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Christmas time at Oglebay

Posted on September 01, 2008 by: Tropigal

  • Welcome to Oglebay
  • ...let the shopping begin!
  • A SALE! I love the bargains!
  • These were our favorite dishes! We brought a few of them home!
  • Yummy!
  • At night these were all lit up.
  • Heading down to the dungeon...it's ok John, don't be scared.
  • ...behind that TV...really thin walls...
  • Glassworks Grill...shocking, our waitress was no where in sight.
  • Photo opp. out on our patio.
  • Beautiful sunset over Oglebay Lake
  • It kept getting better and better!
  • Time for the Festival of Lights!
  • This was the front of our hotel all lit up.
  • This was my trusty map!
  • Line of cars driving through the Festival of Lights.
  • Driving through the tunnel of lights.
  • We hit a few more shops before we called it a night.
  • Everything in here was glass...Wayne, don't touch ANYTHING!
  • John showed Wayne how to look, not touch...and break things.
  • These were really neat dishes.
  • This place was really neat! Every decorative ornament you could think of for a garden.
  • Mansion Museum, closed but still neat.
  • Old Glory in West Virginia.
  • Back to our hotel all decorated for Christmas.
  • SANTA!
  • John and Phoebe sitting in Santa's Throne. Merry Christmas!
  • Oh, how cute!
  • Food coma! It's exhausting eating all that great food!
  • The next morning...we're refreshed and ready to eat another buffet!
  • These were great rocking chairs! Think they'd fit in our suitcases?
  • This was where we had the great buffet last night.
  • Wayne snuck in this morning while no one was there, just to get these pix!
  • These were the buffet tables, filled with everything you could think of!
  • Here's where we sat, beautiful view huh?
  • Wayne also snuck into the Glassworks Grill to recapture the moments of bad service...and of course to take some pictures.
  • Great bar area!
  • Lit up glass sculptures hung from the walls.
  • Now were going to breakfast.
  • It really was an auditorium stocked brim full with the best breakfast buffet ever!
  • Check out the omelet chef! He was the greatest!
  • This was as close to a white Christmas as we got!
  • It's Christmas Time!
  • Merry Christmas!

Closest City: Wheeling
State: West Virginia
Country: United States

Christmas Time at Oglebay

During our Christmas vacation to Ohio in 2007, Wayne and I drove with his parents John and Phoebe (Backyard Buddies) from North Ridgeville, Ohio to Wheeling, West Virginia.  Our destination…Oglebay Resort.  His mom raved about their Winter Festival of Lights and his dad raved about the food at Ihlenfeld’s buffet from their previous stay.  The drive took about 3 hours, but because I slept most of the way, it felt like we got there in no time!  (I am the worst passenger!  I always fall asleep!) 

Still too early to check in, Phoebe and I decided to do what girls love to do…shop!  Our first stop was Oglebay’s Visitor Center and Gift Shop.  We of course bought the CUTEST things there!  Dishes, platters, Christmas goodies…everything you never knew you had to have!

When we pulled up, we were impressed by Ogelbay’s huge log cabin-like entry, it looked like it could have been taken straight out of Adirondack Park in Upper New York.  Large over sized rocking chairs sat out on the covered patio and everything was drenched with beautiful Christmas décor.  Check-in went smoothly, and then they handed us a map to help locate our room.  Hallway after hallway we walked, then we came to a dead-end where the stairs lead…down?  We thought we were already on the ground floor.  The “dungeon” as we nicked named it, housed only three rooms down in the depths of the hotel.  Our room was clean, with up-to-date décor, and had a large outdoor patio area with our own private entry (although there was no patio furniture).  The only flaw we found with our room, which we discovered in the wee hours of the morning, was the room’s ultra-thin walls and vocal neighbors!

As we walked around the Lodge, we learned it was situated on a sprawling 1,700 acre property, which included many amenities we didn’t even know about.  We came specifically for the light display, but other attractions at Oglebay included a par 3 golf course, miniature golf, swimming, fishing, trolley rides, ski and snowboard area, Good Zoo, pedal boating on the lake, tennis courts, a planetarium, lots of shopping, many restaurants, Mansion and Glass museums, environmental center and a conference center.

