A Little Piece of Akron in Cali

So, finally, I have gotten through the pictures.  I still haven't gone through what I posted recently to check myself for typos and bad grammar, but I'm sure someone will let me know.  LOL

There were so many photos that I took that it made it difficult to pick out the best ones to post to represent Ken's awesome hometown as well as his family and friends.  I thought it would be cool to post some random pics that were taken in Akron, NY and throughout upstate New York.  


First, here are pictures from the Akron Falls Park. This is a county park with its own waterfall.  The falls were much different from last year's trip given that we were there when it was still actively raining this year.  So, here is a picture from last year:

Now, here's what the Falls looked like last week:

And here's my Love in front of the Akron Falls

OK, this is just a cool shot of the Falls!

What a difference a few months make.  Again, I got to see the entire gamut of weather in Buffalo: heat, rain, thunderstorms, and snow.  But the rain never stopped while we were there, so it was amazing to see the Falls with all of the water.


Ken's favorite part of Park is this merry-go-round thing that he enjoyed as a child.  I have a great series of pictures of Ken riding this thing and smiling like a little kid and I wish there was a way to upload a video to Blogger just so you can get a great laugh the way I did.

Ken rode that thing for a while and was very dizzy when he tried solid ground again!

The best part of Akron, per Ken and agreed on by me, is that you can walk around at night with no worries.  Crime is low - based on the ONE police car and only ONE full-time cop in the area AKA Bob Cop.  I missed an opportunity to take a picture with THE cop in Akron, and I also missed taking a picture with the local judge.  I got to meet Judge Freeman while Ken and I were perusing his former gun shop on Main Street.  He was a funny guy with a wicked sense of humor.  You know the type - old guy who can say whatever he wants!  Awesome!  He remembered my Love, "Little Kenny Koehler."  Remember, I'm not allowed to call him Kenny, but that's how most people remember him.  HeeHee!

So I love walking through the main square in Akron and feeling like I found "Mayberry."  There's a gazebo in the center where they hold concerts in the park, there's a play area, a couple of tributes to the military and the post office is right next door.

Once again, I could NOT get over how green everything was.  Grass was everywhere, trees were everywhere and there are flowers everywhere!

I love the close-up of this one.  Very pretty!

Here's one of the tributes to Military - all of the little lollipop things are for each war beginning with the Revolutionary War!  You can see the gazebo in the back.

Here's one of the markers - of course I chose to include this one for my Ken!

So here's another picture from the outskirts of the Akron Park.  Most of Akron and upstate New York have this much green stuff.  I believe these are called trees and grass.  I have heard about these, but not in such amounts being from Southern California and more recently, the desert.  Ugh!  It was very hard to come home to the dirt after being around all of this lush forest for so long.

Here is John Street.  It is parallel to Main Street on the east side of the main square.  Now, here is my favorite part of Akron:  

Yes, that's right....Main Street Dead Ends!  For someone who grew up in a major suburb of Los Angeles, this is something I could never fathom!  How does "Main Street" dead-end??  I don't know, but check out the greenery that begins.  Pure Awesome!

I have made it my goal to take more pictures of "downtown" Akron on my next trip there to show more of how Kenny grew up.  I haven't even begun to get the shots of the outlying areas of the farms.  

So, now we are trying to adjust to being back in So Cal.  The lack of greenery is rather depressing, but I have to admit that I love being back in my own bed.  Ken misses his friends and family, and I know that Mike is already working on a to-do list of improvements to make on his house to find excuses to get Ken back to New York here and there.  Distance and time are dividers in life, but if we stay connected through technology, neither seems to detract from the love and friendships that we all have.