On the road again…. (Part 3)

Scope, Wednesday, and I took a big family vacation with my in-laws to Ohio a couple of weeks ago, which I have been sloooowwwwwwwly telling you all about. (For part 1 of this story, click HERE and for part 2, click HERE.) Here’s what happened next….


DAY 4:


On Day 4 of our vacation, we all decided to take a boat tour and to spend the day exploring a couple of the islands in Lake Erie. We got up bright and early and met up with everyone at Jackson Street Pier after breakfast.




The pier was swarming with seagulls which made me feel kind of grossed out (ugh), so Wednesday and I wandered off to take some non-seagull-y pictures closer to the street where it felt much safer. While we were taking that picture right above there, poor dear Scope and his sister both got bombed by the vile winged rats. Grrr. Thus, the remainder of the time we loitered on that infested pier, Wednesday and I pretty much stayed huddled under a tree, trying to avoid a poo-pelting. See?




And, yeah, that’s 15 year old Wednesday. HUGGING. ME. IN. PUBLIC. She initiated it too. She’s the BEST teenager in the whole history of the world. Clearly. :-)


She also does a spiffing Sean Penn impersonation. Just saying.




But anyway….


Soon, we boarded our boat, The Goodtime I.




Some dude had a Marilyn Monroe mannequin standing on his balcony right beside our boat, so we ogled it with much giggling and mocking until we set off.




(Pffft. Okaaaayyyyyy.)


Pretty soon, we were on our way toward Kelleys Island. Along the way we passed Cedar Point Amusement Park.




Hey, check out these people on one of the roller coasters! God, I love my telephoto lens! Hee hee hee.




We passed Marblehead Lighthouse.




And we saw lots of cormorants flying in rows over the water and we were told the tale of how these massive black birds were valiantly saved from near-certain extinction…. only to end up overpopulating the area, killing the vegetation and soiling the lake with their super-acidic poo, and otherwise causing a literal sh*tload of environmental woes. (Whoopsie on that one.)




When we docked at our fist stop, Kelleys Island, Scope’s parents, his sister and her family decided to rent a golf cart to drive around to see the sights. (‘Bye, guys!)




Scope, Wednesday, and I decided we would rather walk the island instead of wasting money on a golf cart since the boat was only docking there for one hour, so there probably wasn’t that much to see. What could we possibly need a golf cart for, right? So, off we set on foot to explore.


Right off the bat, we found a fudge shop. Wednesday was DEEEEEELIGHTED!!!!




She picked out some peanut butter fudge and some postcards and then we walked across the street to check out Kelleys Island’s teeny tiny little police station.




It wasn’t much bigger than a toddler’s playhouse, I swear. And, look!—Even the police drive a golf cart there!




Ha! How funny.


Right around this time, we got a call from Scope’s mom telling us that there was something uber-splendiferous to see way, waaaayyyyyy down the road, and that we would definitely need a golf cart to make it back to the boat in time if we wanted to see it. They offered to give us their cart because they were done with it, so we met them outside a little café and off we zoomed up the street to go catch a glimpse of what they had found.


Scope was driving and Wednesday wanted to sit up front with him.




So, I was the caboose.




Along the way we saw a wild turkey cross the road.




And soon we found ourselves at Glacial Grooves State Memorial Park.




Holy wooly mammoth! The Glacial Grooves Memorial was amazing! It’s this long stretch of limestone where glaciers once carved grooves (duh) about 30,000 years ago. It’s fenced in, of course, but you can walk up one side of the grooves….




…..then cross a bridge at the end….




….and then walk back down the other side.




And it’s just flat out awe-inspiring to know that those rocky ruts and ridges were carved by mere ice.




Wow.


But there was only so much gaping we could do at the grooves. Time was ticking by and, not wanting to repeat the awkward moment when our tour bus stranded Scope and me on our honeymoon, we were quite motivated to get back to our boat within plenty of time for departure. So, we climbed back in our golf cart and putted back down the road toward our boat.


