Who Wants to Go to HalloWeekends?

October is my absolute favorite time of the year to visit Cedar Point.  If you live in Ohio and haven’t been to HalloWeekends, you should definitely try to get there.  Not only is the entire park decked out in its Halloween finest, but the cooler temperatures make it the perfect time for coaster riding.  There are family friendly, mild spooky tricks and treats for your little ones during the day and up near the front of the park at night.  If you’re a brave soul, there are scream inducing, frights for you too… and that is just the coasters!  Ride all of your favorites in the morning, then hit the fright zones and haunted houses in the evenings.

So WHO wants to go to Halloweekends for free?  Cedar Point wants to make that happen for one of you lucky peeps. 

That’s right, we are hooking you up with a sweet FOUR pack of tickets (nearly $200 value!) so you can go enjoy a day at America’s Roller Coast during 2014 HalloWeekends. There are just THREE short weekends left, so this giveaway is going to be a quick one. 

Maybe you’ll go this weekend?

Disclaimer:  Cedar Point is one of my favorite blog relationships and I work with them several times a year.  They provided (4) tickets for the giveaway as well as tickets for my family to enjoy Hallweekends.  All opinions are my own.

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So, Toledo Was Fun This Weekend.

Saturday morning, I woke up to this…

Now, two things you should probably know.  One, my Aunt Sue isn’t tech savvy, she doesn’t text me.  I have gotten exactly ONE text from her, ever.  So you can imagine I was completely confused.   Two, I am an up late kind of girl and Friday… Friday, I went to bed early.  Or I would have seen the health department post at 1:30 in the morning that we should NOT consume, boil, or even touch the water coming out of the tap. 

No drinking.  No showers.  No cooking with it.  No washing dishes.  No hand washing. 

Nada. 

Don’t touch it, don’t let your kids touch it, and don’t let your pets near it.

Which is super fun because right before bed, I downed two huge glasses of contaminated water.  And did a load of dishes on the ridiculously hot setting of our dishwasher.

To put it mildly, people were freaking out.  I told Dave that he should probably hit the store for some bottled water, but by 7:20 am, when he got there, they were already out.  Dave headed to Sam’s because his dad has a business membership, which means he could go in at 7am.  There were already lines around the building and the sheriff’s department was there, so he turned around and came home.

I wasn’t immediately panicked because we had about ten quart sized bottles and some 8 ounce bottles in the basement.  The first two quarts went right into the Keurig and I realized pretty quickly how completely under prepared we were for anything longer than a day.  Even more so when we realized that some family members didn’t have any, like my diabetic 89 year old Gram and my sister and my brother.

We take clean, safe, potable water for granted.  Especially here in Ohio where we have access to the Great Lakes and some of the best water in the country, right out of the tap.  And we use way more than we probably should.   

Try turning off the water to your house for 24 hours and seeing how you would cope.  Then tack on another day and a half, just for fun. 

Now just imagine 600,000 people all doing the same.  Stores in cities an hour away were completely out of bottled water by 11 am on Saturday morning.  Just imagine that.  All of the metro Toledo area, Angola, Indiana, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Monroe, Sandusky, Bowling Green, Findlay all being completely out of bottled water in a matter of hours.  It’s sobering.  Produce departments were also completely cleared because of water spray that contaminated anything exposed to it.  Aisles of paper products were empty.

 

I swear you’re going to see me on one of those doom’s day prepper shows because of this experience…

Sunday morning, we went to my aunt’s house to shower and fill up our food grade buckets {Dave bought the last four at Lowes} with water.  We were able to bring that water home and wash dishes and our hands in clean water.  They gave the all clear that it was ok for healthy adults to shower, but didn’t provide even ONE actual scientific number to back that up.  As of Monday morning, when they finally lifted the ban, the mayors office and the Ohio EPA still had yet to release any actual data.   

