May 29-31, 2012 – Lake Erie, OH




Tuesday morning Rex gave Cody and Camille baths and haircuts while Nancy helped Rex’s mom clean up her house.  We had a really nice visit with Rex’s mom and his aunts, uncles and cousins; but it is time to move on.  After lunch we headed north toward Lake Erie.

 



We stayed at Tall Timbers Campground near Port Clinton, OH – a nice campground with lots of grass and a small lake.


  





Lake Erie is the twelfth largest freshwater lake in the world and the shallowest of the five Great Lakes.  It is about 210 miles long and 57 miles wide with approximately 871 miles of shoreline.  It has a maximum depth of 210 feet.  We visited Marblehead Lighthouse State Park and toured Marblehead Lighthouse.    




  

Marblehead Lighthouse was built in 1819 from native limestone on the tip of Marblehead Peninsula. The tower was 50 ft tall with another 15 feet added around 1900.  The base of the tower is 25 ft in diameter, with walls five feet thick.  It narrows to twelve feet at the top with two feet thick walls.  The Park Ranger told us that the base was built so thick because some times in the winter as much as 13 feet of ice is shoved up against the lighthouse.


 








We were able to go inside the tower and climb to the catwalk just below the light.  The views were great from that high up.  This Lighthouse Keepers house sat next to the lighthouse and is now a museum.  The museum had really nice displays about the lighthouse, the area and the lake.  They had a restored life saving boat and have plans to restore a Lifesaving Station.


 


On Thursday, we took the ferry “Jet Express II” to the town of Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island. 


  




We spent the day touring around the island.  We toured the Doller House and Winery, a mansion built in 1867 by Valentine Doller who was an entrepreneur, postmaster and the mayor of Put-in-Bay.  The mansion was beautiful and they still had some of the original furniture.  We also bought a couple of bottles of wine – a great blackberry wine and a yummy chocolate wine.


 

In the winter when the lake is frozen over the only way to get to the mainland is by airplane or by an airboat.  This airboat is designed to go over snow, ice or water.


  




We also visited Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, the only international peace memorial in the National Park System.  The memorial commemorates the lasting peace between nations once at war: the United States, Great Britain, and Canada. It also honors all who fought and died in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.  During the Battle of Lake Erie, Master Commander Oliver Hazard Perry defeated British naval forces on Lake Erie in one of the most important military victories in US history.  


 


The scenery along the shoreline is beautiful.




 





Someone converted the bow of a freighter into a vacation retreat.  We would have loved to see the inside of this house.  It looks like it would be fun to live here.


 We enjoyed our visit to South Bass Island and this part of Lake Erie.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

June 4-11, Loveland, CO

Image
Sunday morning, we drove to Loveland, CO – again it rained the entire trip.   We are staying at Loveland RV Park.   This is the park we stayed at for 6 weeks between our house selling and our retirement starting. Monday morning, we attended the services at Fort Logan National Cemetery for Nancy’s parents.   Nancy’s mother passed away 5 years ago and her father passed away in January.   There wishes were to have their ashes interred at Fort Logan National Cemetery.      Waiting for the ceremony to start.                                                            Folding the flag Taps (see video below, make sure audio is on) and a 21-gun salute.                       Deacon Mike giving the final blessing. It was a beautiful ceremony in a very peaceful and restful setting.  We were fortunate that we had nice weather and it did not rain.  After the ceremony, we visited the grave of our good friend, Bob, who was buried here last year. We spent some time with Nancy’s son, daughter-in
Read more

September 25-27, 2023 – Canyon, TX

Image
  Monday, we drove into Canyon and went to the Chamber of Commerce where we got information on the area.   In the afternoon we to the Creek House Honey Farm where we couldn’t resist buying some chocolate honey.   We then went next door to the Honey Buzz Winery and had a delicious fruit and cheese tray while tasting their great mead and hard cider.   We bought some growlers of their excellent cherry mead and pear cider. Tuesday morning, we drove to Palo Duro Canyon State Park.  Palo Duro Canyon is approximately 120 miles long and 600 to 800 feet deep.  It is the second largest canyon in the US.  The State Park consists of 27,173 acres and the original park land was deeded by private owners in 1933.  The CCC worked in the park from 1933 to 1937 building the roads, visitor center, cabins, shelters, bridges, trails and the park headquarters. We took a short hike on the Paseo Del Rio trail along the Dog Town Fork of the Red River.  The trail guide said we would come upon a cowboy dugout to
Read more

September 5-11, 2013 – Copalis Beach, WA

Image
It must be moving day again as it is raining – seems like the last few weeks it has rained every time we move.   We left Port Angeles and headed west on Highway 101 and then turned south and followed the west side of Olympic National Park.   The highway then turns west to the coast where we stopped at Ruby Beach.   We donned our rain gear and walked down to yet another beautiful Washington beach. People had stacked little rock cairns on a sand dune in front of these great rock stacks. We could barely see Destruction Island Lighthouse through the fog. After spending a little time on Ruby Beach we headed back down Highway 101 to Copalis Beach where we are staying at the Copalis Beach Sunrise Resort.   This is a very nice resort next to the beach. We only have to walk to the end of the resort then about a block through some dunes to the beach.   This is a great beach and is almost deserted this time of year.    The dogs love t
Read more