Sandusky Road Trip May 2011

We're home now and I'm decompressing, with candles and a frozen pizza. Let's see if I can journal all of this out before I forget the details.

We left last Saturday for the Unschoolers Waterpark Gathering at the Kalahari in Sandusky. We had to cut our trip short since DH is really busy at work, but we still had a great time.

On the way we stopped in South Bend for lunch at Chick-Fil-A. For any Southern friends reading this, you must know our family loves Chick-Fil-A but the closest one to us is over an hour away. It was more than worth it getting off the highway to find the mall and find Chick-Fil-A.

It was a very nice mall, technically in Mishawaka. We saw Paul Blart, I'm not kidding! There was a security guard riding a Segway flirting with a woman at a kiosk. We saw him later stop at the mall's candy shop and load up. If you've seen the movie, I'm sure you'll understand why we were laughing inside. I really regretted not bringing in the video camera.

When we got to Sandusky, we were eager to see the lakefront and compare Lake Erie to our beloved Lake Michigan. It was a cold, rainy day, (which accurately describes the weather our entire visit,) and to our surprise, the lake was brown. I found out this was due to a certain type of algae, although I suspect it also has something to do with pollution. The area is known for coal shipping.

Downtown Sandusky/Cedar Point was also a disappointment. We were expecting a lakefront like Kenosha. It looked like they were trying to re-vitalize the downtown, but hadn't done much with the lake front. It seemed like Sandusky was full of tattoo parlors and tanning places. Of course it also seemed most of the population was young adults working at Cedar Point.

We skipped Cedar Point because the weather was terrible and we had to shorten our trip. Maybe we'll be able to fit this in next time.

The Kalahari was great, but honestly, we prefer the Kalahari in the Wisconsin Dells. They did have a few rides that were different, but the lazy river and wave pool were smaller. Plus they only had 2 spas. They were indoor/outdoor spas and that was neat. I spent a great deal of time allowing the warm water to keep my body warm while I allowed the cold rain to hit my face.

I lost count of how many times the boys went on the rides. We did spend most of our time in the waterpark, rather than at the conference, (insert guilt here). I did go on two rides, Victoria Falls and Swahili Swirl. The Victoria Falls raft ride left my stomach a little queasy having to go through a dark tunnel, not knowing which way the raft would turn. The Swahili Swirl was more fun for me, since it didn't completely go in the dark. After a quick drop, you enter a giant bowl and spin around until you go down the chute - yes - it was like being flushed! :) LOL 

We ate out a lot, but we also did a lot of swimming. How can you not eat out on vacation and swimming makes you very hungry. One of our favorite places was Tofts Dairy. Its a 100 year old dairy that processes milk from local, hormone free farms. The business has been in the same family all these years. They have an ice cream parlor to beat all others, 50 flavors! We ordered smalls but you wouldn't know it from the photo. I had chocolate almond, DS12 vanilla, DS15 Philadelphia Freedom(mint), DH Holy Toledo (caramel with caramel sauce and caramel bits). If we ever have the chance to be in Sandusky again, this place is a must stop. It seems very popular with locals and tourists.

At the Unschooling gathering, we did hear Pat Farenga speak on how important it is to let go and trust unschooling. It was a great booster. I hope we can attend this gathering again next year and stay for the full duration. I also hope we can encourage friends to join us. :)

We found a very cool used dvd/cd/video game store called the Exchange. We ended up going back 3 times during our stay because they had so much stuff to look through. I picked up a couple of Aimee Mann CDs, DH found a few he liked too, and the boys hit the jackpot finding 7 plus games, all for a dollar a piece! If we had this store here in Wisconsin, we'd be in trouble!

Unfortunately, we didn't find any good used book stores. :(

I did hit up CJ Banks at the mall since I had a coupon. Turned out it was good for 50% off my entire purchase so I picked up a few pieces for summer weather.

I knew I was homesick for Yumi when we saw a black and white kitty behind a Wendy's. I wanted to "rescue" her and name her Wendy of course, but in reality, there was no way to transport this sweetie back home. Plus my puma would not play nice with her I'm sure!

We managed to make it home, just slipping by the expected rush hour traffic of Chicagoland. Driving through Illinois was the worst of it, 7 tolls! Indiana and Ohio each only had 2, when you get on and when you get off. Later we'll log online to our I-Pass and really see which state cost us the most to drive through.

We knew gas would be most expensive in Illinois. It was $4.48!  We gassed up in Wisconsin before we left at $3.89, skipping Illinois. Topped off in Indiana at $3.95 to get us to Sandusky, where gas was the cheapest over all $3.78. 

I suppose I'll be playing catch up with laundry but it's worth it. We had a wonderful 5 full days of family time!