Make the Most of your Staycation

Over the July 4th weekend, my husband and I had made plans to spend a few days in Asheville, NC. We have never been there and heard that it is our kind of place. We planned to explore the river (i.e. Sliding Rock), trails and do a little rock climbing. Fate had other plans. Our 18-year-old cat became very ill so we decided to spend the four-day break around home so we could keep an eye on him. So our vacation became a staycation.

With four days to entertain ourselves, we needed to see what the Dayton area had to offer. We wanted to make the most of our staycation.

We’re training for a 100-mile charity bike ride and needed to log 70 miles on our bikes, so we decided to get that out of the way on Friday. What we found is that Dayton has a fantastic bike trail system. We’ve been on a lot of the paved trails before, but with 70 miles to cover we discovered even more of them. We started at our house in Bellbrook, Ohio and road on the street to Spring Valley. From Spring Valley we took a trail to Xenia, through Beavercreek and into downtown Dayton. From Dayton we made our way to West Carrolton…then back into downtown where we stopped at the 2nd Street Market for a late lunch. We biked home through Kettering. The trail through there isn’t complete, but biking the road was safe and easy. We finished our ride by stopping at the farmer’s market back in Bellbrook for some fresh, local produce. What a great day of biking!

On Saturday we decided to go to the CityFolk festival downtown on the river. We spent the afternoon strolling through the festival, listening to music and sampling food. The evening ended with a great fireworks display above the river. It’s the largest crowd I’ve seen in downtown Dayton. What a great way to get people to appreciate the downtown riverfront area! I hope the steps they’ve taken to make the riverfront more attractive will really give Dayton a boost.

On Sunday we started the day with a run around the Sugarcreek MetroPark. I love running the outer (green) loop of the park. It’s a perfect 5k. The shade and streams make you forget about the heat. And on Sunday it was hot! After our run, we decided we needed to do something to stay cool, so we rented kayaks on the Little Miami River. Whenever we felt to hot, we just jumped in the river to cool off. The river was a tad crowded for my taste, but it was the 4th of July so that’s to be expected. We managed to carve out our own little space on the river and enjoy a nice kayaking trip.

Since we had opted for the staycation we spent Monday catching up on household chores, homework and working on The Fit Life, LLC website. Even that was kind of nice. Now and then you need a day to catch-up!

We will still go visit Asheville one of these days. We always have our eyes open for a retirement destination. But it was nice to stay home and appreciate what Dayton has to offer us. So often we go elsewhere looking for adventure, when there is adventure to be had right in your own backyard.

What adventures can you find in your hometown?