Ohio Area Nice for Vacation

Ohio Area Nice for Vacation

If planning for a summer vacation, Ohio has really beautiful, balmy summers, and Lake Erie provides lots of recreation. I love my summer vacation home there. I call it the place where the breezes meet. Located near a former religious retreat, it’s clustered on the edge of the lake basin near the southern tip of Lake Erie. To the south side, adjoining the lake is the Sandusky Bay, popular for water sports, and camping. Around this vicinity a town’s population can zoom from 10,000 to a million in one season.

Restrictions on buildings over three stories high reduce availability of hotel accommodations to a certain extent since there is only so much shoreline to go around. For this reason, the accessibility of reservations is best at least six months in advance. It’s a toss up to say exactly why this area is so popular, but activities galore might be part of the reason. In addition to this, ferries shuttle vacationers to three different islands.

In the village of Marblehead, which occupies the extreme tip of what I can best describe as a peninsula, visitors can catch a ferry to Kelley’s Island for dinner and drinks. Marblehead is an interesting area that is experiencing growth while preserving some of its historical quaintness. The Kukay building, which was once an old movie theatre, is newly renovated with deference to the older qualities of the architecture.

Today this building houses a restaurant, a coffee shop with wireless LAN, and The ExLibris bookstore whose proceeds go to establishing a permanent village library. Visitors who take the quieter vacations flock to this bookstore where hardbacks are only two dollars, and paperbacks go for a dollar.

Next-door neighbor to the Kukay building is Wee Willie’s tavern, a great place for beers and football games, where they also serve delicious French fries prepared with no transfats. Not too far away is a gorgeous Russian Orthodox Church that sponsors a yearly Halupka Festival in August. The polka dancing and ethnic buffet make for an unbeatable good time. Around the bend is one of the few remaining lighthouses in the U.S.A.

Two other ferries, located a little farther north in the town of Port Clinton, transport cars and people to an island called Put In Bay, the home of two historical wineries. Lake Erie plays host to such a busy array of activities that visitors often prefer the jet express ferry to be transported back and forth so they can hurry on to the next event. My favorite time of year to visit Put In Bay is the fourth of July, when historic reenactments with real Muzzleloader rifles replicate the War of Independence. Scaling to the top of Perry Monument gives more perspective of the famous battles. A lot of people bring children, but if you do, I recommend steering clear of the main street revelry in this case. Free shuttles can veer around the more adult activities, and people can have picnics in the park where swings and sandboxes are available. The beaches everywhere around Lake Erie are good for taking kids swimming because the water stays shallow near the water's for a long way into the lake.

As the original draw, boating, fishing and camping are still popular activities. Walleye and perch remain the foremost catch. Some people boat the inlets for water skiing. Others easily trailer jets skis for use on Sandusky bay, which is on the south side of the “peninsula.” Water parks and miniature golf courses are dotted around. Across the bay, in Sandusky, is the famous amusement park, Cedar Point.

When the chaos of the tourist season is over, the desolate cold winters have a whole different set of visitors who like to avoid the crowds. Colorful Ohio autumns lead to an oddly serene and beautiful desolation. Without the leaves on the trees, it’s a black and white photograph of frozen shorelines and gray-blue skies. Lending to the restful type of vacation, Reiki Massage is available throughout the year.

Hopefully I haven’t made this sound like a fairytale, although there’s a life-size fiberglass dinosaur right around the corner from my house. As per usual, everything has a down side. Sometimes the traffic is congested since there is only one main road that leads around the finger shaped piece of land between two bodies of water. A little planning minimizes this factor if a trip is plotted to make right turns only. Getting stuck behind slow driving tourists gets annoying, so this is to be expected during peak season. Every now and then there is a chance to pass. I’m very picky about restaurants, and though plentiful, I often find the quality is lacking. A few good places are turning up since this area is experiencing a growth spurt. All the same, accommodating the sudden population explosion is tough for local businesses insofar as finding good employees, who merely get crash courses instead of thorough training. Still, the trade off is worthwhile since there is so much to offer in the way of recreation. Lake Erie is a summer vacation place that has something for everyone.

Eerie on Lake Erie This Year

There's been a strange atmosphere since early spring here on the Marblehead peninsula. Contractors excavating more boat channels for more housing developments unearthed a cemetery of human remains. Believed to be sacred burial grounds, the project was immediately canceled.


Talk of accompanying, strange incidents went without further explanation. Then there were some who began to believe that the spirits there could bless people. Folks could be seen with heads bowed standing along the cordoned off area. After a while, the whole ordeal went hush-hush, and the land was said to have been purchased by a Native American organization.

