My holiday weekend (part 2)......
Jul. 8th, 2004 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1Picking up where I left off in part 1......
Monday, we woke up and had breakfast at Bob Evans. B had to return to work on Tuesday so they checked out before we went to breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the BGSU Firelands Campus and the James H. McBride Arboretum. We saw a white swan in the pond, lots of trees, and lots of pretty flowers, which D took pictures of. At about 1:00pm, we returned to our cars and parted ways.
From there, we headed west on route 2, to Oak Harbor. We drove by the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant. (It's back in operation after being shut down two years ago for much-needed repairs.) I stopped to get a picture of the cooling tower, but a guard in an unmarked car pulled up, asked what I was doing there, and told me "No pictures". So we continued onward, and back along route 163 to Port Clinton. There were a lot of people out that day -- more so than usual due to the holiday.
We drove along the south side of the Marblehead peninsula. We noticed that the Marina Restaurant, which we ate at 7 years ago, was torn down, and condos were being built on the site. On my first trip to the area in '94, I had a wonderful Lake Erie perch sandwich there. On a return trip in '97, R and I had the worst restaurant service ever -- a surly teenager named Kyle. He would disappear for about 10-15 minutes at a time. We'd order something, he'd go back into the kitchen, come out 15 minutes later and flatly tell us "we're out of that". What was he doing during that time? I was too generous giving him a $3 tip that evening; I should have tipped him two cents. By the way, the food in '97 wasn't as good as I remembered it.
We also returned to the Marblehead Lighthouse, where R got to see it closer. We also stopped at the Schoolhouse Gallery gift shop for ice cream. They make their own waffle cones on site. They didn't pack my cone with ice cream, so when I started to eat it, the ice cream ended up on the carpet of the car. But I got a replacement cone for free. We also tried to go to Johnson's Island -- an old prison site for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War -- but it was a $1 admission fee, which R said was too much.
Dinner that night was take-out at Max & Erma's. I had a wonderful conversation with the bartender, while I was waiting for my food. Of course, it helped that he poured me a pint of Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Dortmunder Gold. Good stuff!
Tuesday, we loaded the car and checked out. We had the buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which is open only during the morning. The Girl was a lot better behaved, presumably because she didn't have an audience.
We returned home using the same route we came up, although we took route 2 to route 4 to avoid paying more tolls. We continued down route 4 to US 33, when I said, "How about if we make a side trip to Indian Lake?" R said "Sure", and we headed west on US 33 to Russell's Point. We stopped at a local park to give The Girl a chance to run around and stretch her legs, and to give mom and dad a bathroom break. We then went east on route 366, passing the dam and spillway that form the source of the Great Miami, back east onto US 33, and then south on US 68, through Bellefontaine.
We then talked about how we've been meaning to go to Ohio Caverns and the Piatt Castles, and have never gotten around to doing so. One of us said, "Can we go see one of them?" The other said, "Okay", and so we turned left (east) on to route 245 in West Liberty. We stopped at the first Piatt Castle we saw -- Mac-A-Cheek. (Technically, they're closer to chateaus or manor houses than castles.) It was still open for a tour, so we paid our money and began the tour. Both houses were built in the 1870s by the Piatt family -- father Banjamin was a judge; sons Abram and Donn Piatt were officers in the Union Army and lived in the two chateaus after the war.
The Girl became fidgety during the tour, so R left the tour halfway through with her. She'd seen the castle years ago. Even though no one lives there now, there's a lot of history in those houses. There are also a lot of 20th century amenities that were missing from the house -- indoor plumbing, central heating, and air conditioning -- that us modern people often take for granted. (Thanks to the help of a house cat years ago, the house was wired for electricity well after they were built.) I wish my house had a library room the size of theirs! (I'll need to go back and get some photographs of the inside.)
After the tour was over, we continued south on US 68, through Urbana and Springfield. We stopped for dinner at the Golden Jersey Inn, the full-service restaurant on the property of Young's Jersey Dairy. I had a pork chop wrapped in bacon; R had a type of whitefish called hoki that had virtually no flavor to it (other than the sauce). Of course, we also had dessert there! From there, we went through Yellow Springs, Xenia, and then on to US 35 to I-675 to home. We arrived home around 7:30pm.
