Cuyahoga Valley

After a long day of driving, we woke up bright and early the next morning! We ate at Wally Waffle for breakfast. I enjoyed the Turtle Waffle and Jason had pancakes with strawberries.

When people asked us where we were going for vacation and we said "a road trip to Maine", we got a few "good lucks" and heard a few horror stories of traveling with youth kids. Cade had traveled well in a car on the trips we had taken to see grandparents, but this was a much more daunting challenge. Thankfully, Cade is a wonderful baby and did so well traveling in the car and sleeping in his pack-n-play.

Our first stop on the trip was to Cuyahoga Valley National Park- Cade's first National Park outside the womb. We stayed in Akron, Ohio, eating at the Winking Lizard for dinner.

We headed to the park for our first hiking trail of the trip, Ledges. We got a hiking backpack for Jason to put Cade in; we hope to get many more miles out of it. Cade did so well! He even fell asleep at one point.

This trail is very popular, as it offers unique views of rock formations. Cade was very curious while in the carrier; he was constantly looking all around him.

With our first hike in the books, we went to the Boston Mill Visitor Center. We finally got a National Park passport book for us (and Cade); we also got him the Junior Ranger version as well. We were going to do the Brandywine Falls trail, but the road to the starting point was closed and the only way to them was a 5 mile hike, which we were not ready for. Instead we drove to Beaver Marsh, which is a gravel trail, perfect for a stroller. This was a nice walk; we got to see some sort of crane.

We finished our stay we a stop at Dewey's Pizza for dinner and prepared to head to Niagara Falls.