Apple Doughnuts and Birds

Happy Monday and Happy Labor Day! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. If you have today off of work, then hopefully it has been a good 3 day weekend! We ended up having a great weekend! 

Saturday night we did end up having date night. We ordered gyros from our local Indian/Greek restaurant (Lamb for Bill, Chicken for me) and we ate them on the front porch. 

Yesterday we went on an adventure as a family. We have been feeling a little stuck at home and sick of our current places that we walk/hike, so Bill and I decided that we wanted to go somewhere. We talked about going to the zoo in Columbus but several things were going against that including that they only had available tickets to enter at 1:30. That meant that a LOT of people were already going to be in the zoo if we went and I am not comfortable around huge groups. Then we thought about someplace a little more local. We decided to take the kids to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary to see the birds and walk the trails. 

Before we did that, we made a pit stop first (I try to make our outings consist of more than one place especially if we are driving to an area over 1/2 hour away). In our area there is a Facebook page which highlights restaurants, bakeries, orchards, etc that are local to our area. Someone mentioned the apple doughnuts at Apple Hill Orchard. Many people mentioned that they were some of the best doughnuts ever, so I made the decision that we needed to stop and get some before we went to the bird sanctuary. 

OH MY WORD! The doughnuts were worth the hype. They were SO GOOD!

After we enjoyed a doughnut, we headed off to the Ohio Bird Sanctuary arriving a few minutes before their noon opening time. We were the first family in and we enjoyed seeing all the birds that are being kept there. Many of them had life threatening injuries that meant that when they healed they were unable to be released back into the wild. Several of the birds had come in with suspected West Nile Virus cases or had been hit by cars or had fallen out of trees. It was interesting to learn their stories.

They had several birds in their aviary, including a few types of pigeons, that were very friendly and would follow you around.

After seeing the birds, we let the kids play for a few minutes on their natural playground. Bill and I even got in on the fun. LOL 

Then we headed off on a hike on a couple of the adjoining trails to the sanctuary. It was very beautiful scenery!

When we got back to the parking lot, we took advantage of one of the picnic tables on the grounds and had a picnic lunch before heading home for the day. 

It was definitely an enjoyable Sunday and felt good to get out and do something a little different than just walking the bike path. 

Today Bill has to work and the kids and I went on a walk and then stopped at the grocery store to get a couple of things (milk, bread, eggs, bananas). Now we are just hanging out here at home and puttering around. I need to get some tutoring planning done and make sure the kids' Chromebooks get plugged up for tomorrow. 

What are you up to on this Labor Day? Did you have a good weekend?