Family, Friends, Food, and Carillon Park in Dayton, Ohio

We couldn’t journey to Ohio without visiting some family. In Dayton, that’s my niece Laura and her husband Mike. As hosts, of course, they were busy thinking up fun stuff to do and places to eat.

Our stay here was at Wright Patterson Air Base. The family camp was tucked behind the airfield, which meant a journey of a few miles just to get around it. While driving, Cal would happily identify the various military airplanes sitting on the tarmac. I was looking in the opposite direction, keeping my eyes peeled for groundhogs. On our first trip through the base, I saw a fat groundhog waddling through one of the expansive lawns in the distance. And then more, at least one on every trip around. All that grass makes for fat groundhogs.

Mike and Laura asked us what we’d like to see in Dayton. With apologies to the city, I had forgotten there was anything to see in Dayton. I did know that just outside of the air base there is a huge air museum, which Cal has been to. I’d forgotten that this is where the Wright Brothers had lived and developed the first airplane.

That history is woven into Carillon Historical Park, which we enjoyed visiting in the afternoon of Memorial Day.

The carillon was gifted by the founders of the park, a couple by the name of Edward and Edith Deeds. It has 57 bells on a 151-foot tower. It’s the first thing you see when driving up to park, which contains a lot of buildings small, large, historical and not, containing aspects of Dayton’s history. Its focus is mainly transportation. Besides all that to see, it’s a lovely place to stroll through on a sunny Memorial Day afternoon.

I enjoyed refreshing what I knew about the Wright Brothers. There is a replica here of their bicycle shop, circa 1895-1897. I did not get pictures of it, but I did get a picture of these bicycles in a separate little building. They are from the same era.

The brothers were working on another small project in their spare time, however. In 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they took the first famous flight of an airplane they had invented. Dayton gets the credit, though, for the development and testing of their airplane at Huffman Field.

Orville Wright himself designed this room displaying their 1905 airplane. He wanted the plane sitting below ground level so that visitors could see it from above.

This plane was resurrected from Kitty Hawk, where it had been left in pieces. It was the first “flying machine” that could take off repeatedly, fly for a small length of time, and land undamaged. All important things for getting off the ground and back!

There are other things to look at too. The sights ranged from an eagle in a nest high in a tree, a building focusing on the big 1913 flood, a carousel with 32 icons from Dayton’s history, Ohio’s first taven, and many trains and streetcars such as this one:

I remembered learning about the Ohio-Erie Canal when I was a child, so I was excited to see this little piece of it. A bonus was getting the park train in the background of my picture of it.

There is even a covered bridge, although it goes nowhere and has no water underneath. It was moved here from near Bellbrook, Ohio.

We could choose a song for the carillon to play before leaving the park. I chose “Pachelbel’s Canon in D.” It was pretty, but hardly recognizable.

A trip to an Irish pub in downtown Dayton capped off this day. I had shepherd’s pie with a Guinness. But it was just one good meal among many that we had with Laura and Mike. Who knew that Dayton was such a foodie city? We had pizza, salads and beer at Old Scratch Pizza (two beers in one week when I haven’t had even one since I don’t know when!) and another dinner at a place called Rip Rap which was a bar and grill. The whole idea behind this dinner is walking behind the restaurant to a “shake shack” of the same name behind it afterwards. I was sorry that I was not hungrier for the delicious ice cream, and that it was a cool and windy evening.

In contrast to the beautiful weather we had for our time at Carillon Park, the following day was rainy. A perfect day to go visiting.

I spent thirteen of my childhood years living in three different Ohio towns. One of those towns was Marysville, where I had a good high school friend named Karen. We’d lost touch after I’d moved, but she found me again on Facebook. She and her husband now live near Urbana, not far from Dayton, and we spent a great afternoon visiting with them.

A great lunch was had with them in Urbana at Las Palmas. More good food! It was good to catch up on all the years that have rolled by during my visit with Karen.

We went two different ways though the lush green countryside driving to and from their house. Our scenic drive was hilly with lots of woods in view, small old towns that are hardly towns anymore, old houses and barns.

There was one more important stop to make near Dayton. Laura took us to visit her Mom and our sister-in-law Mary Jo. I first met Mary Jo before my fifth birthday and was the flower girl in her wedding to my brother Wayne. She is happily settling into a new apartment.

All good things must come to an end, however, and all too soon our good times in Dayton were done. Time to roll down the road to a new spot!

Next time: a slice of heaven in Hocking Hills