Day 41-August 15, 2014-Marblehead Peninsula, Ohio
Sunny, dry, high 60’s finally made it to 70 in the afternoon.
Spent the morning making reservations for the next few days. Then we took off for the Marblehead Peninsula about 15 minutes away from the campground. The peninsula, part of Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail, starts in Port Clinton and continues east to Marblehead and north to Catawba and has a motley assortment of residences, old shabby shacks and new modern mansions. Lots of marinas, a few restaurants, most advertising they have the best perch and walleye, summer cottages and condos and year round homes. Lots of picnic areas, most right on Lake Erie with a great view. At one end in Marblehead is the lighthouse built in 1822 right on Lake Erie. Nice picnic area around the lighthouse and an informative keeper’s house and museum. You can get the ferry to Kelleys Island at this end. Continued on the peninsula to Catawba, another “finger” of the peninsula farther east onto Church Rd., where there was a church, Cemetery Rd., where there was a cemetery, Schoolhouse Rd., where there was a schoolhouse and then we came upon Wine Cellar Rd. Hmmm….guess what was there? Mon Ami 1872 Historic Winery and Restaurant. This was not on any brochure we’ve seen, not even in the wine trail brochure. Wasn’t in the GPS or the tour books but it was packed with people, both having lunch in the restaurant or tasting wine. We finally got to the wine bar and did a tasting. They had really good wines and the people were great. From there we went to the tip of Catawba, where you can get the car ferry over to Put-In-Bay. Busy place, with lots of cars and even an RV waiting to board the ferry. This side of Catawba is more affluent with private developments, larger homes and man made beaches on the lake. We drove through one where people were sunning themselves on the beach. It’s 70 degrees….that’s winter for us! No sand samples from Lake Erie-the shores are all rock ledges.
Back down to Sandusky we went to Fireland Winery, the one that was in the brochures and tour books. Nice winery where we ran into Lisa and Didi, from Columbus, OH, whom I had met in the campground office this morning and also Ron and Arrow, from Cleveland, all out for a Friday afternoon wine tasting. I think they wanted us to stay on and party or go to another winery nor far away that we had all heard about but we left while the leaving was good.
Sandusky has more waterparks, indoor and outdoor than anyplace I’ve been, even some of the hotels have indoor waterparks. There’s a Ghostly Manor Thrill House and Cedar Point, not far away, is a big amusement/theme park, resort waterpark. The campground is filling up with lots of families who no doubt are going to these places over the week-end. For all the people here the campground is really quiet.
We got the truck washed and then back to the campground for dinner, took a walk, had another nice fire and some more Rummikub matches. We’re leaving Sandusky tomorrow morning. Sandusky, Ohio…another one of those places I never thought we’d enjoy as much as we did.