Hey, whaddaya know? The turkey was still there by the roadside on our way back.




Wednesday was totally digging the golf cart and was kind of bummed to have to return it at the dock.




As we exited our golf cart, some stranger offered to take our group picture. (Awwwww. Thank you, Thoughtful Stranger Chick!)




We found Scope’s mom and dad as we approached our boat. (Say cheese, everybody!)




Back on the boat, we headed off for South Bass Island. Along the way we passed by the Benson Ford Ship House, a real actual boat which was recycled into a vacation rental home on a cliff side. Cool, huh?




And guess who we were told is staying there this summer?….. No, I mean it. Guess…. Wanna know?…. 


Johnny.


Depp.


Yes, really. I know! How cool is THAT?! Captain Jack Sparrow stays in an actual BOAT HOUSE when he’s on vacation. Ha! Wednesday about passed out when she heard that news!


Wow.


We also got a gorgeous view of Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial Lighthouse (woo—there’s a tongue-twister!) as we approached South Bass Island.




Once we docked, we were starving, so we rushed straight into the Boat House Eatery for lunch.




The Boat House Eatery was full of delightfully spazzy pirate-y goodies, like this.




And this.




And (ahem) this.




Fun stuff for sure! But the food service? Sooooooo sloooooooowwwwwww. We were given three hours on South Bass Island…. and it felt like we spent at least two of those hours just waiting on our food.


*hungry snarl*


Once we (finally) left the Boat House Eatery, we decided to rent our own golf cart to assist us in all our island-y adventures. Wednesday was thrilled and decided she wanted to be the caboose this time around.




So, off we went, putt-putt-putting down the street with hundreds of other putt-putt-putting golf cart-riding tourists. (Seriously, how frustrating must it be to live on that island and attempt to drive your car anywhere when the roads are swarming with slow-moving golf carts driven by tourists who have no idea where they are going?! I bet that has to suck.)


Our first stop was at Perry’s Peace Monument, which we had seen from our boat. But, as they were doing some restoration work on it, it was fenced off and we weren’t able to get close enough to touch it or anything. It was still quite impressive though. Check it out, you can even see the work crew about 1/3 the way up it.




Alongside Perry’s Peace Monument were British, Canadian, and US flags, flapping in the breeze and looking all majestic and International Peace-y and stuff.




From there we putt-putt-putted around the roads randomly, just to see what we would stumble across. We ended up down the end of a dead end road which went right up to the beach.




We lingered there for a few minutes, walking along the painted concrete blocks and taking pictures, when suddenly a big dog came swimming by out of nowhere and then walked out of the lake to say hi to us. Wednesday’s entire day was complete now: Fudge AND a swimming dog too?!?! What more does a girl need? Nuthin’, that’s what! :-)




The dripping wet dog said hi to us for a little bit, then she suddenly turned around and went right back into the water and left. How funny!




That dog definitely had the right idea though. It was hot as all heck on the island that day and we, too, were in the need of something to cool us down. But forget lake water; we had something better in mind.




Thaaaaaaaaaaaaat’s right. Ice cream. But you wouldn’t believe how hard it was to actually find a place that sold ice cream there. Weird, right? On a popular tourist island. In summer. On a 95 degree day. You’d think ice cream would be sold practically everywhere. But nope. We actually had to stop and ask directions to find a place that sold it.


Crazy.


If I ever move to South Bass Island, I am soooooooooooo opening a chain of ice cream stands. I’d make a killing. That much I know for sure. But anyway….


On our way back to the boat, we saw this fabulous, shark-tastic golf cart parked along the side of the street.




Awesome, huh? I know.


We took the boat back to Sandusky and had dinner at the Thirsty Pony, where Wednesday and I shared a chicken alfredo pizza. Mm-mm-mmm.




And then we went back to our rental house to make plans for the following day when we would be visiting (….wait for it….) the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


Awww yeah.


[….to be continued….]






© Coracabana