Lake Eerie - Port Clinton and its environs

This is the close up of the area we visited

the same area shown in a wider perspective

Just after sunset at Cedar Point lighthouse on a windy summer day

From our base near Mason Ohio, it was a straight drive northwards on I-75 of 215 miles approx to Port Clinton on the shores of Lake Eerie; which took us four hours including a 30 minute lunch break. My son felt that having seen the scenic beauty of the forest area in and around Gatlinburg in the Smokies, it was now time to see the waterfront! So, onward to Lake Eerie which is one of the largest inbound lakes in the States. So we landed up, in poor weather, reminiscent of a Mumbai monsoon, in a Port Clinton hotel near the lake shore.

It’s a seasonal location with May to September visitors only. What the locals do the rest of the year; I don’t know as I was told everything shuts down. Maybe they go to Florida! One of the odd things here was that most good family accommodations / rentals / hotels insisted on a seven day minimum booking so we were forced to stay in a chain hotel where we got reservation for three nights.

    We decided to see a well known Lighthouse after we had settled in. There are five lighthouses in the area so we went to see the nearest: Cedar Point lighthouse.  En route we stopped for excellent ice cream near the lighthouse. Earlier, en route, we had stopped at Cheese Haven a store selling over 125 varieties of cheese and cheese related items where we stocked up on cheese, wine and beer. Unfortunately we reached at 6.00 pm and the lighthouse was closed as they close at 4.00pm ! The lighthouse was built in 1862. The light used for navigation until 1909 is located atop the lighthouse keeper’s six room house. Whilst we walked around, we saw a newly married couple with two men and a woman who was their fashion / photo shoot coordinator for the wedding photographs. It was such an artificial scene! The clouds were fast changing and we spent some time walking along the lake front.

Lots of wind but we were spared rain. Port Clinton’s centre has two old two storey structures which were over 100 years old. It’s a standard American town layout except that as it’s a tourist destination, the bars and food places are far more.

Dinner at Jolly Roger recommended by everyone for perch and walleye – two types of fish. These were delicious whereas the shrimp was okay and the finger chips were soggy and round shaped like onion rings!! The actual onion rings were TERRIBLE. Batter hanging and I am sure the cooks had no idea what they should be like or maybe the waiting crowd demanded food rather than quality items. By the time we left it was 8.15 pm, still light but it was a real downpour.

The second day was interesting as we wanted to go sightseeing!! Weather was foul. Extremely windy and heavy rain forecast. We were forced to stay indoors until noon as weather made it impossible to venture out. Went straight to Dianne’s for its Mediterranean cuisine. Food oily with large portion. Good service.

As the rain was drizzling at this stage, we went for a drive. See the map to get an idea. Took the 163 and then 53 to Catawba – another point of the area. Basically it’s a sort of triangle. On the left is Port Clinton. At the top is Catawba and Sandusky is the third point southwards.

Drove all along route # 53 to Millers Boathouse which is the staging point for going to Put In Bay Island but due to the really foul weather, there were no ferries across. In fact the water was so rough that half the pier jetty was covered by the lake waters.

At times, the driving was scary as we had to ‘glide’ through wet patches. Put In Bay is the main town of Bass island where you find numerous tourist entertainments. But we missed out due to the weather. By evening, we found the road closed due to flooding at Port Clinton near Jet Express ferry. Home sweet home memories of flooding came back!

From Millers Boathouse, we took the lake front route, a bit risky but well worth it, to Catawba island state park area and then down to N W Catawba road. Very scenic with lots of trees and snips of waterfront visible. Most of the roads leading off the main road were private and led to the lake shore / private jetties and gated communities – all multimillion dollar areas and my son would not even consider exploring these areas due to stringent local laws.  We saw some really fancy properties. We returned via East Shore Drive and joined Perry St to get home.

Found roads closed to Docks Beach Bar so we had to alter dinner plans. Landed up at an Italian place called Ciao Bella. Large fancy restaurant. The service was excellent, the food rather good. This was the first place where after ages I found my favourite dessert ‘zabaglione’ as it should be made. Due to the health craze, most European restaurants in London have stopped serving it. A real pity as its divine.

 The final day we had no rain but weather was 11 to 13 deg C. we went to the African Safari Wildlife Park as it was a clear day. Great place to take the grandchild. Its 17 miles west of Cedar Point.  This place has two parts – a walk area where the smaller animals are kept and a drive through area where you feed the large animals without exiting one’s car. We saw various animals – giraffe, zebras, bison, llamas, antelopes etc. The bison and deer would really try and force their faces into the window to get their feed.  Their breath smelt awful! The walking area had pigs, monkeys, birds etc. most of them were in the open and looked miserable in the cold weather 7 deg C / 51 deg F and the biting wind.

Lunch was at a Vietnamese restaurant. Best forgotten. We drove around to Sandusky right to the tip in the afternoon and then did a semi circular route back home. Similar to Catawba but better.

This is a colourful local bar in Port Clinton where we stopped for refreshments.

Our final evening we went to Docks Beach Bar which we had not managed earlier due to floods. Great beach side location. Super service. Large old fashioned bar with sea decor.  Huge deck area covered with thick clear plastic sheets so that you sit outside on the deck but the cold wind is cut out. Very expensive. Seeing the large portions being served to guests, I had superb asparagus soup and shrimp cocktail which filled me up. The finale was an awesome chocolate mousse. A fitting end to our visit to Port Clinton – by the lake shore watching the sun going down.

The next day, we had decided to visit Amish country but that’s another blog!! 

Port Clinton has a whole host of entertainment for tourists but due to inclement weather, we were just plain unlucky.

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