4th of July Festivities

Well, Bryce had to work on the 4th, and Nicolas didn’t really want to go to any parades or anything, so we hung out at home in the morning.  After lunch, we headed down to nearby Fremont, OH where I had heard there was going to be concert by Toledo Symphony Orchestra on the grounds of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Home.

There was apparently a parking issue due to a bigger crowd than they expected, but we easily found a spot on the street just a couple blocks away.  We walked to the grounds, and joined the crowd already assembled on the lawn, just in time for the concert to start.

The Orchestra was on the porch of the Hayes Home.

They played a selection of patriotic tunes, and during one medley of songs had a couple dressed as Rutherford and Lucy Hayes reading from the letters they wrote to each other while he was away fighting in the Civil War.

Nicolas said it wasn’t exactly his type of music, but it was pretty good, and in the final number they had some Civil War Re-Enactors shooting off cannons.

That was exciting! and loud!

Afterwards, we walked past to take a look at the cannons, and got to see one more firing up close!  They let the announcer fire the cannon (ok, it was just a blank – no actual cannons were fired),and I think he was shocked at how loud it was!

After the concert, we went back to the camper to get Casey out for a while and give her dinner, then we headed into Port Clinton for the evening.  There were lots of activities planned, including a car show in a park in downtown.

It was a small show, but there were several really nice old cars,

and some interesting & unique ones, too!

I think this one would look great behind the motorhome!

You could drive it to the beach and have your own diving board!

Nicolas had his own favorites!

After looking at all the cars, we enjoyed a complimentary dish of ice cream at the ice cream social, and then went in search of somewhere to eat dinner and a good spot to watch the various fireworks scheduled for that night.

We were told that if we went to the state park east of Port Clinton, we could see not only Part Clinton’s fireworks, but also Put-in-Bay’s and Cedar Point’s fireworks.

We found the state park, and sure enough, there was a group of people congregating along the shoreline with chairs, so we were in the right place.  We picked a good spot and set up our chairs.  For a hot day, it was quickly cooling off as a strong wind was blowing in off the water!

None of us had brought sweatshirts, so we had to get the quilt out of the Jeep and huddle together under it!

We watched the sun set as we waited for the fireworks and the crowd continued to grow.

Despite the chilly breeze off the lake, it was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed watching the fireworks over Lake Erie!

North Coast Inland Bike Trail

With the 4th of July holiday coming up, I had some time off work so we wanted to plan a few outings.  While researching things to do around Sandusky, we discovered that Cedar Point was offering free admission for active-duty military on July 1 – 4.  Nicolas wanted to be able to take advantage of that, so on Saturday when Bryce had a split shift (he was off from 2 – 7pm), we dropped Nick off at the park and he met up with Bryce.  They really lucked out that it had rained briefly in the morning, apparently scaring everybody off, so they had almost no lines for any of the roller coasters. 

They had a great time, and while they were riding coasters, Tom and I visited a local winery.

Brad, one of the other workers in the RV Park, had mentioned to Tom that he played music at the winery on Saturday afternoon, so we went over to taste a little wine and listen to some music.

It was a nice afternoon with good music and tasty wine, and we enjoyed the company of Brad’s family!

Talking to some other campers, Tom learned about a bike trail that we could pick up a few miles south of us in the town of Clyde. From there, we could ride about 4-1/2 miles to the east to the end of the trail in Bellevue, or ride 7 miles to the west to Fremont.

We arrived at the parking lot in Clyde, which is in the center of town, at on old railroad station.

We had decided to ride the 7 miles to Fremont, which was fairly ambitious for a sunny afternoon with temps in the 80s.  The trail is on an old railroad bed, though, so it’s pretty flat and straight, so not too difficult.

We unloaded the bikes from Nick’s truck, and were ready to go!

We were off!

The trail took us through the town of Clyde, past the Whirlpool Factory, and through the Ohio countryside.

As promised, the trail was flat and straight.

It wasn’t the most adventurous ride we’ve been on, but still a nice trail.  We rode through cornfields,

and saw cows,

and even crossed a river at one point.

There were benches along the trail, and one pit stop  complete with a shelter and porta-potty.

Most of the benches were sponsored by local running clubs and cycling clubs, but a few by individuals.  Nicolas spotted this bench – and was curious to find out who Dickie and Ernie were . . . we had to take a picture on their bench!

We reached the Biggs-Kettner Park in Fremont, which was our turn-around point for the ride.  The trail continues for another 15 miles to the west, but we’ll leave that stretch for another day.

We took a break in the pavilion, while Nicolas tried (unsuccessfully) to find a geocache.  Once everyone was rested, we turned the bikes around and returned to Clyde.

It was a nice day – a great one to spend outside, getting some exercise, but we were pretty much beat by the time we got back to the RV!  I think we need to get out and do some riding more often!

We decided to stay put for the rest of the summer, so we finally got our site set up . . . it looks like home now!