Amish Country in Ohio

We were planning a nice little trip to Tennessee the other day.  Everything was ready to go....  we were all set, THEN we checked the weather reports.  It looked like the area we hoped to go to was going to get rain in buckets the whole time we would be there!

So.....  we had JUST been in the Amish areas of Ohio briefly about a month earlier... and we loved them all (Sugarcreek in particular).  We decided that a repeat trip, with more time to explore sounded great!  Tennessee was out, and Sugarcreek Ohio was in!

Again, we were just in this area, and I have already mentioned a lot of these parts but there were a few things I felt I should bring up from our second swing through the area.

We stopped at several bulk food type shops.  We had a lot of cheese, and hit some nice antique shops.  We visited several, and I can't remember the names of each one- But we really liked Heinis Cheese in Berlin.  You can watch the cheese being made, AND you can sample just about everything before you buy it!  We ate a lot and we bought a lot!

Another favorite was Walnut Creek Cheese, this place had a lot of cool items, and it reminded me a lot of Jungle Jims in Cincinnati!  Seriously, if you are a fan of Jungle Jim's you have to visit this place!

In Berlin Ohio, we found several great shops.  This area reminded me of Gatlinburg with a heavy Amish influence.  Think about that for a bit.  You REALLY wanna go now, don't ya?  I thought so!

We found a great small shop in this area called Catalpa Trading Company that sold reproduction tin signs, old toys, magic tricks, novelties, and various other collectibles.  I was personally excited to find some nice authentic Civil War bullets!  The guy running this store is a lot of fun too, as he has been doing magic for about half a century.  While we were in the shop, he performed several fun (yet always confusing) classics, telling jokes in between each trick.  He was putting on a great show!

We stayed at the local Carlisle Inn in Walnut Creek.  This place was great too, and spotless.  I saw staff cleaning almost constantly.  AND, they hooked us up with some nice coupons when we arrived!  This was a nice calm, place.  Very relaxing.  We had a 1st floor room facing the road.  We really enjoyed spending time out on the porch (each room had a large porch or balcony).

This is a great area for a three day weekend.  It is about an hour south of Akron and it was a reasonable 5 hour drive from Lexington, with the last hour or two of the drive being very scenic.


We have agreed that this area will be on our "we must visit there yearly" list.