To hold us over until dinner, we stopped in at Oglebay’s Glassworks Grill for a quick snack.  However, “Springy” (our out-to-lunch waitress wearing a springy Santa hat) had other plans for us, as our service was long, drawn out and down right terrible.  So much for a quick stop.  After this painful experience we decide to walk around the lodge for a while, and made it just in time to see a beautiful sunset over the lake.  Ahhh!

Now that the sun had set, and the Christmas lights were sparkling, when hopped in our car and headed out on a self guided tour!  We chose to drive it, but you can reserve a seat on a guided tour at the check-in desk.  We knew we would be stopping frequently, so that just wouldn’t work for us.  With my nifty Winter Festival of Lights map in hand, I was the self-appointed tour guide and gave my companions a description of all light displays.  I’m sure they loved it for the first few, but I took my job seriously and read the details for each of the 73 attractions.  Phoebe was right, the lights were amazing!  Some of my favorite displays were the ones with a lot of moving parts like the acrobatic cheerleaders who leapt to the top of their pyramid, a farmer watering seedlings that grew into enormous sunflowers, and a fisherman catching a giant fish (this display was actually in the lake).  We drove, mesmerized for an hour to an hour and a half, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute!  After the tour…you guessed it, we shopped some more!       

We walked around the “Gardens of Light,” through decorated courtyards and shopped at stores such as the Carriage House Glass (which sold Tiffany Lamps, class ornaments and fancy vases), the Palm Room (had live flowers, decorative garden adornments and intricate wind chimes), and walked over to the Mansion Museum, but it was closed.  Now that we shopped up an appetite, it was off to the Buffet John had been raving about all day!

Oglebay’s Ihlenfeld Dining Room did put on a great buffet dinner.  The food was fresh, replenished often, and was delicious!  My favorite part was all the soups…I love soup!  Also, the staff at this restaurant was amazing.  Although it was a buffet, they were extremely helpful, and most of all super friendly! 

“Fat, dumb, and happy” (as my dad says) we moved to the hotel lounge area, where a piano player singing Christmas Carols was just finishing up for the night.  We took this opportunity to take over Santa’s throne chair and doze off by the Christmas tree.  ZZzzzz…food coma.  Time for bed, we went to our room for a peaceful night’s sleep…yeah right!  Remember I told you about those thin walls…at 3 AM!

Packing up our bags and ready to head to another buffet…there go the neighbors again!  It must have been their honeymoon at Oglebay!  Now off we went to the hotel’s Glessner Auditorium for a terrific buffet breakfast.  Again, the food was great and the staff incredibly pleasant!  The omelet chef was the best part; we couldn’t believe how enthusiastic he was about making those omelets!  (If you had one, you’d know why!)  After breakfast, the decorated stage area doubled as our family portrait studio.  Perfect for documenting our last moments at Oglebay.

December in West Virginia normally would have been completely blanked by snow, but this year’s mild winter (up until that point) allowed even the golfers to continue to play the course.  We drove past the golf course, designed by Arnold Palmer, (which I had not seen coming in because I was sleeping) and into Ohio.  Just across the state line, we saw signs for Hocking Hills State Park, where Wayne and his family have vacationed previously, and raved about their trip.  After about 30 minutes of driving, the yawns came on strong.  Next thing I knew, we were back at Wayne’s parents house, and Christmas Eve was just around the corner!

 

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Oglebay, resort, Christmas, lights, lake, buffet, West Virginia, snow, Arnold Palmer, Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio, driving, golf, shopping, museums, hotel, petal boating, zoo, guided tour, displays, attractions, map, sunset, restaurants, holidays,

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Member Comments:

  •  

    Kelsoluski Said...
    WOW!! What a gem of a place you guys found...all the fun stuff, shops, and buffets- you can't ask for more than that! And now I know where you got those pretty platters!

     

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