A few weeks ago my pal Ashley and I went for a road trip for the first time since March. It was a bit nerve wracking at first but once we hit the road it felt soooo good to get a change of scenery. We rented a little air bnb in Urbana, Ohio about 20 minutes from the flea market we were heading to Ohio for. It was in an adorable little downtown area that was the perfect place to crash after a long day of shopping.
The air bnb was within walking distance to several restaurants and shops in downtown.We got into town a little later (around 8pm) and many of the restaurants took their last seating shortly before we arrived. We hit up the small grocery store around the corner and stocked up on snacks and junk food for dinner instead. The remaining two nights we ate at Cafe Paradiso strictly for the potato chips covered in Alfredo and gorgonzola cheese. It sounds crazy but their sauce is made in house and it was fantastic over the salty chips. Normally I don’t go to the same place twice on vacation but this was right up the street from our Air bnb and when we got back from shopping for 12+ hours it just sounded really really good. I mean who doesn’t like bread and Alfredo?
Some other fun places in town were the candy store (owned by the same people who own the cafe) as well as let’s eat cake (amazing cookies and cupcakes).
There are about 6 different antique stores in town all very primitive and I honestly didn’t find a ton at them but I was also shopping a flea market at the same time. My favorite one and in my opinion the best styled store was The Boston Antiques. It was great, high quality primitives in an incredible old building.
We shopped the Springfield Flea Market for all of Friday and Saturday and about 4pm on Saturday we needed a change of scenery so we drove the 45 minutes south of Urbana to the Easton Town Center shopping plaza. It has all of the good stuff from Louis Vuitton to Anthropolgie. Due to Covid hours they were only open until 7pm but it was probably for the best. Our wallets hurt as much as our feet.
Sunday morning it was time to head home but not before we caught wind that 1 hour south there was another flea market going on in Burlington, Kentucky. We headed out in the morning darkness to Kentucky because, why not? It was a much smaller market than Springfield but we still managed to fill our wagon and pack everything into the remaining crevices of our truck.
Here is a breakdown of the schedule we followed:
Thursday night: Arrive to Airbnb 8pm. Settle in get snacks. Watch TV, fall asleep.
Friday: Bright and early head to Springfield Antique Fair. Shop from 7am – 4pm. Clean up, walk around town and check out shops. Grab dinner at Cafe Paradiso call it a night.
Saturday: Head back to antique fair bright and early. Shop until 1pm. Head to downtown stores and then drive to Easton Shopping center. Get back into Urbana around 8pm to have dinner again at Cafe Paradiso.
Sunday: Leave Airbnb at 6am to get to Burlington, Kentucky at 8pm. Shop until 11am. Arrive back to Grand Rapids, Michigan by 5pm.
It was a fun whirlwind weekend and I can’t wait to do it again next year!
See more of my travel guides here.
Check out some of my favorite finds from Springfield below!
