On the road again….

Two weekends ago, Scope, Wednesday, and I loaded up our car with as much as it could hold and we hit the road for Ohio.  You recall how much we enjoy summer road trips, right?….  Like last August when we drove from Seattle to Chicago in four and a half days with our pet frogs belted in the back seat. Remember that?…. Total splendiferousness with THIS FREAKIN’ ROCKS!!!! sauce is what it was. (Need a refresher? Click HERE.)


Scope’s family had been planning a big eight day family vacation in a rental house on Lake Erie for nearly a year now. Ten of us were able to make it and we had an amazing time.


Here’s what it all looked like….


DAY #1:

We crammed ourselves and all our crap into our PT Cruiser like clowns in a circus car and headed out of the city. The typical sloth-like and headachy Chicago traffic was surprisingly light and delightfully non-existent—*insert the sound of angels singing “laaaaaaaaaaaaa”*—so, we made great time.




Aerosmith serenaded us on the stereo as we started out. I tried to convince Wednesday that the roly poly dude on the back of the CD was Steven Tyler in his earlier years.




And she SO wished that were true!


*snicker*


But anyway….


Soon we were zooming through Indiana.




We made a quick stop at the University of Notre Dame.




Wednesday and I had never been there before, so the three of us walked around for awhile checking the campus out.




(Awwwww, I know. Aren’t Scope and Wednesday CUTE?!?!)  :-)


We saw Touchdown Jesus….




….and a gorgeous war memorial fountain….




….and a pair of cutsie hugging statues….




….and this funny and fearless little fella.




After leaving Notre Dame, we made a two second hop over the border into Michigan so Wednesday and I could pick up another state. We opened our car doors, poked our toes out, touched the ground, and then—*whoosh!*—we were back on our way.         




Not too long after that, we crossed into Ohio.




In Ohio, we saw Batman running his Bat-errands with his Bat-kids in his Bat-SUV.




(Who knew, right?!)


And then about six hours after we began our journey, we arrived in Erie County.




We stayed with my in-laws in the “Buster Brown Shoe House” in Huron.




The Buster Brown Shoe House is this cute three story house just a hop, skip and a cartwheel away from the lake. All the way there I had been wondering why it’s called the Buster Brown house—????—but once we walked in, it clicked. Inside the house, the walls are covered with framed old retro Buster Brown ads, which was kind of cool.




There was plenty of room for all ten of us…. well, most of the time anyway. Unless we were all in the kitchen at once, in which case it was pretty much a claustrophobic fright fest. (Yeesh.) But otherwise, it was perfect. There was even enough room for Wednesday to have a big bedroom all to herself, and she was thrilled.


But even more thrilling?….


All the shy wee itty bitty baby ducks that kept walking through our garden!




*Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!*


After looking around the house, we went out to the lake in the backyard.




The lake was absolutely stunning. I couldn’t believe it—we even had a gorgeous view of Cedar Point Amusement Park! (You might want to click this pic to enlarge it to get the better view.)





DAY #2:


Our second day in Ohio started with Wednesday and Scope getting their ping pong on in one of the sunrooms.




After all the ping pong-ing, the three of us broke off from the rest of the group for a couple of hours. It was important to everyone to make sure that everybody got to do the things they most wanted to do during our stay, and the thing that Wednesday most wanted to do was visit Ghostly Manor Thrill Center, a year-round haunted house which was voted one of the scariest in the country. No-one else was in a get-your-pants-frightened-off kind of mood, so off we ventured as a trio looking f-f-f-for t-t-t-terror.


This is what Ghostly Manor looked like on the outside when we arrived.




The dragon outside the building was spectacular! We spent a lot of time squealing, jumping around, and taking a zillion pictures of the dragon before actually setting foot inside the manor.








We missed getting a picture of the dragon spewing steam out of his nose though, unfortunately—*sniff*—so I borrowed one from Google for you.




(You’re welcome.)


A talking skeleton inside Ghostly Manor told me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures in there, so all I have to show you is this shot of a massive, creepy, black-lit eye from the lobby. CreeEEeeEEeepy.




Our run through the haunted house was sheer bad*ss awesomeness! Like A LOT!! There was blood, gore, demons, monsters, horrors leaping out of the shadows, vibrating floors, flashing lights, a maze of grody body bags, and—most surprising of all—inflating walls which rapidly pressed in on us from all sides at once and tried to crush us as we ran screaming through the hallways.


Wow.


Just WOW.


I loved it. LOVED!!!! IT!!!! It was phenomenal and, hands down, the best haunted house I have ever been in. I just couldn’t stop laughing our entire way through. Laughing, screaming, and running through the dark—what bliss! I felt utterly exhilarated at the end of it. It was so much fun!


Or at least I thought so.


As for my darling Wednesday? Well…. the haunted house turned out to be a bit too intense for the poor girl, who had been hoping to see something more along the lines of the cutsie Haunted Mansion in Disneyland, not something straight out of a horror film. She’s still glad she saw it, but she has no plans to set foot in Ghostly Manor again.


Ever.


She still loved the dragon though and was perfectly happy to pose with Scope for a mock screaming picture as we left the manor.




(Hee hee hee.)


Once we got back to the rental house, Wednesday and I went looking around the place at all the knickknacks on display. We found a super-snazzy pair of old binoculars.




(God, I love that picture!  *giggle*)


And—hey, looky!—we also found a Harry Potter-ish cupboard under the stairs! AWESOME!!!!




That is sooooooooooo going to be my new Facebook profile, by the way. :-)


And then we relaxed on the swing in the backyard for awhile, whilst plotting our plans for Day 3.





[….to be continued….]





© Coracabana