Lakeside Marblehead Mid July Weather 2012

What’s the weather like here around Lake Erie?  The morning Toledo news predicted one hundred and ten degrees.  At five o’clock, the thermometer here near the bay read a hundred and one.  Just a few hours earlier, I talked with a friend in Florida who said the average temperature there was seventy seven.  No wonder temperatures are record breaking here in Ohio.  I headed to a local watering hole, and joined my husband.

 Muskrat Jack aka Jack Adams

At Cleat’s, a charter boat first mate named Jack Adams, known as “Muskrat Jack” sat down across the way.  He was glowing after spending a fruitless day on a charter boat fishing expedition with “Pooh Bear Charters.”   He said it was just too hot for the fish.  The catch was a poor one for Walleye Charters. In the morning at eighty eight degrees, he reports, the waves were choppy, but then diminished to zero.  They were in Canadian waters and the high was ninety six with a nice breeze.  Everyone at Cleats was inside escaping the heat while the huge waterside patio sat empty.

July 17, 2012

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Uncle Bill Didn't Know Power Plants Caused the Decline in Fishing

Fishing trips could go all the way to the horizon.

Dearly departed, Uncle Bill was the best boatman I’ve ever known.  He could take the waves and motor across Lake Erie with such grace.  It was a sad day when he decided to hang up the old fishing cap, and retire the boat for good.  He’d seen the best of the fishing days, and knew Lake Erie from end to end.

He knew the shallow spots, and hidden obstacles beneath the surface.  More than that, he knew the islands’ best fishing spots.  An hour long boat ride may take the fishing excursion to the most northern points where 45 feet of water was as deep as a line could go. A double header cast down into the depths and reeled back almost always yielded two good sized perch. 

I’d bait my minnies, all the while feeling sorry for them, and never catch a thing.  In the meantime, the men folk filled up a twenty four by thirty six inch pallet of gleaming golden perch enough for a winter’s worth of good eating.

 Uncle Bill knew the best perch fishing spots, and when and where to caste.  In the fall we’d walleye fish.  That’s when I caught my one and only walleye.  It was with much pride that I got to brag about “skunking” the men folk.

It was a very sad day when returning to the campground and seeing the empty spot where his camper used to be.  After that, not much time went by and he passed on.

He never knew the reason for the decline in fishing successes.  He blamed the netters on the Canadian side of Lake Erie.  I wish I could tell him that it’s going to get better now. 

The coal fired power plants were responsible for the death of many perch and walleye.  It was a long debate on the part of First Energy.  Cleaning up the waterways meant job loss, but the exorbitant cost to improve the water intake systems made closing down a more viable alternative.

Our fishing tours always began on the bay side

In Uncle Bill’s day, Lake Erie boasted an estimated eight million fish.  More recently, that number dropped to around twenty million according to the Port Clinton Herald Newspaper.

If I could talk to Uncle Bill, I’d get to tell him how the water cooling systems at the various power plants killed bait fish, and sucked in walleye.  Now, eight of the plants will be shut down.  I could tell him how ecologists and charter captains are looking forward to an immediate difference.

We could look forward to being in walleye heaven, the kind of heaven that Uncle Bill would have liked best.

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.

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

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.

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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.

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