Sights and Sounds of Toledo

On July 8th we experienced our first Ohio thunderstorm. (I know it has been a while since then, but I forgot I had gotten this video). People had warned us about how abruptly the rain will just start pouring..... but you never quite grasp the extent of it until you witness it yourself. We were out searching for a job for me and heard a severe thunderstorm warning issued on the radio. As we pulled into the parking lot at one location, the sky looked gray but, no rain yet. After being in the store for a few minutes, I looked out the windows and noticed that it was pouring sheets and sheets of rain. And the wind was blowing the rain nearly sideways at times. It was crazy.... I guess at one point the warning had turned into a tornado warning. We never actually heard that, but we watched in amazement from the shelter of Bed Bath and Beyond. You don't quite grasp the intensity of the scene from this video..... but, here is a glimpse none-the-less. Keep in mind this was in the late afternoon, not in the evening...

One of my favorite sights in Toledo are the fireflies!!! Oh my gosh, I have been excited about these from the moment I heard we were moving here! I have always LOVED fireflies. But, I haven't really been around them since I was about 8. I always dreamed of the day I would have them in my surroundings once again. It is so awesome to be walking through a bunch of trees and see all these little glowing lights flickering on and off and flying around. It seriously makes me feel like I am in Neverland and in a forest surrounded by fairies....... I think they really are fairies..... but everyone tells me they are just bugs.

Speaking of bugs.... as you watch that video I am sure you noticed that loud sound. That is the sound of bugs up in the trees. And boy are they loud!!!! We can hear them from inside our house. I think they are insects called cicadas.

To be honest, I've never actually SEEN the bug making the sound..... but I know they are up there!

Here is some more footage I tried to get of the fireflies. You can't see them too well on the video, but you can hear some birds. The birds are another neat sound out here. There are some awesome sounding birds. I'll have to capture some more of their unique songs some time.

Another incredible sight we saw this week was the amazing Toledo monkeys!!! Okay, so that was at the zoo, but still... those were some awesome monkeys!

Turns out Monday mornings you can get into the zoo for free if you are a resident of Lucas county (which we are). And we happen to live about a mile from the zoo. So, on Monday, we decided to head to the zoo! It was nice because we didn't feel like we HAD to stay the whole day and see everything because we got in free and we can come back any other Monday to see the rest. So, we met our new friends the Sacks there (hope you don't mind if we call you our friends... we like to think we have friends already......makes us feel better....). They have a cute little boy named Cohen. It is always more fun to go places like that with a little kid. So, thanks Justin and Julie for letting us enjoy the day with you guys and Cohen since we don't have a kid of our own!

(Oh, and I stole this picture off your blog Julie... hope you don't mind.....)

Okay, one more sight that has been glorious to behold in the past couple days......

I just don't know how I'd live without one of those out here in Toledo!.....no.... not Steve.... it's in the background........an air conditioner! Oh yeah, and Steve too : ) Thanks for installing the air conditioner in the window, Steve! I'm glad I have you in Toledo, too!