Although everything was quiet on the burial site, nothing seemed to return to normalcy. Even the garden was slow to produce, with the exception of the corn. Some of the peppers were misshapen, and the tomatoes came up small. Quite a few of them were animated with little distorted outgrowths.

So this is the setting for most of the season until the late part of summer. In late August I'm opening up the used book store where I volunteer every Sunday morning. Forty other volunteers participate in our mission of this place becoming a real library for Marblehead. Housed in a 150 year old, two story building, this place holds a scariness all of its own..

With all of the enthusiastic helpers, the store is usually very tidy. It's really quite noticeable if anything is ever out of place in there. As a result, when I open the door I'm instantly drawn to a book left out on the counter. Set at a casual oblique angle, it felt almost as though it was left there for me.

Its dark cover is immediately haunting. There are translucent, delicate illustrations swirling against a dark blue sky background. Bold capital letters say, OTHER LIVES, OTHER SELVES by Roger J. Woolger, Ph.d.

Then I see a front cover reference to Carl Jung, whose psychoanalytic work has always held my interest. While I turned a few pages into the book, I'm become inundated in a sense of malingering ghostly spirits that seem to have been here all summer. There's also a nor'easter blowing in from the lake.

With the next turn of the page, something else chilling and unexpected grabbed my attention. Other-life sequels, revealed through hypnosis, upturn passages of macabre and horrifically bloody scenarios.

Leaping out in the dim light of the morning, my mental picture of the author's words dwarfed any passing interest of who's who in the psychoanalytic world. The Halloween like imagery detailed past- life hypnotherapy involving of a variety of Dr. Woolger's patients whose former lives ended in violence.

I'm stuck, absolutely pasted into this book, when I should be counting the cash drawer or stocking books, but I can't quit reading. I'm wondering how revisiting scenes of mutilation, and violence from past epochs relate to psychotherapy. I go on.

Soon, as I read through these notes on hypnotic regressions, I find myself imagining the dark ages. After that I go to the days of slavery in ancient Egypt. Then I'm taken to the days of slavery in the U.S. prior to the civil war. All of these are places where patients remembered their past lives taking place. Humanity is so full of barbaric events

The Dark Continent is the location for the following transcription which describes attempts at ferreting out causes of female maladies believed to be carried from a prior life. The author describes his observations of the patient while she is regressed in a hypnotic state:

"A middle- aged woman in one of our workshops had successfully borne three children but had suffered terrible premenstrual cramps. In exploring the pains, she relived a fatal childbirth scenario as an African woman. In the midst of an extremely difficult labor her very clumsy mate attempts to help with the delivery. . .The woman dies in terrible pain. The memory apparently imprinted for future lives in the region of her uterus. . ."

He later tells of seeing bazaar photographs displaying manifestations of violent events remembered. The photos reveal imprints that mysteriously appear in a patient's skin while in hypnotic recall. One man who had been tied up and killed in a previous life showed rope imprints on his arm. A woman remembering a past trauma of being beaten all of a sudden developed welt marks all over her body.

This whole time, I'm finding it curious that I just stumbled onto this book lying out on the counter. I'm under pressure to break away from it. Customers may be showing up any minute.

Although it's the time of year that cornstalks rustle in stormy discontent of their own bareness, and the end of a season where a previously friendly garden thing becomes scary somehow, I think I'm discovering more about the spirits inhabiting the burial site.

With senses alert to what the noreaster may blow onto shore, I've entered a new understanding of why I feel the presence of malingering spirits around here. At least I can see why there is a certain something that drives a shiver of apprehension about unknown, unseen beings.

Maybe that's what we all seemed to be feeling around here on this isolated neck of land embraced by the great mother - Lake Erie. Maybe it's a distant memory of her other lives. . . other places, many of which are dark and frightening.

They are like the recesses of the mind where scary memories dwell, but are triggered to come out from hiding when the corn rustles, and the north wind blows. These are the scary places-the stuff that nightmares are made of - and these are also the reason why this year's autmumn is especially eerie on Lake Erie.

The Heavenly Surround and Our Moon

The moon and two planets are guides in the night sky.

One of the best places for viewing the night skies is somewhere near a large body of water, like Lake Erie.  Long ago, navigating the lake or the ocean required knowledge of the celestial skies. 


