Friday was Good Friday, which Mer and I had off. Ellen still needed to do some work on her dissertation, so we did not plan anything for the morning or early afternoon. We did take a short excursion out in the evening – we wanted to show Ellen Brandywine Falls, which is in a park fairly nearby. Or at least it should be. Mer and I found the falls on a map, but did not bother to print directions out – we knew most of the roads, so it seemed straightforward. So, we headed down into the Valley and headed north along a series of winding roads. About 35 minutes or so later, we found ourselves at the end of a dead-end road with “no trespassing” signs posted. We figured we were only about a half mile or less from the falls, but we backtracked and tried another route and did finally find the falls, after about 45 minutes total.

Brandywine Falls, like many things in Ohio, is not spectacular, but is very pleasant to look at. There are boardwalks that let you see the falls from near the bottom of the falls and from the top as well. It was another beautiful day, so we took our time, but kept to just the falls – we did not have enough time to walk some of the trails around the falls. Once we got back to the car, we tried another way back home, which turned out to be very direct and took about 10 minutes. Live and learn.

Since it was Good Friday, we headed to church that evening. Mer and I were both readers in a tenebrae (Latin for “shadows”) service. A tenebrae service is a somber service that remembers Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and usually ends with remembering the crucifixion – the celebration of the resurrection is saved for the Easter service. Our service was fairly simple – two songs and communion, and then seven readers reading passages from the Bible that talked about the last hours of Jesus’ life. The passages were more than just the accounts of Jesus found in the Gospels – some of the gospel accounts were there, but other passages from the psalms and the prophets were included as well, to help give a broader context to what was happening to Jesus. It was very effective – it worked well to have other scriptures to help wake me up from having heard the gospel stories so often that I sometimes forget how powerful they are. The service went off well, and we left the church quietly and drove home. Once home, we had a little light supper, and watched some more of the ever-present Bleak House.

Saturday was another big day in Lavish Ohio. I went running with Nate and Jason again (16 miles), and by the time I got home, Ellen and Meredith were awake and finishing getting ready. I took a quick shower, and by around 10:00 or so, we were headed south to Amish country.

Mer and I like to take people to Amish country because the land is very pretty (rolling hills), and the food is amazing. To add to these, I decided to introduce Ellen to Lehman’s hardware store. Lehman’s is a hardware store that specializes in non-electric tools and appliances (including gas refrigerators and stoves). Their stuff tends to be very nice, but a tad expensive, but is still worth a trip to look at things. Ellen came away with a salt/pepper mill (on sale for 2/3s off).

Ellen had mentioned she wanted an island for her kitchen, so I stopped at a furniture store. There are a ton of furniture stores in Amish country, as we found out. After visiting our third one, Ellen and Mer had moved from subtle hints about food to Meredith asking us to stop and Ellen making hungry-kitty feed-me noises. I took the hint, and we stopped at Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen, where we had a very satisfying meal (and ended it with pie – yum!).

After eating, we took Ellen to the chocolate store we found last summer, the one where they sell chocolates for $5/pound and sell very good cookies. Sadly, they were closed. We also stopped at the farm where they sell the fried fruit pies, but they were sold out. I consoled myself with a package of oatmeal cream cookies. We headed into town and visited a gift store that carried a number of wind chimes (Ellen has been looking for wind chimes), and then visited one last furniture store (one that Mer and I are fond of). We then headed northward again, with a stopover at the Amish Door bakery, where I picked up three whoopie pies and a brownie. Amish baked goods are worth the stop.

Since Ellen had not found her island table, we stopped at Pier 1 in Canton to see if they still had one that Ellen had seen (and one that was on sale). They did not have one, but they called around, and the Pier 1 in Cuyahoga Falls had one. So, we stopped there on the way home, and Ellen bought it (for about 60% off). We could not fit it in Meredith’s car, so we headed home and got my hatchback. Once we had it in the hatchback, Ellen discovered the legs unscrewed from the table. Ooops. At least that meant it would fit in her car.

We headed from Pier 1 straight to Akron, to the Coach House Theater. We were meeting up with Brandon and Jen (Brandon works at CVCA and is the head of the theater department), and we were all going to see the play Doubt. Mer and I had seen Doubt as a film last fall with Mom and Marc, and so we were eager to see it as the original play.

It worked very well, better than the movie. The staging kept the focus on the actors, since there were no scene changes. The stage was done up half as a church, and half as an office, with a small courtyard in the middle. The play only uses four actors, so it can be very intense at times. All of the actors did a fine job, but the woman playing the head nun was superb. She was no-nonsense and driven. The actor playing the priest seemed a bit light at first, but he grew more intense as the play went on, and the climactic showdown scene between the priest and the head nun was electrifying. The show had no intermission, so the tension was never broken.

The five of us talked for quite awhile after the show was over, and we all loved it. Ellen had never seen nor read it, so that was fun to introduce her to the play. This was the third time that Brandon had seen it done live, and he said he kept changing his mind as to if the priest was guilty of what the nun accused him of. It really is a well done play. We said goodbye to Brandon and Jen, and we headed home to food and Bleak House.

All good things come to an end, even Lavish Ohio ™. On Sunday, we went to church (it was a very fine Easter service), and then came home. I cobbled together a rudimentary brunch of eggs, homemade bread left over from the Heather Dale concert, and Sun Chips (the ones I forgot to set out for the concert). Once we finished eating, Ellen packed up her things and headed home (about a three-and-a-half hour trip). Mer and I took a long nap (3+ hours). Lavish Ohio can take it out of you. We did not get to show Ellen everything that is wonderful and grand about Ohio, so Lavisher Ohio ™ is now in the works for a future date.