Roblog

Kelleys Island

Our first week was pretty special, since it marked the first vacation Donna and I took without the girls since they were born (our trip to Boston doesn't count, since Donna was working then). We drove to Richardson on Saturday, which is where Donna's parents live and where the girls were staying while Donna and I went on our trip. After a restful night, Donna's father drove us to DFW to board a small plane to Cleveland.

So let's get this out of the way right now. Why, when taking my wife on our first vacation alone in almost 7 years, would we select Cleveland as our destination? It was the logical choice. Given that we were starting in Dallas and Donna has miles for a free flight on Continental, we had 3 non-stop destinations that Continental flies to from Dallas: Houston, Newark, and Cleveland. So of those choices, Cleveland was actually the most exotic. We both really enjoyed telling people we were flying to Cleveland for our romantic getaway.

When I realized we'd be flying to Cleveland, I started looking for a destination. Since I like being near water, I literally went to Google Maps and traced along the Ohio coastline looking for something interesting. It wasn't long before I sound the cluster of small islands near Sandusky. I also quickly determined that Kelleys Island was more our style, as compared to the smaller but more popular Put-in-Bay (which was later described to us by a Kelleys Island resident as "Disneyworld for drunks").

So when we landed in Cleveland, we rented a car and drove to Michigan to spend the night. This was mainly to check-off Michigan as another state Donna has visited. Although I requested, and paid for, a sub-compact car to save on gas, what I got was a very pleasant Kia Sportage. I guess the compact cars were sold out, since with the high gas prices, they are much more in demand than they used to be.

We drove during a beautiful sunset to Luna Pier, Michigan, which is just a few miles across the Michigan border. We stayed at a Super 8 and then wandered over to the famed Luna Pier. Although the pier got its name from its crescent shape, I was tickled to get a picture of Donna on the pier with the moon in the background.

We had no plans this Monday, so we drove a few miles farther into Michigan to get to the welcome center (yes, we stayed in a hotel that was even before the welcome center). There, Donna and I both independently noticed a flyer for Hidden Lake Gardens. It looked pleasant enough to spend the time to drive 40 miles west to get there, so we did. It was a great find! Admission was only $3 per person, and their grounds covered in interesting hiking and driving paths connecting natural as well as maintained areas. The highlights were the weeping pine trees and the odd croakings of bull frogs in the Glacial Kettle Hole that sounded like strings being plucked. I would enjoy going back again someday.

We found a little place to eat lunch after we left, driving east back to Ohio. We drove through some severe rainstorms along Route 2, but we outran the storm system so that it was not raining when we got to the ferry in Marblehead.

When we got to the island, we found the bed and breakfast we were staying at "The Inn at Kelleys Island," known to the locals as just "The Inn." It was a pleasant place, and the owners were friendly. The husband is an avid birder who helped establish the audubon club there; Kelleys Island is a great place to watch birds. The house itself is old - built before 1900 - and was once owned by the Kelley family.

We then promptly went to the Kelleys Island Brew Pub, because I had paid for a tour guide booklet that the owner of this restaurant produces. Because of the difficulties getting the book beforehand, the owner had sent me an email saying I could pick up the book and get a free appetizer and tasting tray! It turns out the "tasting tray" was samples of the different beers they make, so we declined as neither Donna nor I like beer. We spent the remaining daylight driving around the island to get our bearings. We turned in at The Inn around dusk, which turned out to be after 9:00 (EDT).

The next day was our only full day on the island. We had our breakfast at The Inn, then went to their patch of shoreline to sit a while. We saw a heron, seagulls, and a snake during our brief rest there among the remarkably smooth stones at the shore. We then followed the "walking tour" portion of the tour guide book, which took us into the town center with a dozen or so little shops.

Our hosts at The Inn had warned us that because of the large numbers of bugs that are attracted to light that were on the island at that time, all the external lights would be turned off at The Inn - she called it a "blackout". That seemed a little extreme to me until we got to the town center and saw the thousands upon thousands of bugs that had camped out on buildings or the ground anywhere there was a light on. They don't sting, bite (the owner of The Inn said they don't even have mouths), or buzz. Mostly, they just sit there, although we accumulated several on our clothes walking around. I was continually fascinated by the bugs, but I never did find out what the bugs are called.

We then drove up to see the main tourist spot on the island: the Glaical Grooves. They were carved by the rocks that were dragged along the bottom of the glaciers during the last ice age. Those rocks wore the softer limestone away, making these deep grooves in the rock. Although it was interesting, I didn't find it as compelling as our next stop: the Alvar along the North Shore Loop Trail.

