Meeting Butler County, Ohio

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  I was invited to spend a long weekend in Butler County, Ohio, just after they became Wheel The World certified for accessibility. The tourism board wanted me to write about how wheelchair accessible the region is. I hadn’t been there before, and it sounded like an interesting area, so I made plans to go. My trip to Butler County turned out to be one of my most unusual adventures, with new experiences, and a lot of donuts!   I brought Teddy and my friend, Heather, along for the ride, about three and a half hours from home. We had a nice welcome basket waiting for us at the hotel. Our home base was the Marriott Cincinnati North in Westerville. I was happy at the start with a flat entrance and automatic doors. They didn’t have any accessible rooms, so we had two connecting rooms. Teddy loved going back and forth between the two rooms. Mine had plenty of space for me to wheel around, a well-equipped desk area I could reach, and a large bathroom with a shower chair. The hand...
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Tennis, Glimpsing at Sites and French Food

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The day started at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand with their huge breakfast buffet. I was definitely impressed, as it included every fruit imaginable, as well as made to order omelets, meat, croissants, Danishes, yogurt, cereals, crepes and even sushi.

I had a crepe filled with raspberries and covered in chocolate sauce, along with some fresh fruit, yogurt and a croissant.

It was an unusually cold and rainy day so the morning matches were cancelled and I did some work while waiting for the Longines group to leave for lunch.

We ate at Restaurant Chez Julien, where the table centerpieces were filled with white roses. The pea soup tasted as good as it looked. I had a glass of Domaine de Pellehaut Sauvignon Blanc with my steak and fries.

After lunch we took the long (because of traffic, not distance) bus ride to the Longines Future Tennis Aces facility to watch the boys’ 12 and under matches. The players were from all over the world and had to qualify to get into this prestigious event.

My concentration was on Adam Neff, the U.S. participant. He had unfortunately been matched with one of the strongest players in the tournament and Rudolph Moellker of Germany would prevail in the match.

I will never tire of driving down Champs-Elysées with the view of the Arc de Triomphe. Even though I didn’t have much time to shop or sightsee on this trip, I was still in awe as we passed the sites by bus.

The tournament had run late so we went straight to dinner. It was a rather interesting French-Italian restaurant.

We started with a large portion of Burrata surrounded by a selection of yellow, green and red tomatoes. It was fresh and delicious.

The main course was Veal Saltambuca with rotini in a marinara sauce. I definitely enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite as incredible as the chocolate dessert, filled with deep dark chocolate. I don’t think there was a spot left on anyone’s plate.

We were back at the hotel about 11:00 pm after a very long day. There was still more tennis – and Paris to come. I quickly drifted off to sleep after one last look at the Opera House outside my window.


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