Category: Ohio

OBA Blog Swap – Guest Holly Hammersmith

Guest Blogger, Ohio

Hello! I’m Holly, the Cleveland-based writer behind “Rust Belt Runner,” a blog where I detail my journey with running, yoga and healthy living. As part of the Ohio Blogging Association May Blog Swap, today I am sharing some of my favorite photos.

Currently I’m shooting with the Canon 300 ELPH point and shoot camera, which I just purchased this spring. It has 12-megapixels and a variety of advanced features for a point and shoot. So far I have been really impressed with the crisp, colorful images it provides.

In the spirit of the forthcoming summertime on Ohio’s northeast, I’m sharing some images I’ve taken over the years of Lake Erie and it’s coastal lighthouses – two of my favorite subjects to shoot.

Enjoy!

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Marblehead Lighthouse, Marblehead, Ohio, 2006

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Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio, 2008

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Huron Lighthouse, Huron, Ohio, 2010

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Rocky River Park, Rocky River, Ohio, 2011

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Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio, 2012

Adventures of a Trapped 300lb Man: Festing Towards 100

Announcement, Family, Find Your Passion, Food, Ohio

Since Thursday August 20 of last year, Kris Campana has chronicled his love-hate relationship with food, starting it all with three simple words:

Life is conflict.

And so birthed a blog that has been as colorful and tasty and fattening as any I’ve come across.

Kris started the festival circuit this year in April with the Geauga County Maple Festival in Chardon, has been to Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron and, as of this writing, 92 other festivals in between.

So, with festival season almost at an end due to the weather, why am I writing now??

If his pace keeps up, Kris is on target to visit his 100th festival of 2010 on December 5th. He has put word out that any and all interested are more than welcome to attend and help him celebrate this occasion.

 

Holiday CircleFest
Sunday, December 5, 2010
FREE

The Rink at Wade Oval: 1:00-7:00 p.m.
Free horse-drawn carriage rides (Wade Oval): 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Activities: 1:00-5:30 p.m.
Winter Lights Lantern Procession on Wade Oval: 5:30 p.m

So, I extend the invitation here to anyone interested. You can download a guide here to see what’s going on. The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Children’s Museum and the Cleveland Botanical Garden are only a few of the institutions involved in this seasonal celebration.  I will be attending, and hope to see or hear from you that you made it, too.

So, come on out, and have yourself a good time. Even if we don’t run into you, the odds are good you’ll enjoy yourself. And if we do run into you, we can all raise a glass of hot cocoa or cider or something, and toast Kris’ 100th Festival of 2010!!

Mystery Hill + Prehistoric Forest=Overpriced Hoo-ha

Ohio, Opinion, Rant, WTF?

Didja ever find yourself in a situation where time had blurred your perception of something? I don’t mean a month or two or last year, but I mean YEARS. When I was a young’un, I remember my folks taking my brothers and myself to a list of places around northern Ohio. The Blue Hole, Seneca Caverns, Put-in-Bay and Marblehead. Recently, two attractions in Marblehead were in the news because this is the last summer they’ll be open. The owners of Mystery Hill and Prehistoric Forest are closing the joint site so they can enjoy their retirement.

When I saw the article, I remembered going to Mystery Hill and being really intrigued by the place. I wanted to go back and see it before it was gone, and thought it’d be cool to take the kids. They seemed interested and we added two of their friends to the group. As we pulled into the parking lot after an hour’s drive, my scam alert went into hyperactive drive. The view from the parking lot was one of high density cheese. A large, funky-looking dinosaur stood in front of a large, man-made hill with a waterfall. Mike got out of the truck with a ‘what the heck’ look on his face. I did panic-mode, thinking I drove four teenagers an hour away from home, to see something that was gonna earn me the “L” mark on my forehead.

I had checked the place out on their website, and had been fairly interested in the Mystery Hill part, not-so-much in the Prehistoric Forest, but they were a package deal, and some of the dino pics looked pretty good. Mystery Hill’s attraction is that gravity has gone awry here, water and tennis balls roll uphill, and it’s really weird.  So, I thought the almost $9 per head admission might almost be worth it.

So, we go in, I pay the bill for all five of us, and we head up the hill. We stop for a very rehearsed presentation on something that may or may not have been valid, and then we’re directed up the hill to the building at the top. Up the gravel path we climb, past a putt-putt course, and then the path is bordered on both sides by a fence. As we come to the top of the hill, the area opens up and we are standing in front of a building that leans a bit to the right. Immediately, my head feels weird, as if there’s pressure on the right side of my brain, and I’m thinkin’, “Ok, this is weird!”