The Alvar is a rare ecosystem that exists in very few places, mostly around the shores of the grat lakes. To quote the Kelleys Island CC site,

Alvars are unusual landforms which occur in glaciated regions of the Northern Hemisphere. They were once thought of as barren but are now known to contain numerous and distinctive plants and animals. The formation of soil and resulting growth of woody plants are hampered by drought-induced by the porous bedrock. Alvars are subject to constant scouring by waves and ice and temperature extremes.

The alvar was very interesting. Not only did I get to scramble among the rocks on the shoreline and see an island of Canada across the lake, but we saw a fossil among the limestone and several examples of alvar flora.

We drove back to the town center for lunch. Cars are not abundant on the island - golf carts are as plentiful as cars - but it was nice having a car to take us to our hiking destinations, since we aren't rugged, well-conditioned hikers. We went next to see Inscription Rock, which at one time had very distinct petroglyphs. Now, however, weathering has all but obliterated any trace of the rock carvings. I enjoyed seeing the barn swallows that had built nests in the cover above Inscription Rock more than the weathered slab itself.

Next, we drove up to the trail for the North Pond. This trail connects to a sandy beach and has a boardwalk in the forest along the pond. The favorite part of this hike for me was listening to the birds when we paused as the small observation tower along the trail.

That evening, we ate dinner at Kelleys Island Winery, and this time we both ordered a tasing tray for the wine. I had a yummy panini as I watched more barn swallows that had nests on the ceiling of the porch. I loved watching the birds fly across to a recently-mowed field, swooping back and forth just above the cut stalks, and returning with a beakful of insects for their young. I got so I could see them start to come back; as they flew, they would rise and fall as they alternated between beating their wings very fast and then gliding for a short second. We saw one nest where both parents were feeding the baby birds. We did not catch a glimpse of the bald eagles that were reported to have a nest nearby.

The next day, we had time to hike the last remaining large trail: Horseshoe Lake. It was fairly nice, although it was the least favorite of the trails on Kelleys Island. I don't know if my opinion was affected by our belated realization that the long trail was not a loop, and much of it was away from the scenic lake in what used to be an old quarry.

All told, we saw seagulls, Canada geese, herons, snakes, orioles, red-winged blackbirds, robins (lots), bluebirds, ducks, deer (how do deer get to the island, anyway?), swallows (barn swallows, mostly), and others that I was not perceptive enough to discern.

Our return trip was uneventful. We got back to Richardson to discover that the girls had had a great time with Nommy and Paw-Paw. I have to admit to being a little surprised to find out how smoothly the time went for everyone in Richardson, since I still get tired anytime I am the sole parent looking after my daughters for a whole day. Donna's parents seemed no worse for wear and said they enjoyed it. That might have been a tactical error on their part, since now I'm thinking we could do that again someday...

West Grove, PA

We drove back to Houston, and spent two days there - just enough time to do some laundry, rest a bit, get the house somewhat ready for our bathroom remodel (which was planned to start two days after we get back from Pennsylvania), and repack for our next trip. We are starting to make a week-long trip to West Grove during the first week of July a tradition, since we did the same thing last year.

This time, the difference is that the New Jersey relatives came down to West Grove, instead of us going up there for a day. While they were there, we went to Longwood Gardens, which was a very pleasant place to walk around, even with 6 children under the age of 13.

Rather that relate the story of my visit to West Grove (which was mostly visiting with my Mom and my sister and her kids, with a golf outing with my brother-in-law), I'll just point you to my picture set and give you a brief rundown of some highlights.

• The weather was great. It rained (or sprinkled) every day, which is fine with me. I like the rain and it had the added benefit of keeping it fairly cool. Only one day did the temperature get above 90°.
• Mom borrowed a bounce castle from her friends that have a petting zoo business. It's the same people who we visited last year to bounce and see the tame fawn. The girls loved it. I liked it too, but got fairly wet every time I inflated it due to the small puddles of water that had accumulated on it during the last rain shower.
• Longwood Gardens was a really nice time. My sometimes-excitable nieces and nephews got to run around the park and the grounds were beautiful.
• We had the same weather for the Hockessin Fireworks this year as last year: drizzly. We were better-prepared this time, however, so we were able to enjoyably hang around until the fireworks began. Donna says it was the best fireworks show she'd ever seen.
• Despite the rain, I took the opportunity to try to take pictures of the fireworks. Although I did get some pretty shots, I learned that full manual mode, including focus, is best. I just used "shutter priority" mode set at 4-second exposures. That did OK, but the auto-focus didn't work very well in the dark, so I could not control when the shot was actually taken. Next time, I'll bring a tripod and go all-manual.

So, those were my trips, in more detail than all but 3 or 4 people (me included) would want.