June 6, 2018 Wandering Aimlessly Across Ohio

After a wonderful day and night at America's Most Beautiful Summer Pleasure Health Resort, we have all day long to get back home. 

Our first stop is right here in Sandusky. I am excited to be here because I love being a 53 year old kid.

We spent about an hour wandering through the relatively small but impressive Merry Go Round Museum.

There are a lot of impressive hand carved Carousel horses...

...and other animals. They also have many other items taken from Merry Go Rounds, like the panels pictured above the deer in this photo.

I had to take a picture of the Cyclone. All my childhood visits to Coney Island is why I am here today.

Artists of all kinds were a big part of the early amusement parks in America.

Jungle animals have always been very popular on carousels.

The Tiger with the Dragon Tattoo.

It's like a wooden zoo here.

I took a selfie in this fun house mirror.

Just try to imagine riding a carousel without music playing...I can't either.

There is a small operating merry go round inside the museum. You get a wooden token for a ride with your entrance fee.

A selfie in the carousel mirror.

A very enjoyable place to visit. I highly recommend it. Show some love to the dedicated people that are trying to preserve something special from long lost amusement parks. 

Our original plan was to stop in Toledo, go to the zoo, have a late lunch or dinner, then drive home. But Chrissy decided to avoid the highway. So we drove along Route 2 on the south shore of Lake Erie. Just like people did in the early 1900's...I'm Morgan Freeman and Chrissy is Miss Daisy. We are wandering aimlessly across Ohio...let's see what we find.

We stopped at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory. We both thought this would be fun...we both were disappointed to see that it is closed on Wednesdays. Dejected we headed east on Route 2 for about one mile before seeing this wonderful sign...we both got excited for another type of unexpected adventure.

After checking out the visitor center, we decided to go hiking across a swamp to a beach on Lake Erie. As usual Chrissy is ahead of me on the boardwalk at the visitor center.

We left the tourists behind when we crossed this bridge into the wilderness.

We had a map but somehow we couldn't find the trail through the wetlands...

...I think we need waders for this hike.

We did find this ranger station. I took this for my Uncle Bob who has this same name...different spelling.

Eventually we gave up trying to hike through the forest...

...and followed a raised gravel path through the wetlands forest.

We hiked east along a gravel road and saw a heron fly away from this nest.

There is only one bridge across this canal that divides the wetlands.

We hiked to Lake Erie on the east side.

We saw a Catholic family of geese...

...and a hipster family of geese.

It was a beautiful day for a hike.

With lots of different views of wetlands.

I love the colors and angles in this photo.

This is a wildlife refuge...

...and we saw wildlife.

We also saw old pumping equipment.

I really enjoy seeing lily pads.

We finally made it to the beach.

Just like the beach at Cedar Point, there are dead Drum fish all over the shoreline. ODNR believes some type of virus is killing just this type of fish.

Chrissy relaxed in the sunshine on the beach...

...while I walked around and took pictures. This one is looking inland from Lake Erie.

It looks like we've been hiking on the Crane Creek Estuary Trail.

A selfie relaxing on a log on the beach.

Some color along the trail on our way back.

I bushwhacked through a thicket to get to this sand bar along Crane Creek looking out at Lake Erie.

This bird was singing to us...or maybe to a female bird in the area.

A wetland sea of grass for as far as I could see.

There was such a variety of plant life in the wetlands along this trail.

 

These two trees were way off in the distance...

...and both were filled with the same kind of birds sunning themselves.

Once again, wandering aimlessly provides us with another great day outdoors. 

We did stop in downtown Toledo for dinner on the Maumee River. Then we drove home to see our dogs, who we missed after a wonderful trip to Cleveland.