Wapakoneta, OH sight seeing

There were lots of sights to see in the area.  Sunday we went to see 2 castles built by brothers in the 1800's, Bruckner Nature Park then on to a snow ski area.  What a day!
While we were eating breakfast this beautiful Robin red breast landed on the tree.  Tic was able to get a good picture.

This is the front view of the Mac-A-Cheek castle.  This family was extremely entrepreneurial.  They started with farming.  Then went on to develop other farm related industries using water power.  By 1850 they had a grist mill, saw mill & distillery.

Here is a side view of Mac-A-Cheek.  Yes that is a dog house!

 Mac-A-Cheek back side.

Here is a peek inside.  The side door was open.  We would not pay $11 each to see the inside.  Looks pretty elegant for the early 1800's.

 This appears to be closed off access to a cellar.

Here's one of the many signs outside.  This one describes their entrepreneurial life-style.

Just around the corner is the brother's castle.  He named it Mac-O-Chee.  We never figured out why the names.

Tic and I thought this house, Mac-O-Chee, looks more like a castle than the other one. 
 

This is the back of Mac-O-Chee.  Most was added on and is made of wood.  They had a horse stable and large dog kennel.

Here is a sign talking about the continual additions to the house and a house that was built close by.

After the castles, we drove to Brukner Nature Center. They had a facility that cared for injured animals.  Also the visitor center talked about the area and local animals. There were lots of trails. Here is a walking bridge on the first trail we took.

Look closely, you can see thru the trunk of the tree.  The top of the tree was perfectly healthy.  God is so awesome.

Here is another trail we followed.  It was a beautiful day and beautiful hike.

Is this cheating that they made a stairway on the steep grade?

Besides a squirrel, this is the only "wildlife" we saw.

Tic took so many pictures that he could not keep up with me.

This huge gnarl in the middle of the tree was really different.

Due to large rains, the swamp trail was flooded out.

This old log house was at the end of one of the trails that started/ended at the visitor center.
Below is the house referred to in the sign. 

After our hike we decided to go see a ski area that was on the way back to the campground.

First we came upon the tubing park.  See the picture of the hill below .

Are you impressed with this tubing hill?

Every day is a snow day because they have snow making machines every few feet.

This is the "challenging" ski hill.  This is very close to the highest point in Ohio.
After this, we went home.  Monday we toured the Air Stream Factory, but were not allowed to take any pictures. It was interesting, but made me appreciate our mobile condo even more.