Sailor's used the moon to locate other heavenly bodies which indicated the path of travel.  The crescent shaped moons of the first and last phases are regarded as having horns.  The tip of the moon's crescent shape might point to Jupiter or Venus, or Mars and any of the directly visible planets. In turn, these determine the direction of vessels navigating a body of water.  


For land lovers, the moon's position has also had an important function concerning survival. Once astrological properties came into being thanks to the ancient Greeks, the round art was born.  Each pie shaped wedge around the circle had an orderly assignation of astrology signs with each having its own properties.  


Enigmatic as it may be, the life energies represented through the signs carried a special meaning.  Air, Earth, Fire, and Water were known as elements of the varied astrological signs.  This carried an influence for the two or three days the moon occupied any given arc of the circle.  Each pie shaped wedge in the circle is assigned to one of the zodiac signs representing the order they occupy in the sky surrounding the moon and earth.


It goes to folklore that certain tasks of daily life were assigned to each of the astrological signs that rule the overall characteristics of the arcs.  Farmers, especially, used the predictions based on relative positions of the moon and qualities that each exudes. Later, effects on human behavior began entering the celestial picture.   

One of the most important navigation guides is our closest celestial neighbor, the moon.  More than finding the way on a seafaring vessel, we may also view our earthbound lives through the enlightenment of the moon and the properties of each astrological sign.


It's always a wonder how knowledge of the heavens is evidenced in the remains of antiquity.  Important properties were assigned to the position of the moon regarding earth. And somewhere during history the moon became important in every day life. 


Although modern life may appear very different than what our ancestors knew, we still have the daily survival tasks such as food preparation, and gathering.  We have hygiene concerns, repairs, travel, celebrations, and other earthly endeavors.  Astrology is still alive though often regarded as superstition. Yet there are many reasons not to disregard its validity.


For this reason, propagation of the moon sign astrology guide for everyday life has meaning that can't really be disproved.  Even for a skeptic, the pattern of  rhythmic cycles is useful for an arbitrary way to make a monthly day by day plan.  


From experience, this writer learned that certain activities have a better flow in regard to the moon's astrological assignation.  And so much so that it lends a kind of human energy efficiency to everyday chores.  In order to share this experience and the benefits of observing Luna's activities, a weekly moon sign prediction covers most of the bases of going through everyday life.




For a preview of the week in Moon Sign Astrology click the following link:


Carol Gibson's Moon Sign Forecast - Day by Day the Moon Sign Way

Index to more articles

There Goes the Neighborhood - Rumors of Celebrities Moving In Nearby

Rumors travel quickly along the shorelines of Lake Erie, especially with “breaking” news about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes real estate shopping nearby. Nothing is very far away if you have a boat. The changes leading up to this potential event have been slow in the making, though.

Early impressions gathered on that first fishing trip with Uncle Bill would never portend of luxuriant wealth or name dropping of potential new neighbors like Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes.  Back in Uncle Bill’s day, the great majority of folks gathered round the water’s edge were there for fishing.

Dusky fisherman cottages spotted along bay shores housed those with the common interest of walleye and perch. The organic scent of a fresh catch wafting through the air goes along with blue skies and a lake fresh breeze.  Tracing peninsula shorelines, Uncle Bill at the helm, I’d often ponder on how Sandusky Bay and the Lake Erie surround is so beautiful yet so roomy still, and undiscovered.

One day, on a cruise with friends to an Irish festival; destination Huron, we all had to stop our boats and gawk at a huge yacht tied off of a colossal break wall.  Jaws dropped when the mere tender boat lowered from the aft moorings cruised on by us.  It was bigger than any of our boats.

Little did we know that this dock, and maybe even the yacht itself, may soon belong to big time, almost fairy story celebrities, of the legendary kind? 

Dry land just to the north side of the yacht offers 161 acres of exquisite surroundings, which include an airplane hanger.  The original owner, Dan Brown, was an ingenious inventor who added uniqueness to the interior of his mansion like push button moveable walls.  Don Brown’s wife, Shirley, didn’t like to back up the car, so he had a turn table garage floor installed for her.

Don Brown, was the inventor of drop ceilings.  He was killed in a plane crash returning from Gainesville, Florida on a visit with his son.  His wife, Shirley was also on the plane.  They were 89 and 87 respectively.  The date of the crash was January 18, 2010.

The sad story may turn into a happy one for movie celebs, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.  And so goes the rumor mill about real estate in the Huron/Vermillion area.  Right now the rumors are overshadowing any local fishing tales. Excited murmurings tie in with imagined higher property values along the coveted waters edge.  A nibble of credibility points northward to Katie Holmes’ home town of Toledo on the north side of Lake Erie.

