After a late start (lunchtime; we’d hoped to leave earlier), we headed first to Catawba, where we drove around to get the lay of the land. We stopped briefly at the Mon Ami Winery, and perused the gift shop, taking home a couple bottles of wine. The winery also has a lovely indoor/outdoor restaurant, but it’s a little more geared toward adults.

Next, we stopped at the ever-popular Cheesehaven and African Safari Wildlife Park, which I’ve covered previously. But I’m happy to report that the giraffes are back from their hiatus at the park. Although I’ll admit to being a little terrified by how long the adult giraffe’s tongue was, as it stuck its head in our sunroof. My wife opted to leave her window closed for much of the ride!

Out next stop was checking out the city of Marblehead, which is really quaint and laid back. We drove past the gated entrance to Lakeside—the Methodist-owned “Chautauqua on Lake Erie”—and eventually made our way to the picturesque setting of the Marblehead Lighthouse. You can pay a couple bucks for a tour to the top (children under 6 are free), but we just missed one tour, and didn’t have the time to wait 40 minutes until the next one.

We intended to hit Train-O-Rama, which has one of the state’s largest model railroad displays, but were disappointed to learn that it closes at 5 p.m., even in the summertime (note that they have a dollar-off coupon on their website). So, instead, we let the boys choose a backup adventure. It wasn’t even a contest, they wanted to go to Prehistoric Forest & Mystery Hill, just outside Marblehead on Ohio Route 163. As a kid, I’d always wanted to visit Mystery Hill, which is advertised on numerous billboards throughout the area. As an adult, I knew it would be totally cheesy, but I was still intrigued to see how bad it would be.

Everything about Prehistoric Forest/Mystery Hill looks like it’s straight out of 1950′s America from along old Route 66. But that’s what I found appealing. We found a coupon in one of the tourist circulars and the four of us cost about $18 to get in. (We passed on the extra charges for the pitiful looking mini golf and some sort of water balloon thing.)

Mystery Hill mostly consists of a little shack that’s built at a 10 or 20 degree angle on a hillside. You walk through it and everything seems distorted. The tour guide tells visitors that it has something to do with strange magnetic forces on the hill, but it’s clearly just tilted. Still, the kids loved it.

Next, the Prehistoric forest consists of a walk through the woods with occasional fiberglass creatures. This was probably a lot more impressive a generation ago, but with the lifelike dinosaur exhibits like the Cleveland Zoo’s current Dinosaurs! attraction, these are a bit pedestrian nowadays. With one exception, these creatures don’t move, they’re simply large forest sculptures. The mythology here is that the Prehistoric Forest was not just home to dinosaurs, but also everyday creatures from today that are unusually large—a 20-ft praying mantis, for example.

Neither my wife nor I was impressed by the place, but our kids really were, and that’s the point. They talked about it for days afterward even as we rolled our eyes a little. They’ve talked about “the next time we go…” but alas, even if we could be talked into a return adventure to Prehistoric Forest/Mystery Hill, our time is running out. The owners of the attraction have decided that this will be the last season. So if you’re in the mood for some old-fashioned cheesy adventure, time is running short.

We ended the day with a great dinner on the outside upper patio at Crabby Joe’s Dockside, (loved hearing the live music downstairs!) sitting on the rocky shore of the beautiful East Harbor State Park, and an ice cream cone at the Pied Piper in Huron, as we traveled back east home. There’s so much to do in this area, I know we’ll be returning—a lot!

And one did look interesting. Just a couple miles west of the Avon Commons shopping area, off Route 611, is Northgate Park. While there’s nothing that particularly unique about this little park, it’s a delightful neighborhood reserve that’s worth a stop if you’re in the area.

We brought our dinner—Mmmmm, Costco pizza—to the park and ate in the very well-maintained pavilion. Then the boys tackles the playground, which had a few more activities than most parks of its size. It was a beautiful, warm Sunday evening, but we had the park mostly to ourselves for our whole visit.

Northgate has a good-sized (I’d guess three acres or so) fishing pond, complete with grass carp, snapping turtles, a fountain in the middle, even a little island. On the other side of the lake from the playground is a pretty formidable sledding hill, which also has a nice view of the entire lake and the cute neighborhood that wraps around the north of the park.

There were also some very friendly … uh, almost too friendly … ducks that patrolled the area near the pavilion. They’ve obviously been fed a lot by people and pretty much aren’t scared of humans. Both boys were very amused by them, but it did make me a tad nervous for a few minutes during dinnertime.

I didn’t realize it at first, but there is also a fitness track that wraps around the lake, and a couple of soccer fields way in the back (west) part of the park. And there is ample green space to just run around in—or it would be a great open area to play frisbee, too.

We did bring our fishing poles, but about 30-minutes of fishing didn’t result in even a nibble for the three of us. There are quite a few benches arranged around the lake (all facing it), so we picked one and that made for a nice place to sit while holding our poles. Saved us the trouble of lugging out folding chairs from the car!

The more I think about the vast swaths of green space, the more I think that we’ll be back to this park soon, but with some frisbees in the trunk.

