Stories

I visited my daughter who was living in Marysville. Her friend took us to a river where we could rent a kayak. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I asked the boat keeper if anyone ever tipped over. He said, Oh no, that has never happened. I was at the front of the kayak, my daughter was steering. The river made a little bend and the current was going a little faster. My daughter steered right into the shore line of the canal. There was a BIG thump, the kayak flipped over. We found ourselves twirling around in he water!! I was so scared, I could hardly breathe when I surfaced. My daughter thought I was having a heart attack. She was so strong, she pulled me out of the water, onto the shoreline. Some other kayakers turned the boat over and dumped all the water out. We decided to continue, the day was so beautiful. The river looked so inviting. For the rest of the trip, everyting went just great. It was time to return to the starting point. The sun was shining and we were practically all dried out by the time we got back to the starting area. Then... I stepped out of the boat, lost my footing, and again, fell in the water. This time I was all muddy, and very embarrassed because everyone was there staring.

Joyce

Two years ago we visited Ohio. We had never been before. We had visions of smelly, polluted cities, bad roads,etc. Instead, we found clean, WONDERFUL cities, wonderful people, and NEAT places to visit. We found ourselves at 6:30 one night in the town of Walnut Creek. Had no idea where to stay - we had missed the motel somehow. So we inquired at a place called the Carlisle Inn. We stayed there overnight. We could have stayed there a week! A CHARMING, WARM,VERY FRIENDLY Inn! Went to the DER DUTCHMAN BAKERY the next day, after a very good breakfast at the Amish restaurant next door. The bakery left me in tears upon entering. I had to get my wife. THEIR SELECTION WAS TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE! I have been to a lot of bakeries out here in the Pacific Northwest. NONE even can compare to the DER DUTCHMAN BAKERY. We VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE CARLISLE INN and the DER DUTCHMAN BAKERY to anyone. We WILL go back. Eric & Mary Kohler North Bend,Oregon 97459

Eric Kohler

I was born in the City of Port Clinton, located in Northwestern OH, on Lake Erie, and was reared 11 miles west of there, in the beautiful Village of Oak Harbor, located on the Portage River, which ultimately flows into Lake Erie. In the 50's, it was permissible to burn autumn leaves in the street, directly in front of your home. I and all my young playmates would eagerly rake not only our own yards, but also rake our neighbors yards, for free! I lived half a block away and would drag the leaves three houses over from my home, to my playmate's home. Then all of us would drag all of those smaller piles of leaves into the street directly in front of their home, and make one neat long gigantic pile of leaves for our annual wiener roast! Their father worked as a meat cutter for our Village's largest grocery store and he would bring home bunches of packages of hot dogs and hot dog buns, for the occasion. All the children in our entire block were invited, and he would give each one of us a long stick so we could roast our own hotdogs and our own marshmallows over the fragrant burning autumn leaves! Trust me, if you've never eaten hotdogs roasted this way, you have absolutely no idea what you're missing! Afterwards, we would roast packages of marshmallows this way, under the careful supervision of my playmates' father, of course. I remember one year, I astounded all my friends by eating 5 hot dogs! I just couldn't stop: they were scrumptious! My most favorite haunt growing up as a teenager, was driving the entire peninsula jutting out into Lake Erie, Catawba Island. The scenery was just gorgeous, including the fruit orchards, the vineyards, numerous water inlets housing speedboats, and views of Lake Erie interspersed therein. I would drive to the furthest point of Catawba Island, then catch the ferry to Put-In-Bay! What wonderful memories I have of the ride over on the ferry boat! Once there, I'd rent a bike, then ride it all over the island, stopping at a restaurant to quench my hungry appetite for a fresh perch sandwich! I haven't been able to return home to Northwestern OH since the 1970's, but every autumn, I get incredibly homesick! Not only do I recall our childhood wiener/marshmallow roasts--the smells and tastes still embedded in my mind--I recall the beautiful scenery of red wooden barns "painted" on a perfect fall foliage backdrop of magnificient golds, lemon yellows, reds, burgundys, oranges, mixed in with dark green pines and blue spruces! If you are driving from Toledo on your way to Port Clinton, take route 163. If coming from Bowling Green, take the scenic drive, route 105, which follows the meandering Portage River until you arrive in Oak Harbor.

Barbie (Denny) Insall

The summer that I graduated from high school my fiance' and I took the whole month of August and visited every attraction in Ohio - many places we had never been to and had only heard of, although we both had lived here all our lives. Many of them I have revisited but it was a special summer and it strengthed my pride in my home state of Ohio.

Karen R.Frabott