As you can see, the building tilts to the right, against the gravel-covered path, that seems to be level. I don’t know if the skewed structure is contributing to the off-kilter feeling, but I’m not the only one, as Mike seems a bit off-balance in the photo above. Also, the water seems to be moving UP the PVC piping attached to the side of the shack. But yet, it flows down as well as up. So, um…..huh??

In we go, teens first, me following as I take pics of everything and check out the water thing. There’s no pump, except the one that takes the water from the barrel and pours it into the half-pipe at the top. Very odd.

So, as I approach the doorway, I’m treated to this view:

Wait, what the..?   and then this:

Michael has one leg bent behind the other and is leaning on the air. Yes, you read that right, and that’s the same thing Alainey is leaning on. Absolutely nothing.

Granted, you can see in these photos that the floor is slanted, but I’ve walked up ramps steeper than this, and haven’t felt pulled backwards. We actually felt PULLED toward the lower area. Kristen got me here, too.

Here’s some video I shot there:

So, we spent about 20 minutes and change inside the shifted shack. We had fun, and the plan was to next get some pics by the dinosaurs (mind you, the website pics looked pretty good) as if the dino’s were chasing them.

Down the path, directed through a small building (CHEESE ALERT!!!!) with plastic displays, and then out onto the path into the “Forest.”

A giant praying mantis? Ok, this is not going to play out like I wanted, is it?

No, I’m thinkin’ not.

Hell no. Definitely not.

This T-Rex was pretty impressive and would’ve been moreso if his lower half wasn’t hidden behind a plywood wall, to keep us from seeing the machinery that made him turn slightly to the left and right.

I think there were about 14 dinosaurs, give or take, and the most serious pictures are the ones above. Forty-five bucks for 20-odd minutes in the House on the Hill, and a walk through the “Forest.”

I’d been had. Hard.

We agreed that a couple bucks a head would’ve been worth it, but not $9 per. Could have done without the lizards. But hey, we made up for it by heading over to the Marblehead Lighthouse.

All in all, a good day spent with my kids, and my adopted kids, and we all shared some laughs. And I hope I remember with some semblance of clarity the places I’ve taken (and will take) my kids, so that when they ask me in years to come about taking their kids somewhere, I can help them avoid the not-so-worth it spots. This will be closed by then, and I won’t have to worry about it.

Salvaging A Road Trip

Cedar Point, Lake Erie, Lighthouse, Ohio

I took my kids and “my kids” on a road trip to Marblehead to see something that won’t be there after this season (more on that in a later post). Parts of it were and were not what I expected. So, after we got back to the truck, I pulled out an Ohio atlas that was given to me earlier this year (THANKS LISA!!!), and looked to see if there was anything worthwhile in the area since we were about an hour from home. Lo and behold, about 10 minutes down the road was the Marblehead Lighthouse. ‘Dudes, we are going to check this out.’

So, ten minutes down the road and I pass the State Park. It’s gotta be close, right? Um, yea, so close that it’s IN the park. Sorry, didn’t see the sign, only one that said State Park. In my defense, I was distracted by St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church, which is in the same eparchy as my church, and the 3-bar cross is what caught my eye.

ANYWAY, sorry, seeing the Marblehead Lighthouse was a highlight because some fellow Flickr photographers have shot this lighthouse numerous times, and I never really checked to see where it was. Pulling into the park and seeing that it was THAT lighthouse brightened my day. So, hope this brightens yours. The view was fantastic!

Cedar Point from Marblehead

(On the back of the sign in the foreground):

This magnificent 65 foot beacon (77 steps to the top), originally 50 feet, was built in 1821 in just eleven weeks. An additional 15 feet was added to the structure in 1903. The US Congress set aside an appropriation of $5000 to build the Lighthouse. The actual cost was $6520. Contractor William Kelley and his crew built it using native limestone.

The current 300mm light flashes green every 6 seconds and can be seen for more than 11 nautical miles on a clear night. The Marblehead Lighthouse continues to serve as a navigational aid for recreational boaters, complimenting other more sophisticated forms of electronic navigation which guide commercial vessels.

 The Marblehead Lighthouse was purchased from the Federal Government and became Ohio’s 73rd State Park in October of 1998.

Cedar Point Excitement

Cedar Point, Family, Holiday, Ohio

I thought it would be different to shoot the folks riding the rides at Cedar Point. I still have more photographs of the other sites at the park, but between Kristen and I, we got the reactions of some of the riders while on the roller coasters. Some of the shots are a bit fuzzy, but the excitement is very evident.

Iron Dragon

Maxair

Top Thrill Dragster

Thunder Canyon

Well, some of that excitement might be absolute terror, but really, who can tell the difference?