All the kids got free fishing rods, tackle boxes, bait, t-shirts, etc. Prizes were awarded for the first fish caught, the largest fish caught and the smallest fish caught. As luck would have it, a little boy right next to Josh—whose line was about 2 feet away from his—caught the first fish. But Josh did win one of the 15 door prizes, a nice collection of lures and an Applebees gift certificate, and he couldn’t have been happier.

The weather was less than ideal this year—temperatures hovered in the low 90s and there were only high, scattered clouds. And given that the derby itself started at 8:15 a.m. and ran for three hours, my little guy was over-broiled after a couple of hours. So we cheated and snuck out for 30 minutes for a milk run to McDonalds, enjoying the air conditioning the entire way (we’d run out of bait as it was).

Josh ended up catching just one little sunfish, but that was better than last year, when he didn’t catch a thing. It’s really surprising for my little fisherman, as he does a great job fishing the little 1/2-acre lake next to our home. I will say that the fish were biting a lot more this year and they cleaned up on stealing our worms without getting hooked. An enormous snapping turtle stole the show for a while in our section of the pond, attacking one unlucky fish and slowly feasting on it over the course of 20 or 30 minutes.

Thomas is a genuinely likable guy and walked the whole perimeter of the lake over the course of the event, visiting with the kids and the adults, signing autographs and having his picture taken. Just as at last year’s event, he was very approachable and took a real interest in helping the kids—and share his passion of fishing.

John “Big Dawg” Thompson, the Dog Pound superfan, was in attendance, roaming the shore wielding his enormous bone and wearing his #98 jersey along with dog mask and orange hard hat. We had a great chat (about snapping turtles, of all things!) and I give him credit for wearing that mask for the kids. As hot as I thought I was, I know it had to be about 120 degrees under that rubber getup!

The day ended with catering from sponsor Fahrenheit (delicious!) and the raffle of door prizes. All in all, I give Joe Thomas and the people at MAR Sports Marketing a lot of credit for this great family event. We can’t wait for next year!

But my first time there, probably 6 or 7 years ago, was a real eye-opener for me. I forget what even prompted me to try it out. I’m so glad I did—it’s now one of my favorite places in the Cleveland area, and both of my boys just love it.

And what’s not to love? It’s hardly ever crowded, it’s free (though donations are accepted and encouraged), there are animals inside and out, and it’s very educational. The animals are surprisingly varied. Inside, you’ll find an assortment of turtles (both land and water), tortoises, snakes, bees, coral reef fish, Lake Erie fish, iguanas, and more. Outside, there is another interesting menagerie: Ducks, foxes, a bald eagle, raccoons, several types of owls, a cooper’s hawk, rabbits, turkeys, white tailed deer, skunks, mink, and I’m sure I’m missing a few. Oh yes, and turkey vultures, Josh’s favorites. (He loves their red heads and seems fascinated by the random bones they always leave scattered at the bottom of their cage after a meal.)

One of the main thrusts of the center is rehabilitating wildlife. In fact, if you find an injured animal that you can safely transport to the center during normal business hours, they will take the animal and try to nurse it back to health. Many of the animals at the center—particularly the outside ones—are animals on the way to rehabilitation or animals that they have helped, but for some reason cannot safely re-release into the wild.

The center also has a very nice planetarium (albeit with limited hours, so please check the schedule at the center website) and a lovely Wild Birds Unlimited gift shop that has an educational bent. There is a nice play area near some of the (inside) aquatic exhibits, with plenty of space for parents or grandparents to sit and just take a load off. Kids can play with books, a Little Tykes-type playhouse, plastic dinosaurs and myriad other toys.

As an added benefit, the center lies at the southern end of the Cleveland Metroparks Huntington Reservation. So, about  two-minute drive north of the center puts you at Huntington Beach, one of the best Lake Erie beaches in the area. Which makes me think, that would make a great blog post one of these days …

The river has a series of small waterfalls, some that you can walk right up to, others best viewable by the numerous overlooks built into the hillsides. There’s a gorgeous covered bridge built in the 1990s by Amish craftsman. The bridge is a pedestrian-only structure, but worth a walk over.

There are some interesting old icehouses in one of the lower portions of the park that have been converted to restrooms; nearby, you’ll find a small covered shelter and an assortment of picnic tables. More falls are in this area, and you may see kids playing on or around them, even sliding down the small, slippery slopes. But this is dangerous, and numerous signs warn of a $100 fine for swimming—or, I presume, waterfall-sliding!

There’s also a pile of old sandstone in at one location about halfway from the shelter to the library parking lot. Not sure where it came from or what it was intended for, but there were several mills in the area ages ago. There are even some old grindstones to be found in the river, if you look hard enough. The trails are very well-maintained and only a little bit hilly. There are plenty of places where you can sit on big rocks and just watch the water cascade by.

A short walk from the covered bridge is the quaint Moosehead Hoof & Ladder, at 7987 Columbia Road. The restaurant is a beautiful renovation of an old fire station (and later, a police station), and there are many beautifully restored fire station antiques. The bar is a sight to behold. Servers are dressed in old-fashioned fire station-type garb, and kids are given silly plastic fire chief hats on entering. Food isn’t particularly healthy, but it is very satisfying fare—burgers, sandwiches, and the like. The kids menu is reasonable and pretty varied. And I highly recommend the homemade chips and dip served with the sandwiches. I generally avoid chips/dip, but theirs is so good, it’s worth the caloric splurge.