Last Saturday was Mer’s day. We slept in, and I went running in the morning. We ate lunch, and then headed down to the First Ladies’ Museum in Canton. Neither of us had ever been.

The museum is right downtown in Canton, and is in two buildings. One building is an old bank that now houses the First Ladies’ Library, as well as rotating exhibits. Mer and I were there early, so we wandered down the street for twenty minutes or so (it was a lovely day), and we returned to watch several short films on various First Ladies and how they handled crises like the burning of the White House in the War of 1812, or how Mrs. Roosevelt helped out by visiting troops in WW2. We then toured the current exhibit, which was on First Lady dresses, especially their Inaugural Ball gowns. Some of the First Ladies were tiny, even in their forties and fifties. There were some displays of the White House china, which the First Ladies selected, and in the basement there was an exhibit on women in the Red Cross. The exhibits were not extensive, but they were interesting.

We then made our way over to the second building of the museum, which is the Stanton House, which belonged to Mrs. McKinley’s sister’s family. William and Mrs. McKinney often stayed at the Stanton House, so it has a definite tie-in to a real First Lady. The house had been restored to how it would have looked around 1900, and the third floor’s major room is lined with the portraits and short bios of all the First Ladies. I had not known that the White House always has a First Lady, even if it is not the President’s wife. In the case where the President’s wife is dead, usually the oldest daughter would become the First Lady and act as hostess at White House functions. It was an interesting display. The museum is small, but well done, and the house is in very good shape now.

After the museum, we headed south toward Amish country. We went to The Amish Door bakery and restaurant, largely because Mer had a coupon for a free piece of pie. It was great – there was a buffet that we both took advantage of, and we both got pie for dessert (my peanut butter pie was only okay – I need to go for the Amish Door sundae next time!). As a bonus, there was a man playing the piano for entertainment – mostly playing Christmas carols, although he did a few hymns as well. It was very atmospheric and helped both me and Mer start to get in the holiday spirit.