My husband and I celebrated five years of marriage on August 29! (Psst, read all about our wedding here!) It seems like so long ago, but also feels like it was just yesterday. I miss that beautiful, bright, HOT summer day. Dancing with our friends and family and sipping champagne. I can picture our wedding day so vividly sometimes!

To celebrate our day, we always try to do something pretty epic for our anniversary:

• Year 1 – we celebrated in Italy. 
• Year 2 – we splurged on a nice room at The Lodge at Geneva.
• Year 3 – we had just gotten back from an 11-day trip to Europe, so the night of our actual anniversary we went out for an amazing steak dinner.
• Year 4 – We road tripped to New England and hit up New York state, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. (On the day of our actual anniversary we climbed a legit mountain!)

So with year five quickly approaching, we began to make plans. We originally talked about Utah, but as coronavirus took over, we thought another road trip down the eastern coast was in store for us. Fast forward and we made the decision to stay in Ohio since we weren’t sure about the regulations and rules around COVID.

So Ohio it would be!

We are big campers, mainly tent camping, but we love a good cabin too. We also love wine. So we decided to combine these two activities!

We opted for cabins this trip because we wanted to look presentable. (When we road tripped to New England last year we camped the majority of the time, which was amazing, but we definitely LOOKED like we had been tent camping for five days straight, LOL.)

Night 1 | Mohican Tree House Cabin

I’ve had my eye on a tree house cabin in this area for a while now. Granted, they’re PRICEY, but they’re also amazing. They also tend to fill up very quickly and almost every weekend is booked months (maybe even a year) in advance. I opted to put us there on a Thursday night leading into a long weekend. It was also slightly less expensive and offered more availability.

There are six or seven tree house cabins on the property along with a couple cabins. I picked one of the cheaper tree house cabins and hoped for the best.

Luckily, I picked right!

We laughed because our tree house was called “Little Brew Haus” and it was pretty ironic because my husband and I actually met at a bar called Brew House back in 2011. (I didn’t even know the name of the tree house, so it was even funnier once we got there and saw it.)

We were easily the most secluded site on the property, which we preferred. The cabin was clean and included a lofted queen size bed, couch, TV, kitchen with mini fridge, two burners, coffee maker and place settings. It also had a large rope bridge and wrap around deck with outdoor seating (where we spent all of our time).

The cabin had an outdoor shower for warm weather, which we were able to use since it was late August. I was a little nervous to shower outside, but we laughed that it was weirdly invigorating to be surrounded by woods while you’re showering.

We made tacos and had margaritas out on the deck and danced and listened to music for hours. The cabin was wrapped in hundreds of LED Christmas lights, which made for a pretty magical atmosphere, especially because we were among the canopy of the trees and there wasn’t a soul in sight.

The tree house also had an adorable swing underneath it and room for a campfire, although we didn’t make one because they didn’t provide the firewood and we didn’t want to haul it from home.

I wanted to see a couple of the other tree house sites so we walked around a little after dinner. (We may or may not have enjoyed an adult beverage as we walked.)

The other tree houses were amazing to see. Some could fit six or more people and were much larger and more impressive in terms of size and design. I would have loved to explore every single one! 

Night 2 | Log Cabin Near Gervasi Winery  

We had to be out of the tree house by 11 a.m. the next morning, so we woke up early for a quick work out and run around the property. We made breakfast and drank coffee among the tress and then packed it all up and headed out.

We drove to Pleasant Hill Marina (about 20 minutes from the tree house cabin) and rented paddleboards for a couple of hours. The lake was beautiful and calm and we had a blast just floating around, waving at all of the boats around us. We drove around the park and saw a few really nice cabins, which we promptly added to our 2021 trip list!

After paddle boarding we drove to the Hartville Flea Market, which was a bit disappointing. By the time we got there it was pouring, which was OK by us since we didn’t have any outdoor plans. Shortly after we headed to our log cabin where we’d be staying the next two nights.

A few minutes after we arrived our host met us and gave us a run-down of the place, which was very nice, but kind of unnecessary. We’ve used AirBNB quite a bit and I’ve never had a host physically meet us and walk us around. (He even explained the light switches to us, which I found slightly annoying, but he was very, very nice…but still, it was kinda like, uhh COVID?)  

By this time it was Friday night and very dark and rainy out – but all was good in our world! We cranked up the music, poured some wine and started to make homemade pizza from scratch, including the sauce! We made a flatbread and a deep dish pizza in a cast iron skillet. We topped the pizzas with homegrown veggies and enjoyed it while the rain sloshed against the windows and roof. It was a perfect evening.

Night 3 | Log Cabin Near Gervasi Winery (Again)

Another early morning workout for me on Saturday, which was the day of our actual anniversary. We drank coffee and ate breakfast out in the backyard and exchanged presents. Every year we try to follow the anniversary gift rules, you know: first anniversary paper, third anniversary leather…

For five years, the theme was “wood.” We laughed as we exchanged gifts. Me gifting him a wooden wall bottle opener with our last name and he gave me a wooden charcuterie board transcribed with a message and the date. It was…perfect. *Cue eye rolling, I know*

We were really excited for this day because not only was it our actual anniversary, but we had a tour and dinner scheduled at a popular local winery, Gervasi. Our cabin was 2 miles from the winery, so a quick, $7 Uber got us there easily. 

We ended up being the only people in our tour, so it lasted longer than usual, probably because we made friends with the gal and spent a good chunk of time chitchatting. After the tour, we walked around a bit more and stopped at two other places on the property to get appetizers and more drinks.

Our dinner reservation was at 6:15 p.m. at The Bistro, so we played bocce ball (that game is very easy and weirdly fun!) for a little while. We made friends with people around us and laughed, drank wine and took pictures. There was also a wedding happening and we tried to get as close as we could to tell them they had picked a GREAT wedding date 🙂

When it was finally time for our reservation I was a bit nervous. We had not eaten indoors at a restaurant since March. It took a little bit to forget that our waitress had on a face mask, but we didn’t. (Hello, guilt.)

BUT…the Bistro at Gervasi was outstanding! The reviews lived up to everything people said. 

Overall it was an amazing long weekend, which was needed in this crazy world right now. As usual, we crammed lots of activities in during a short amount of time. We always joke that we are great travelers because we think of everything (for the most part) and are very efficient in how we travel.  (We’re notoriously fast museum visitors, FYI.)  

We’re already missing our cabins and hoping for better news and a better state of the world for next year on our sixth wedding anniversary trip! (P.S. the gift theme for six is candy or iron!)