The night before I got some of our food ready to go. I packed milk and eggs in nalgene bottles, meat in Lock n' Lock boxes and doubled-up plastic bags, and our snacks as tightly as I could in the dry cooler.
We packed up the car, and noticed Aidan had a really swollen tooth. He's been extremely irritable lately and slightly feverish so we decided a call to the doctor would be a good idea before taking off for almost a week. We spent an hour at the office and found out he has a double ear infection. Poor guy. We got our Rx and went home to continue packing. Stopped at the store and the pharmacy before we hit the road.
The ride up was fairly decent. A bit of construction and a detour, not so much fun. I was ok until I figured out our "detour" took us 1/2 hour to make a horseshoe shape--not bringing us much closer. On the trip back we drove straight through the town we met the detour on--I'm wondering if we even *needed* to take the detour. Oh Ohio, what lovely construction you have.
We got there and got started putting things up...
It was HOT and we took breaks. Eventually we had our "home away from home" set up nicely. Organized. Cozy. This didn't last long, as anyone who camps with kids knows.
Our site was close to the trail. A quick walk and we were out on the well-cleared path looking out on East Harbor. It was very nice.
On our first hike of the trip we saw a water snake. There were also some swans out in the harbor. This park has TONS of wildlife! That added to our fun.
The attitude displayed right here is what we dealt with the whole trip. We still had fun, but someone will be more enjoyable when he's older and not sick.
We got camp adjusted a little...
While Aidan took a nap. He was surprizingly cool with the windows open and the fan blowing on him. He rarely napped in the tent (or at all) the rest of the trip.
Now, a big reason we came: the water. We drove up through the park to go to the beach and see what it was like. The evening wind brought big waves. They were gone the next afternoon when we went swimming, but it was enjoyable just the same.
This dinner didn't turn out quite as we'd hoped. We need to learn more about charcoal grilling before we'll be successful with this. Oh well. The pork chops on the camp stove were good. Parts of the corn were cooked enough to eat.
That night we had a small-ish storm. I say small-ish because I'm comparing it to the last night's storm. I smelled a visitor. I heard a visitor. I peeked out and saw our big black furry visitor. For fear of being sprayed I didn't try to take his picture...I didn't want to scare our friend the skunk. I did get a picture of his signature though, and learned not to ignore my instincts that said to take the garbage to the dumpster each night before bed. Lesson learned.
The next morning I made pancakes and sausage for breakfast while the boys took a walk. My little baby is really growing up!! Look at him walk!
Then we went to check out Marblehead Light House before hitting the beach.
You can see Cedar Point from the park.
Settin' up...
After taking a swim Aidan had a snack. He did NOT eat (or sleep) well on our trip, and I feel guilty about that, but he did have fun...when he wasn't grumpy.
After that we went to check out some other areas of the park. It's a very big park I'd say...they have three different camping sections, lots of trails (if you don't mind the mayflies on many of them), a boat ramp, a separate marina, the beach, lots of fishing areas, and the list goes on...
We found the glacial grooves. Not monumental to the kids, but as a Geology major I took interest.
Give a 9-year-old your camera and you get some interesting shots. I liked this one though, blurry and all...
Here's an admission: don't tell my Girl-Scout leaders...I apparently can't build a fire from scratch. I spent about an hour fussing with sticks, twigs, grass, cardboard, and logs, even a few bricks of charcoal...then I gave up and drove to the camp store to buy some fire starters. Good choice.
The wood was still wet from the night before, but we kept the wood we hadn't used in the back of the Jeep. Eventually, my fire began to work out.
We successfully baked some potatoes with the fire, though it took a while.
The storm brought a robin's egg to an unnatural place. I'm hoping that the baby got out ok, but it could have been someone's breakfast..perhaps those skunks (there seem to be a lot up there, the boys saw a baby one on a night hike).
A decent dinner if I say so myself. Chicken breasts, zucchini, and baked potato. Captain D didn't eat though, he was starting to get homesick...on day 2. We worked it out, and the adults resolved to entertain him more...boredom is the leading cause of homesickness I think. We planned on eating out the next day anyway so he wouldn't have as much down time at camp waiting for me to cook.
Breakfast.
This is the day we visited Put-In-Bay. In the commotion of trying to figure out where the "free parking" was and resigning ourselves to just pay $5, I forgot the camera. Oops!! I was a bit upset...but I did a good job of maintaining my sanity on the trip and let it go. The following sparse pictures are of our journey there and back on the ferry, taken by cell phone. Aidan did NOT like the horn.
Captain D and I went to the lower deck so he could see the water. I don't have the sea legs I used to, but I was only a little dizzy. I doubt I could ride roller coasters like a few years ago.
We visited Heineman Winery and took the tour of their facilities and Crystal Cave. The cave is the world's largest discovered geode. Or something like that...it's the worlds largest geode in some respect.
We had lunch at Frosty's Pizza. Otherwise known as Frosty's Bar, but they were serving breakfast and that's what the boys wanted so we stopped. Aidan was entertained by the people and the older two got to catch the soccer match.
We came back to camp and took a long hike. We saw more species. Ground hogs, rabbits, deer. I managed to catch a few of them in my shutter...the ones that weren't scared away by someone checking up on the World Cup on his cell phone. Ahem.
Overall though, the park was very well kept. There wasn't a lot of trash, the water seems to have concentrated it here in this example. It's easy to look past, I just hope the park officers don't continue to look past it, too.
We made it to the basketball hoop, finally. Aidan and I watched for a bit, then he and I went to get the car while they played and it was off to dinner.
That night there was a violent storm. Lightning, thunder, strong winds and rain. NOT fun in a tent. NOT fun with kids, though luckily Aidan didn't wake up until it was over, and Captain D didn't wake up at all.
The storm took on our pop-up and won. We watched as it went down and I said "We have to go out there and get that!" Soaked, we wrestled with the broken, twisted metal that was still staked down in some places, caught on the cooler and table in others. We got it down but I had to take the aluminum table down as well, it wouldn't survive the wind without some shelter and weight. It was a mess. I was soaked. At least it was a much needed chance to run to the restroom though. I never have to go at home, but without fail sleeping in a tent is the most inopportune time and of course I always have to go.
While in the bathroom (luckily close), I met a couple who were staying in an RV near us. They are from Marietta, coincidentally enough, where much of my family hails from. After a quick, reassuring chat I scattered off to the tent to change and pray the storm would pass. It quickly did, but it took a bit of our inspiration with it. Camping in the rain is no fun, especially with kids.
Here's the aftermath the next day:
Yep. That's broken. It folded up ok and made it home, the company is going to send us the part we need to fix it...for free. QuickShade wins in my book, though we've had to replace them in the past for not calling the company.
There was quite a mess in the packing process. Bags and towels drying, junk piled everywhere.
We decided to pack up and head home a day early. The storm did us in, the kids were tired and grumpy, our things were wet and dirty...we'd make a longer day of it on Thursday and visit African Safari Wildlife Park as planned but skip the beach and head home in the afternoon.
I'll have a whole separate post about the wildlife park, I took a lot of pictures and this is long enough already.
Then we came back and finished packing. It was interesting trying to figure out how to rig the straps like dad had them on the way there....but as long as it wasn't going anywhere it didn't matter. We used a few extra for piece of mind.
They slept pretty much the whole way home. It was a quick drive, the couple of hours went by very quickly I thought.
We had a good time, fun, rain, grumps and all. I think in the coming years, things will be more fun and quite a bit easier.
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