Archive for the ‘Day Trips’ Category

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Vermilion: a place to hang out

Monday, August 9th, 2010

I’ve been having to travel to Vermilion a lot lately (family matter). To make the 1+ hour (one way) trip easier on the kids, the other day I took them to the Main Street Beach. It’s a small beach, but not crowded (no lifeguard, low waves and lots of algae in the water, or as all kids like to call it, “seaweed”). I took them back to the beach yesterday, but one day I’d like to really explore this “harbour town”. There’s a hoppin’ Quaker Steak and Lube right on the river, a boat (“Memphis Belle”)  for river tours, lots of benches to watch the passing boats, cute shops and a maritime museum. There’s also a park called Mill Hollow-Bacon Woods Memorial Park that I’d like to check out. So many places I want to explore, so little time …

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Mill Creek Park in Youngstown

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

Another place to add to my growing list of places to go back and spend more time: Youngstown’s 4,400-acre Mill Creek Park. My husband and I, driving back from Pittsburgh last Saturday, stopped here for a very short time, though enough time for some inline skating and pedal boating. There are three lakes, boat rentals, fishing, 14 hiking trails, waterfalls, a formal garden, playgrounds with spray pools, a golf course, a working farm – it goes on and on. What a magnificent state we live in!

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A tale of two beaches

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

East of Cleveland you have two options for “the beach” — Mentor Headlands and its next -door neighbor Fairport Harbor. Fairport Harbor is great for families with young kids. The waves are little, the water’s shallow, rocks are minimals, there are two playgrounds and you can park right next to the beach ($3 for out-of-county residents, $2 for Lake County residents). Mentor Headlands, as I recall though I haven’t been there in about 10 years, has bigger waves and is a bigger, longer beach, but you have to walk forever to get from the parking lot to the water, and you have to walk over a bunch of big rocks when you first enter the water before you get to a sandy bottom. In both cases, the water is clean and there are lifeguards and snack spots. Since we don’t live close to a coast, this way the kids can at least have a small taste of a beach, waves, and water you can’t see the end of. Best of all, there is no worries of jellyfish, sharks and hurricanes. Though if those awful Asian carp start showing up — eeek!!!

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Canal Fulton — worth a visit

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Canal Fulton is a bit off the beaten path, but a fun place to spend the day. Why?

1. The Towpath — nice, flat and mostly shady — perfect for biking. The canal’s on one side of you and the Tuscarawas River on the other.
2. The St. Helena Canal Boat, pulled by horses, which goes out everyday but Monday in the summer at 1 and 2:30 Two years ago our family went ($7 adults/$5 kids) and it was pretty interesting.
3. The Cherry Street Creamery (ice cream) and all kind of little shops, restaurants and such.
4. Canoeing and kayaking, through Canal Fulton Canoe Livery. They have pedal and paddle packages, bike rentals, etc.

Canal Fulton is definitely a place that has worked hard to develop its own identity, and done so successfully. Worth a visit if you haven’t been there.

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Kayak in Rocky River

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

Rocky River

Me on the left, near Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier in background

I have gone kayaking five times in my life so far. First time in Alaska was with a girlfriend: glacier behind us, bald eagles above us and harbor seals alongside us — how lucky was I!!! Second time was with my husband in Oregon: going out under less than desirable conditions but not knowing that. White caps and strong currents made us fear we were going to be swept out to the Pacific Ocean and never seen or heard from again. Third time with my husband in the beautiful and peaceful (no swimmers or motors allowed) Savage Reservoir in Western Maryland. We were on a group tour which included time to disembark for lunch in the woods and get caught in a HUGE thunderstorm. The fourth time was at Kelleys Island with my BFF two years ago. The guy who rented us the kayak was a bit, er, eccentric, but we had fun. Then came today …

Kayaking in the Rocky River Reservation from the marina to the tip of Lake Erie and back. My husband and I. Cloudless blue sky. Gazing at the fancy houses, big boats and fisherman. Perfect. And just $20 for the first hour, $5 for each 1/2 hour after that, for a tandem. BTW, a tandem is not only less expensive than two singles, but it’s a great test of  your relationship!!! (we passed). We didn’t make reservations (from 41 North) but got lucky so I would recommend them.

I’ll probably never make it to Alaska, or Oregon, or wherever again … so it’s great to know I can have a great kayaking adventure so close to home!!!