Some of the dusky little campgrounds are cleared away and replaced with boastful elegant homes and condos.  As a matter of fact, one of the first to go was Uncle Bill’s old campground.  The shoreline view is shifting to a wealthier look, though nowhere near the rumored opulent wealth of the property Tom and Katie are considering. 

Rumors around Lake Erie waters lap onto the shorelines like the rippling waves.  Take a look at the resources that accompany this article, and the credibility of the rumor increases.  Click the hyperlink and see why Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes could easily call this place their Lake Erie home.

Video:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cleveland/vermilion-mansion-sale-19-5-million-224425891.html

http://www.sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/180-l-806-4339343/lakefront-panoramic-views-the-waterwood-estate-vermilion-oh-44089

ref
http://www.avonhistory.org/jean/brown10.htm

Mysterious Creature Spotted in Lake Erie

A Good Omen of Cleaner Water

A tall fishing tale of a huge creature living in Lake Erie has been around for ions. So much controversy has gone around about supposed sightings, and whether or not this amphibious creature is real has become something to poke fun at.

A landowner whose property butts up against route #2 actually floated a goofy looking replica of this monster for all passerby drivers to see.

That may be the reason I peered with suspicion at the strange, yet beautifully exotic depiction of an other-worldly looking creature in the local advertising/newspaper flyer. By the greenish tint of the photo, I could tell this was taken my an underwater camera.

Hanging around the mysterious, free-floating object were some friendly blue gills who appeared to be curious about the bulbous underwater creature too. Still, I couldn’t guess what this thing could have been. Anyone who lives around Lake Erie has heard a plethora of fishing stories. I thought I had heard them all.

Fishing Lake Erie throughout the years, I had dropped thirty five feet of fishing line into her mysterious depths. I had snorkeled in the lake, the bay, off of the islands, but this mysterious creature was an unknown entity in my experience. The photo of the colorful, translucent and gelatinous creature had never been portrayed in any of the fishing yarns I’d ever heard of, so I thought it must not be real.

The photo did not look doctored. The lavender colored surface markings reminded me of global continents on the earth. Other smaller red markings dotted the creature’s exterior. Oranges and yellows against a translucent backdrop followed an irregular line suggesting the quivery movement reminiscent of a jelly fish.

“This cannot be,” I remarked. “Jellyfish only live in the ocean.” I showed the picture of the mysterious creature to my husband who then told me of the swimming hole he and his friends visited as a young child. He said there were always two inch jellyfish inhabitants there swimming all around them.

So, I went on to read the article, and sure enough the mysterious creature in the photograph was a freshwater jellyfish! The good news about the mysterious creature is that it’s a sign that Lake Erie is finally getting cleaner water.

Observing the Lake Erie Effect of the Real Estate Kind

Many of the typical real estate axioms aren’t applicable as far as homes for sale located in a recreation area such as Lakeside/Marblehead, Ohio.  Due to unsupervised real estate development from earlier times, you can’t include an evaluation of neighboring homes.  In general, the idea of having a place close to the water supersedes everything else.  Hints of the recession came in the form of a housing bubble that peaked around 2005.

The hodgepodge development that would hopefully add to the charm or quaintness of this area remains part of the real estate scene. 

If you were to think in typical real estate axioms, such as buying into a neighborhood with mobile homes on the same street, you may think the house you’re looking at would have a diminished value – not.  On top of that, with bank owned foreclosure properties, a $70,000 cottage may be located next to a new house worth twice that much.

Lakeside/Marblehead is geographically situated on a peninsula. Any location isn’t far from either Lake Erie or Sandusky Bay.  At one time, bay area real estate carried a stigma, but that idea was vanquished with the construction of beautiful new housing developments along the shoreline.  Little fishing campgrounds still thread into the fabric of the community.  

Nowadays, the newly coveted places to be are in these developments with street names like Marblewood, Water’s Edge, and Commodore. 

What a potential buyer is looking at here is an either/or situation with very little middle ground.  The housing bubble started its upward ascent in Lakeside/Marblehead in the year 2,000.  Mobile homes were selling at an average minimum of thirty thousand.  Tiny vinyl sided cottages with missing floors sold for fifty thousand.  Narrow lots with 60’ x 90’ borders -$100, 000.  At the three-year mark the housing bubble peaked and stalled.

In a gated community with century homes, waterfront houses peaked with asking prices anywhere from one to three million.  This neighborhood is gated behind nothing more than a simple hurricane fence with three entry points. 

