Explore all that Ohio has to offer.

Went to Seneca Caverns today and it was very interesting and informative as to how some caverns and caves are made.

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We took our grandson to the Akron Zoo and a great time was had by all.

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This was an interesting historical home, only the first floor was tourable, the rest was storage or office space. The gardens were very beautiful and I enjoyed walking through them with my husband. But I have to say this is one of those been there-done that kind of places for me.

What is Roaming the Halls of Punderson Manor?

I love to visit Ohio’s beautiful state parks for a little rest and relaxation, and Punderson State is a very beautiful park to visit. Punderson has an 18-hole championship golf course, the usual fishing, boating, hiking trails, indoor and outdoor pool, and if you are lucky you may run into a ghost or two.

Punderson Manor House is an English Tudor-style Mansion. It contains 31 spacious guest rooms, a full service dining room-serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, cocktail lounge and a gift shop.

My husband and I visited Punderson on October 3, 2008 on a bright and chilly morning. The long winding road builds up the suspense, like the opening of Wuthering Heights. But nothing could have looked less sinister. The picturesque roof slates, mossy and uneven, the golf cart parked by the service gate, the crackling fire in the reception desk area, the cheery dining room overlooking the lake.

The dining room with its huge fireplace was the site of a horrifying apparition of a hanging man, seen by employees in 1979. Today the Punderson manifestations seem more prosaic. The employees told me that individual lights blink on and off, although I think this is physically impossible because the lights are all on the same circuit. Sometimes the lounges TV will turn on by itself or the employees can here it playing, while they can see it sitting there with its screen dark. Eerie!

Guests have also complained of noisy parties going on in the room next to them, yet they are the only guests in the house. Other guests have heard noise in the room above them, but there is no room above them.

We didn’t encounter any paranormal activity but if you look really close at my photographs you may see an orb or two.

Punderson State Park

11715 Kinsman Road

Newbury 44065

P.S. If you look reallyhard, you might be able to spot an orb or two.

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Breitenbach Wine Cellars is one of the wineries in Amish country we visited, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Breitenbach Wine Cellars has forty different wines made in their state of the art wine cellar and many of them are award winning wines. They have won international medals as well as many medals in the US including a double gold at a wine fair in San Francisco.

They also have a café opened Tuesday-Saturday 12:00 pm until 3:00 pm serving bakery, panninis and salads. They also have a gift shop and deli.

And, yes they do have wine tasting. They have regular size glasses of wine and allow you to taste as much wine as you would like. This was totally awesome because most places just let you have three or four tiny glasses. And it is probably even better for business because after you are all liquored-up, more wine always seems like a good idea. We left with $300. worth of wine and one of the bottles was bought because it was called “Charming Nancy” and that’s my name so of course we had to have it. Pretty cool! Breitenbach Wine Cellars gets two thumbs up from me and it was really lucky my husband had the fore thought to get that room for the night.

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Marblehead Lighthouse is the oldest, continuously operational lighthouse on the Great Lakes. It has been featured on a U.S. postage stamp, has appeared on the license plates of Ohio’s drivers, and was recently added to the Ohio State Parks system. Found on the northernmost tip of the Marblehead Peninsula, this popular lighthouse’s history began in 1819 when the fifteenth U.S. Congress decided that the area was too dangerous to be navigated without some sort of beacon. The sum of $5,000 was allocated for the construction of a light tower at the entrance to Sandusky Bay at Bay Point, Ohio, hoping that the lighthouse would help vessels travel safely through Lake Erie’s nor’easters and the clusters of small islands on the southernmost coast of the lake.

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Kalahari Resort & Spa

7000 Kalahari Drive

Sandusky, Ohio

Kalahari Resort is an African themed resort and water park. It features spacious rooms and condos, restaurants, snack bars, a marketplace for buying food to prepare in your condo. The indoor and out door water parks have some awesome rollercoaster -like slides and it looks like two football fields of pools and water park games and fun activities inside of the pools. The staff inside the water parks are young and a little disinterested in actually working, and find it more enjoyable to stand around and talk. So, customer service inside water park-bad, customer service in other parts of resort-excellent.

I was definitely impressed with this resort and would go back with my grandson and granddaughter, or even just use the water park for the day because it is so much fun and very enjoyable.

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The Jeptha Wade Memorial Chapel is the greatest architectural treasure at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. The peaceful elegance of the building belies the glittering grandeur of the interior, which was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and dedicated in 1901. Inside the four ton bronze doors is a spectacular stained glass window depicting the Resurrection flanked by scenes from the Old and New Testament created in shimmering gold and glass mosaic. It is one of the few interiors in the world designed entirely by Tiffany.

The James A. Garfield Monument is the final resting place of the 20th President of the United States of America and his family. This is one of Lake View’s most famous monuments and was paid for with contributions from the citizens of the United States and was dedicated in 1890. It rests on the highest point in the cemetery and from the balcony you can view downtown Cleveland and Land Erie.

James A. Garfield was shot by an insane man just three months after taking office, and died eighty days after the shooting. He was the fourth elected president to die while in office.

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3 Public Square

Cleveland, Ohio 44114

The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument commemorates the American Civil War; it consists of a 125’ column surrounded at its base by a Memorial Room and esplanade.

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