Dayton

The day has finally come: Our time to explore Dayton, Ohio. We had been through Dayton once before, but we didn’t have the chance to spend very much time (we only had time to stop off at a root beer stand). This time we planned a full Dayton agenda.

First stop was for lunch: A little Thai restaurant called White Lotus, which was an absolute gem. The restaurant was inside a former (and super old) burger / diner-type spot. It was small, with only enough room for a 15-ft bar top facing the open kitchen and another facing the window. Some of the stools were missing their top and all of them were rusty and squeaky. The kitchen was not clean or neat: spices and implements were left out on counters. It wasn’t gross, but didn’t look like it was possible for a restaurant to be operating there. A very old asian lady greeted us and very slowly began to prepare herself to take our order. She spoke very quietly and in a strong accent. She was as painfully adorable. When asked for the spice level (1-10), Stacey said “8”. The old lady gave Stacey a look, clearly meant to indicate that she would regret that choice, but began preparing the meal without a verbal objection.

We went to Barrel House, a local bottle shop next door, to grab a beer while we waited. When I picked up the food, she pointed to Stacey’s dish and said, “Too spicy!” She was all too happy to voice her spicy objection after the meal had been made. She gave me chopsticks to try the food (which she pulled out of the non-functioning refrigerator in the kitchen). I tried it and I told her the spice was perfect (it was really hot, but it was accurately an 8/10). She gave me a clear glance of disappointment, ever so briefly. The adorable old asian lady quickly became among the highlights of our trip.

The beer shop next door was good and the folks were nice. I asked the workers their favorite part of Dayton and they both agreed it was the community – which did seem to be diverse, friendly, and tight-knit. We went to 2nd Street Market (a local food hall / market) and talked with many of the vendors (mostly food products). Folks were nice and very diverse, racially and culturally. 

Next event was the US Air Force Museum. It was AWESOME. Absolutely enormous hangers, holding enormous planes, rockets, missiles, drones, space ships, and satellites. We only got to really look at 1/3 of it (at most) in the 2 hours we spent there. My favorite parts were the presidential aircraft collection, drones, fighter planes, and anything space-related. 

We both wished that we had more time at the museum and in Dayton. We pledged to come back again, as there was still a long list of museums, breweries, and attractions that we hadn’t had the chance to discover.

All in all, we really enjoyed our time in Dayton. We’ll have to take my dad back here one day to give it a second chance.

We continued our journey west to the Ohio-Indianapolis state line, where we stayed at a cute cafe/winery/lodge with festive lights lining the parking area, through the woods and down the river, to the cafe itself. We tried all their local Ohio wines, which were similar in style to what you’d find at a winery in the Piedmont area of NC – a mix of what they consider dry/semi-dry and a variety of sweet, other fruit wines (Stacey’s refined assessment, not my more boneheaded analysis).

Once again, we managed to find a fun adventure in a part of the country we didn’t expect to find much at all — my favorite part about our (seemingly) haphazard travels.