Houses are packed so tightly together in this “quaint” fenced in community that many roofs are a meager three feet apart. You might be able to find a deal with something that’s a few blocks from the lake, because the south Lakeside area is yet to be encompassed by the fence.  Once that happens, the newly annexed neighborhood sees the overall value of their homes escalate.  Buying into the south side of the tracks neighborhood before the annexation guarantees a worthwhile return.  But, the question is, would it be worth the wait?

Still, as per usual, the closer to the water the higher the value. To be located within the fenced in community gives exclusivity.  You’d be looking at an average asking price of three to four hundred thousand, because the location is close to the Lake. These are the higher end houses that are selling, according to realtor accounts.  One beautiful, old sandstone house (only a short block from the water) recently sold for a rumored three million.

Drastic cuts in the asking price, and low interest loans will help stimulate sales.  Realtors in the Lakeside/Marblehead area have earned it and deserve to have some steady commissions rolling in for a change.

Clickable Index to More Articles

Lake Erie Fascinates from Lake to Bay to Beach to Islands

My favorite beach on Lake Erie faces Sandusky Bay. This beach is only a small one, graced with a picnic table, and fantastic view of an Ohio summer sunrise. I like to watch the sunrise colors, wake up slowly, and enjoy a little reverie there. Nearby is a two story hotel with a great restaurant downstairs. My happy little beach is across the street from the restaurant’s viewing deck.

From this little beach picnic table, I can be transported without ever leaving my spot. Simply to be there is recreation for me. But there’s more. From this favorite beach lookout, a silhouette of one of seventeen famous roller coasters, is in clear sight along the other side at the water's edge. Here, for example, on July fourth, a person can see the fireworks displays of three different cities, plus the extremely special pyrotechnics show featured by Cedar Point Amusement Park. All of the starry color bursts are mirrored in the reflections of July’s placid water surface. Just around the bend is a famous lighthouse.

So, on any given visit here, it’s possible to get the best of recreational worlds. Taking a drive along the local “Circle Tour”, a motorist, or cyclist can view several historical sites, enjoy beer at a mini brewery, or grab sinfully delicious ice cream sundries.

Tracing the edge of the bay, following the Circle Tour, a tourist encounters a melting pot of recreational activities before one even gets to the bridge leading off of the peninsula. There are distractions and attractions like ferries to the islands departing from the heart of Marblehead, or from the “Point”, in Catawba. These lead to further merry making activities, and you guessed it, wineries for visitors who prefer the bacchanal type of recreation.

Historical sites of the revolutionary war present the visitor with demonstrations of how the soldiers fought with muzzle loader guns, displaying a sense of nobility in warfare of the olden days. At the same location there’s a huge tower called Perry’s Monument providing a panoramic view displaying miles of Lake Erie. Some destinations are not so bombastic, but rather a place to relax, enjoy a good steak dinner, and forget about the rest of the world for a while.

Oops, did this excursion get sidetracked? Where was I? Oh yes, departing from the Circle Tour, hop on Rt. 269 going out past the fruit tree farms. Head for the bridge over Sandusky Bay, and see what’s happening across the way from the picnic table on the little beach. For those who don’t mind getting sidetracked again, follow Route 2, and watch for well marked exits leading to two other wineries, plus Cold Creek, and Margaritaville. Pick up a fishing pole and fish off the dock around this area where fishing is a popular recreation of Lake Erie.

Although this route is less than twenty miles long, the other side of the bay presents a diverse array of recreation and accommodations. Some of the lodging facilities provide shuttles to one of the world’s largest amusement parks. Now physically located across the bay, this is the place that I view from the small beach with a picnic table.

While touring Sandusky, a stopover at one of the recreation lodges might entail an extra day or two. A choice of indoor water activities provide exercise, fun, and events for kids to enjoy. A stone’s throw from the Route 2 exit, a huge recreation complex offers lodging along with a wide array of interests ranging from water amusement to massage relaxation.

In an imaginary tour from my favorite beach, I can visualize the happy faces I would see on the islands, or the other side of the bay. This truly makes my little beach even more special. Travelers have the best of both worlds as well as I, when I enjoy this quiet little beach that looks onto the bigger beaches. Opportunities for reverie or revelry, are graciously accommodated in these parts around Lake Erie. Depending on which beach is anyone’s favorite, no one can evade having a good time visiting Lake Erie beaches.

For more links to fun places around Lake Erie

go to www.cedarpoint.com where all area attractions within a fifty mile radius are listed.

Clickable Index to More Articles