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Cleveland’s Terminal Tower observation deck to REOPEN!!!!!

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

For just eight days (Sat. and Sun. July 10-August 1) but WAHOOO!!!!! Click this article for details http://www.woio.com/Global/story.asp?S=12723886. It’s open just from 12-4 each of those days. I think whoever made this possible will be VERY surprised at the turnout. If at all possible our family WILL be there!!!!! (P.S. I first heard about this from my NPR-listening husband. I haven’t seen it publicized anywhere in Akron yet — do Clevelanders know?)

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Story time time

Monday, June 14th, 2010

I’m almost out of the toddler/preschool “story time” phase with my kids. Through the years we’ve tried them at four libraries, three book stores, two botanical gardens and one craft store. The story times have varied in quality, length, activities (story? craft? snack? singing?) and personality of the storyteller. But hey, they’re free, so it’s been worth experimenting at different places. Last month I took my youngest daughter to the storytime at the Cleveland Botanical Garden (we got in free as members of Stan Hywet). It was a glorious day, and story hour was held outside at the bottom of the big treehouse in the Children’s Garden. For 50 minutes the kids sang, listened to stories and then made a flower bouquet to give to someone special. If the gardens weren’t an hour away, I’d go every week!

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Two quick bike trail reviews

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Zanesville: Sunday morning my husband and I biked the city’s multi-purpose trail, which starts where the Lorena Sternwheeler is docked. I had read that the trail was 2.9 miles one way, but someone I asked in the parking lot thought it had been extended to Dresden, which she said was 8 or 9 miles away. Luckily for my legs, it did stop after 2.9 miles. The trail is relatively flat and pretty much runs along the river. The scenery wasn’t too exciting (the river was obstructed by trees and the only other things to see were the occasional ball fields) but the high point was the sweet smell of honeysuckle along the way. We left right after the ride, but Zanesville is a town that still has character and charm and has not been genericized. It’s definitely a potential day trip with the kids: picnic lunch, bike ride, boat ride.

Coshocton: From Zanesville we headed to Coshocton Lake Park (http://www.coshoctonlakepark.com/index.htm) to try their bike trails. We didn’t have a trail map and so just kind of rode around for 45 minutes, not sure where we were going, ending up biking for about 15 minutes in the bike lane on the state route. Coshocton Lake Park looks like a pretty fun place to go in the summer, though, with an aquatic center, canal boat rides, nature trails, etc. (though not cheap for a family of five: $29 for two adults and three kids for the aquatic center, and an additional $29 for the canal ride).

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“It’s like a zoo …

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

only more expensive and the animals are dead.” That’s what I told my husband as I miserably trudged through the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. The museum trip wasn’t my idea. When the birthday of someone in our family is approaching, he or she gets a “Birthday Fun Day”. Like it or not, we all have to go along with it. On Sunday we had my son’s. He is currently into coins, rocks, gems, gold and other treasure, so he wanted to go to a Museum of Natural History. I’m all about art museums and children’s museums and even sometimes science museums. But Natural History? Uh uh, no way. This is why I skipped the ones in Chicago and New York City. I‘d rather do just about anything, but hey, it was for my son’s birthday, so we decided to go to the one in Pittsburgh and make a day of it. It’s open Sunday from 12-5. We got there around 1 and didn’t leave until it closed. My son LOVED it and can’t wait to go back. My daughters seemed to enjoy it too. I, on the other hand, tried my best not to sulk. It was excruciating. The gems and minerals were pretty, but other than that, I couldn’t wait to leave. The cruel irony was that the Natural History Museum is connected to the Art Museum. So close, and yet so far away. (The worst part was we’re not members of Natural History museums, so we had to pay full price for this torture. Arghhhhhhhhhhh!)

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A $49 annual investment which keeps paying off

Thursday, April 15th, 2010
I don’t want to sound like an infomercial, but if you like to take day trips and have $50, you should consider buying a science center membership. Our family buys the $49 annual membership to the McKinley Museum in Canton. In the last year or so, we’ve gone to that museum a couple times, but by taking advantage of the reciprocity at science centers across the country, we’ve saved about $50-$60 each time we go to Destination Imagination in Toledo, the Boonshoft Museum in Dayton, the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum and COSI in Columbus (they only take half off, but still worth it), The kids love going to all these places, and even non-science people like me enjoy them.
 
 
 

 

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