and realized how incredibly tired we were. So we settled for cuddling in the back seat and both sleeping for two hours. It was wonderful! It actually really was. When he dropped me off at the airport for a second time it was so much easier. I think we were both less tired, less grumpy (not early morning) and we were just so grateful for the extra time together. It was "easy" to give him a hug and a kiss goodbye and be okay with the fact that I wouldn't see him for three more weeks and that it was all going to be okay. We both felt 100% better with the second goodbye. Switching flights was a blessing in so many ways!
Now I've been back for a week and there are only two weeks left!! And only one more Sunday (which is usually the hardest day). I cannot wait to have him back at home with me. And to have him cook for me. I eat worse than I ate when I was single haha I went to Winco and bought five (FIVE) frozen dinners which I basically never buy.
I love that boy with all my heart and he planned the perfect weekend/ anniversary/ birthday celebration for me. He's the best!!!!
