I am going to try to make a long story a short-ish story: so here goes. Ever since I went on a little blog trip to the Lake Erie Shores & Islands area about 18 months ago, I’ve wanted to go back with my family. Finally, at the very end of summer (and even after school had started), we were able to get up there for a weekend for a hosted trip. That’s right, all our accommodations and event tickets were provided, but we paid for our wheels & meals. All the opinions about our experiences are my own. I was super-excited to see Lake Erie (it was winter when I visited) and Bobby and I decided to be “fun parents” for a weekend and take our kids to Cedar Point! That’s right, an amusement park. With rides. And lines. And other people. We waited until the day before to tell the kids and they were SO EXCITED! The whole weekend was a blast, and we loved every minute of our trip. Here are some of the great family fun attractions we saw when we were there.
Friday night we headed to Ghostly Manor Thrill Center, a family entertainment center. I had visited here on my previous trip and really wanted to take the kids. They have a super-scary haunted house which we skipped, but they also have skating, glow-in-the-dark mini-golf, a huge bouncy house area, and a suuuuuper-fun XD theater!
On the skating rink, you could do either scooters, roller blades, or skates! Fun to have options for the little ones.
Jonah had an awesome time at the bouncy area, but I could not get any pics because he was a crazy animal running and bouncing everywhere! It was great fun and really wore him out! My favorite part was the XD theater. Sophie and I looooooved it and I could’ve spent way more time there. It was a blast!
If you are going to be in Sandusky, I highly recommend Ghostly Manor. It’s a whole lot of reasonably-priced family fun in one place.
When we were funned-out, we went to our lovely hotel accommodations at the Sawmill Creek Resort. This place is huge and beautiful! It has a golf course, a nature preserve, and beach access to Lake Erie. We loved our room – it even had a cozy fireplace and YES we did use it even in the summer! It was wonderful.
As cozy as our room was, the kids were dying to get in the indoor pool! We had a lot of fun – and Sophie and I had some hot tub time, too! The facilities were super nice!
Of course Sawmill Creek has a gorgeous outdoor pool, too. We were just busy alll day when we were there, so we did our swimming at night both nights! Here’s a peek though.
My very favorite part of the Sawmill Creek Resort was the gorgeous beach at Lake Erie. We had so much fun – it was VERY windy but still a great afternoon at the beach. The wind did spoil our planned evening shoreline cruise though. 🙁 Too many whitecaps, said the captain!
It was really ever so beautiful. I was definitely struck with #LakeErieLove.
We traded the lake for the jungle…sort of…out next stop was the African Safari Wildlife Park. This is a park where you can drive thru and feed all kinds of wild animals from your car window. We’ve done something like this before in Virginia and the kids were so excited to experience it again. This park also had a great little zoo you could walk through, too! We were a little overwhelmed by how many animals there were to feed…we were literally stuck in an animal traffic jam a couple of times! Here are some scenes from our drive-thru feed-a-thon:
Our children kept getting scared and just GIVING the animals our feed cups…so we ran out of food pretty fast. OOPS! It was a really fun experience though!
Finally, the BIG, EXCITING, grande finale of our trip was the legendary amusement park, Cedar Point. Believe it or not, even though we are both lifelong Ohioans, neither Bobby nor I had EVER been! The kids were super-excited, although Joshua is a bit, ummm…timid, so we knew we probably weren’t going to be riding any of the big coasters. Kind of a bummer for mom and dad, but we will just have to make a return trip sans kids!
We had a lot of fun in the areas geared just for smaller kids. Jonah was not afraid to ride ANYTHING. He did awesome! He loved the Scrambler, the Matterhorn, and the bumper cars! We rode them all many, many times!
This was the “biggest” ride we could get Joshua on – the Pipescream. It was a BLAST! But he was too nervous to enjoy it, party pooper. His three-year-old brother and seven-ear-old sister, however, LOVED it. 🙂
We really had an awesome day at Cedar Point. The weather was awesome, the lines were short, and the rides were FUN! The kids did great and we will definitely be back.
We will also definitely be back to the Lake Erie Shores & Islands area. We really want to get out on the lake, and Bobby and I would like to take a grown-up trip there and explore the islands, too.
Thanks to Sawmill Creek Resort, Ghostly Manor, African Safari Wildlife Park, Cedar Point, and Lake Erie Shores and Islands for hosting us. We can’t wait to go back!
Thanks so much for coming to see us at Ghostly Manor Thrill Center. I love your review of our area!
Thanks for having us Jayme. We truly had an awesome time!
I have been going up to Lake Erie since I was a kid. I LOVE it up there! We go almost every weekend during the summer. It’s such a great place for families. We just went to Ghostly Manor for the first time this summer and my son had so much fun! We will Definately be going back. As far as the African safari, we’ve never been. Although I think it’s very close to where we stay. My husband is afraid the animals will scratch our van!!! I’m glad you had a great time!
I really can’t wait to go back. Bobby is a sailor and would love to get out on the water. I think it is great for families and I want to try a grown-up trip too!
This would only be a few hours from us… just sayin’ COME TO PITTSBURGH. 😉