      

We’re extremely lucky that it was only half a million people affected and not more than one major city.  If Cleveland or Detroit had also been affected, I don’t think we would have been able to have the immediate response that we {luckily} did.  By Saturday afternoon, the national guard had been mobilized and had a plan for truckloads of water to be delivered, the Red Cross had some water available to those who didn’t have any, people were calm and delivering water to those who couldn’t get out.  I saw gracious people handing out bottles of water to neighbors and friends and strangers alike.  There were calm lines and absolutely gracious, smiling, tired faces of our Ohio National Guard, Red Cross Volunteers, and store clerks.  There were people calling and offering showers and places to fill buckets in cities not affected.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all handled perfectly, there were instances of price gauging.  There were altercations at stores.  There were people buying ridiculous amounts of water, that I hope were for more than themselves, but probably weren’t.  The mayors office really dropped the ball disseminating actual information and it just fueled every idiot in the city to fill in the blanks, true or not.  Every rumor you can imagine spread like wildfire on social media.  I really do think his office acted appropriately in not giving information they weren’t sure about, but they should have just said, hey… we have no idea.  Instead they said that they would have answers, test results, and continuously stalled or just didn’t show up when they said they would, it wasn’t good.  By Sunday evening pissed off people were throwing out suggestions about protesting.

They also really need to overhaul whomever is handling their social media accounts.  Pssst… Mr. Collins, call me.      

Cheers to clean water and the ban being lifted.  I’ll wait to drink it, until you provide those actual numbers. 

Fun Things To Do in Ohio: Cedar Point.

Located on the coast of Lake Erie in Sandusky, is perhaps one of my favorite summer activities in Ohio.  Where else are you going to have a gorgeous view from the best rollercoasters in the world?

If you live anywhere near the Midwest, or if you are a fan of roller coasters, you have heard of Cedar Point.  We are fortunate to live a short drive from America’s Roller Coast and head to the park a couple times a year.  Visiting Cedar Point each summer was a highlight of my own childhood and a tradition that we are happy to pass on with our children.  No matter your age, that first glimpse of the coasters when you drive onto the causeway, still starts the butterflies in your belly and squeals of excitement fill the car.  There have been many changes over the years, but classics like the Blue Streak {celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this year!} and my favorite, Raptor {celebrating it’s 20th! anniversary} never go out of style. 

Cedar Point has really become a great place for families with young kids.  This year especially, they have added two new incredible family rides in the Gemini Midway.  The Lake Erie Eagles and the Pipe Scream are Cedar Point’s new rides for 2014 and they have added in some new seating and shaded spaces, really improving the entire aesthetic in that area of the park. 

A change that we were also thrilled to see this year was in concession choices.  Our kids tend to eat {mostly} healthy stuff and amusement parks are notorious for overpriced junk food.  My personal favorites are those Cedar Point fries, I justify every delicious bite with all of the miles we log walking around Cedar Point.  But, man can not live on fries alone, so I LOVED seeing that Cedar Point has added healthier snack options at the park.  At the Coca-Cola drink station near the back of the park, you can grab oranges, apples, and cut up watermelon to go, along with water and juice.  We also picked up the souvenir cups, worth every penny, and re-filled iced water and lemonade all day for free.

We hit up all of our favorite rides, some countless times, and had a great day at the park!  What is your favorite Cedar Point ride? 

Military members, both retired and active duty can take advantage of FREE admission from June 30 through July 6th with a valid ID {military ID or honorable discharge papers} and military families will receive huge discounts on tickets as well.

Disclosure:  Cedar Point invited us to visit the park as their guests and treated us to lunch.  All opinions, commentary, and fun having are our own.

 

  

 

 

Cedar Point HalloWeekends For Families.

Cedar Point invited us to spend the day with them at the HalloWeekends opening weekend.  {Disclosure: Cedar Point provided the tickets + parking for this event, all of the fun having, travel costs, smiles and opinions are our own.}  The cooler weather, shorter lines, fun Halloween décor, and all kinds of spooky entertainment make fall my absolute favorite time of year to visit the park.