Monday, we woke up and had breakfast at Bob Evans. B had to return to work on Tuesday so they checked out before we went to breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the BGSU Firelands Campus and the James H. McBride Arboretum. We saw a white swan in the pond, lots of trees, and lots of pretty flowers, which D took pictures of. At about 1:00pm, we returned to our cars and parted ways.
From there, we headed west on route 2, to Oak Harbor. We drove by the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant. (It's back in operation after being shut down two years ago for much-needed repairs.) I stopped to get a picture of the cooling tower, but a guard in an unmarked car pulled up, asked what I was doing there, and told me "No pictures". So we continued onward, and back along route 163 to Port Clinton. There were a lot of people out that day -- more so than usual due to the holiday.
We drove along the south side of the Marblehead peninsula. We noticed that the Marina Restaurant, which we ate at 7 years ago, was torn down, and condos were being built on the site. On my first trip to the area in '94, I had a wonderful Lake Erie perch sandwich there. On a return trip in '97, R and I had the worst restaurant service ever -- a surly teenager named Kyle. He would disappear for about 10-15 minutes at a time. We'd order something, he'd go back into the kitchen, come out 15 minutes later and flatly tell us "we're out of that". What was he doing during that time? I was too generous giving him a $3 tip that evening; I should have tipped him two cents. By the way, the food in '97 wasn't as good as I remembered it.
We also returned to the Marblehead Lighthouse, where R got to see it closer. We also stopped at the Schoolhouse Gallery gift shop for ice cream. They make their own waffle cones on site. They didn't pack my cone with ice cream, so when I started to eat it, the ice cream ended up on the carpet of the car. But I got a replacement cone for free. We also tried to go to Johnson's Island -- an old prison site for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War -- but it was a $1 admission fee, which R said was too much.
Dinner that night was take-out at Max & Erma's. I had a wonderful conversation with the bartender, while I was waiting for my food. Of course, it helped that he poured me a pint of Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Dortmunder Gold. Good stuff!
Tuesday, we loaded the car and checked out. We had the buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant, which is open only during the morning. The Girl was a lot better behaved, presumably because she didn't have an audience.
We returned home using the same route we came up, although we took route 2 to route 4 to avoid paying more tolls. We continued down route 4 to US 33, when I said, "How about if we make a side trip to Indian Lake?" R said "Sure", and we headed west on US 33 to Russell's Point. We stopped at a local park to give The Girl a chance to run around and stretch her legs, and to give mom and dad a bathroom break. We then went east on route 366, passing the dam and spillway that form the source of the Great Miami, back east onto US 33, and then south on US 68, through Bellefontaine.
We then talked about how we've been meaning to go to Ohio Caverns and the Piatt Castles, and have never gotten around to doing so. One of us said, "Can we go see one of them?" The other said, "Okay", and so we turned left (east) on to route 245 in West Liberty. We stopped at the first Piatt Castle we saw -- Mac-A-Cheek. (Technically, they're closer to chateaus or manor houses than castles.) It was still open for a tour, so we paid our money and began the tour. Both houses were built in the 1870s by the Piatt family -- father Banjamin was a judge; sons Abram and Donn Piatt were officers in the Union Army and lived in the two chateaus after the war.
The Girl became fidgety during the tour, so R left the tour halfway through with her. She'd seen the castle years ago. Even though no one lives there now, there's a lot of history in those houses. There are also a lot of 20th century amenities that were missing from the house -- indoor plumbing, central heating, and air conditioning -- that us modern people often take for granted. (Thanks to the help of a house cat years ago, the house was wired for electricity well after they were built.) I wish my house had a library room the size of theirs! (I'll need to go back and get some photographs of the inside.)
After the tour was over, we continued south on US 68, through Urbana and Springfield. We stopped for dinner at the Golden Jersey Inn, the full-service restaurant on the property of Young's Jersey Dairy. I had a pork chop wrapped in bacon; R had a type of whitefish called hoki that had virtually no flavor to it (other than the sauce). Of course, we also had dessert there! From there, we went through Yellow Springs, Xenia, and then on to US 35 to I-675 to home. We arrived home around 7:30pm.
