The Best of the USA Mansfield Ohio #BestoftheUSA

Welcome to the Best of the USA Blog Hop where I invite you to join me on the first Monday of each month to share all of the fun, family friendly, educational, beautiful, and just plain super cool destinations around the United States that you’ve visited!

You can share an entire post or simply a favorite photo of an amazing attraction, location or lodging option.  If you’ve been somewhere that you’ve loved in the USA, I want to hear about it! I’m always on the lookout for new places to visit!

My Choice for the Best of the USA Blog Hop in March

This month I’d like to share a location very near and dear to my heart, my hometown, Mansfield, Ohio and if you read all the way to the bottom, you’ll learn why this year is the PERFECT time to plan a visit with your family.

I have to admit, it took me traveling away from my hometown to realize that it really was something special.

When my family began traveling with my husbands’ job, pre-blog days, we often found ourselves in small towns. I would seek out everything we could do in the area and was amazed by the attractions we saw and the people we met. It was moments like that when I realized that travelers’ to Mansfield would be fascinated by the things my family takes for granted. When we moved back to Ohio, I vowed to make an effort to get to know my hometown better.

Over the course of the next week, I’ll be sharing some of my tips on how to explore your hometown like a tourist. I even have a guest post from my friend Debbie in Clinton County, Ohio who will share why it’s important for you to explore your hometown and how your local CVB can help.

Today, I’m going to share some of my favorite attractions in Mansfield.

When my kids’ were little, my husband and I enjoyed taking them downtown to visit the Richland County Carrousel. My daughter actually still loves to ride the carrousel (no, that’s not a typo, that’s how we spell carrousel around here).

Now that the kids are older, my husband and I often find ourselves exploring on our own. It seems like nearly every time we find ourselves “on a date”, we visit Carrousel Antiques.

Sometimes we’ll take the kids along and they always find things they like too. My daughter has a thing for vintage jewelry and we found her a beautiful mother-of-pearl ring for Christmas.

When we owned our first home, I bought our kitchen wallpaper at the Wallpaper Outlet across the street from the antique store. If you’re looking for wallpaper, they have hundreds of patterns to choose from.

Relax It’s Just Coffee, is a great place for people of all ages to hang out, and my teens are fans of Two Cousins Pizza.  My husband and I are partial to the retro style décor in Mansfield’s oldest restaurant, Coney Island Diner.

If you like museums, you can check out the Mansfield Fire Museum, Mansfield Memorial Museum, Biblewalk  and the Little Buckeye Museum.

Historic Home tours are available at Oak Hill Cottage, Kingwood Center and the Big House at Malabar Farm State Park.

If you appreciate nature and outdoorsy attractions, Kingwood Center is another great option, as are Gorman Nature Center,  the Ohio Bird Sanctuary and Malabar Farm State Park  and nearby Mohican State Park, both a short drive away.

Of course, no visit to Mansfield is complete without a visit to what I consider one of our most iconic treasured attractions, the Historic Ohio State Reformatory.  Remember when I mentioned that this year is a great time to plan a visit? Mansfield was the location for many scenes from the Shawshank Redemption and the prison was the focal point for that movie. This year, marks the 20^th anniversary of the Shawshank Redemption and Mansfield is celebrating in a big way with many special events. If you’re a fan of the movie, you may want to follow along on the developments,  and of course, plan a visit to my hometown.

And if you’re looking for more ideas, you may find my Mansfield Ohio Staycation Ideas helpful. I list many of the locations above and some extra ones.

Join Me, Help Me Spread the Word About Best of the USA and Let’s Discover Some Amazing Places to Visit

Now it’s your turn to share what you think is the Best of the USA. Join me by sharing your favorite destination, attraction, hotel, restaurant, beach, etc. in the US.

Simply link up below and don’t forget to leave a comment and visit some of the other great submissions.

If you’d like to help spread the word about the Best of the USA blog hop, you can do that on Twitter with the hashtag #BestoftheUSA. It’s my goal to visit each post and to share them on both Twitter and Facebook.

Is this your first time joining the blog hop? You can visit my Best of the USA Pinterest board to see the past entries.