If you’re taking small children, I highly recommend going on Saturday when you’ll find all of the children’s areas and Trick or Treat with the Dinosaurs open.  We intended on going during the day and leaving the park when it got dark as the spooky haunted houses and scare zones were open, but we stayed way past bedtime.  We spent the earlier part of the day toward the back of the park and moved up front to Planet Snoopy, the Ferris Wheel, Antique Cars, Ocean Motion, and the Sky Ride after dark.  Cedar Point has done an excellent job of having loads of options for families.

Dave and I are going to try to sneak back without the kids on a Friday night to experience all of the haunted houses, scare zones, and Gate Keeper!  The scary areas looked really fantastic this year.  They are open every weekend through October. 

 

 

Our favorite addition for kids this year is Trick or Treat with the Dinosaurs.  There were trick or treat stations set up throughout Dinosaurs Alive and some of the dinosaurs were dressed in silly costumes.  I want to high-five the Cedar Point genius in charge of this idea, everything was brilliant.  I absolutely LOVED that in addition to a few candy treats handed out by the costumed staff, they also gave out apples and mini pumpkins, Halloween cups, and little toys.  At the end, they also had hay bales and pumpkins and scarecrows set up so you could take fall photos… even if your children are punks who are WAY more interested in watching the animatronic T-Rex family and looking at mini pumpkins than smiling adorably for their mother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I leave you with Finn’s interpretation of being ‘scared’ of the gargoyle looming in the background.

Element 112.

Dave and I had an excellent experience at Element 112 last month for our anniversary.  If you are local, I’d highly recommend it.  We’re already planning a trip back with friends to try the private tasting room later in the fall so we get to sample an entirely different season.  Chris Nixon has done a phenomenal job sourcing fresh, local ingredients, including butter made from his own cow.  He steps just across the parking lot to grab the freshest, in season produce at the Sylvania Farmer’s Market, so each week you’re getting a different experience. 

I don’t want to tell you too much because part of the fun is the dinner event itself.

Trust me when I say, Ohio has never tasted so good. 

 

 

Strawberries.

Next year, can one of you lovelies remind me that TWENTY pounds of strawberries is slightly excessive? 

They had too much fun picking them or rather standing in a field eating berries while I picked them.  We met friends, who thankfully, helped me corral Tate, and still manage to take home two full boxes.  Good friends are an asset in the strawberry picking game, but next year I’m making Dave come along too.

The homegrown strawberry season is so short here, really the best berries are available for a week or sometimes two.  So you have to jump when you get the chance. I mean, you wait all year long to walk out to that delicious smelling field and pluck warm, ripe strawberries right off the vine.   You’re dreaming of shortcakes and pies and jam as you’re pulling the most delectable red berries and putting them into your container.

It’s easy to see how I ended up with so many. 

 

 

  

And then, THEN you get home and have to figure out what to do with all of those berries.

We’ve had strawberry shortcake, strawberries and cream, strawberries over ice cream, strawberries for breakfast, strawberry snacks, strawberries for lunch and strawberry limeaid to wash it all down.  Strawberries are frozen whole in simple syrup.  Strawberries coulis.  Strawberry lemonade.  Strawberry purée. 

And then the freezer jam.  Dear LORD, the jam. 

19- half pint jars of strawberry vanilla jam

12- half pint jars of strawberry jam

15- 4oz jars of balsamic strawberry jam

15- 4oz jars of strawberry vanilla jam

It’s a lot of jam to be sure.  Some is going to our grandmas or friends or our parents.  I’m going to make those fancy vanilla strawberry filled cupcakes for Tate’s birthday again.  And I’m sure midwinter, I’ll be happy to open a jar and have it taste just like summer. 

For now, I’m going to go scrub the red stains out of my hands. 

Again.

 

For my local readers, we pick berries at Johnston’s in Swanton, they have great ‘you pick’ prices {$1.35/pound this year} and the staff are always fantastic telling you where in the field you should look to avoid the areas that have already been picked over.  The girl helping us this year was so sweet, she actually walked out to where we were to tell us that we’d have better luck with bigger berries a few rows over.  We’re going to go back out for blueberries soon too.