I can’t believe this is Ohio. Having never been to Marblehead or the dozens of ports and harbors that dot the Lake Erie shore, I felt sometimes like I was in a coastal state as I drove past seafood restaurants, boat docks and outdoor bars. But when I pulled into East...

“I think your animals might be coming down with a little cold.” I had run into an employee cleaning out a stall at the sprawling African Safari in Port Clinton, Ohio. He turned to me and laughed. “Well, the alpaca sneezed on me during the drive-through,” I smiled. It...

“There she is! I have to say, you took today like a champ.” Eric, the captain of the Pirate Clipper, and his first mate Jon, were sitting at the wide square bar at the Crow’s Nest when I walked in. Situated on a dock in Lakeside Marblehead directly on the water, the...

If you would have told me in the last few years that I would reconnect with my love of American Sign Language on a fishing boat in the middle of Lake Erie, I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s funny how we all have old skills that lie dormant, sometimes for years. But...

I’d been sitting on my couch when the idea of a road trip to the Great Lakes came to mind. In the last few days of October, with several adventures left to go and not a lot of money to spend on them, I decided I needed to find a place with a lot of bang for my buck....

“OK get that elbow up. Pull back!” I was standing at the ODNR public crossbow range in Xenia, aiming an arrow at the center of a target. I closed my left eye, pulled the string across the lower part of my face and then let it fly. To my utter shock, it was a bull’s...

Oh Heavens. No. I had neared the landing of a seemingly endless zipline across the treetops of the Little Miami River Gorge. The trees were glowing brilliantly against a deep blue sky, but I was having a hard time enjoying the view. My heart was pounding and all I...

So often, the things that lie just outside our comfort zones are the things that bring us the most joy and fulfillment. I am not a shy person, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily feels comfortable to knock on the door at a soup kitchen and ask, “Do you guys need any...

“Are we allowed to climb that?” My sister Megan and I looked at each other. We were standing in the middle of a cornfield (something Megan and I have done together since we were 9 and 10 years old), looking up at a towering metal overlook. It was a beautiful fall day,...

I love boats. And as I explained to Chris, looking down from the top of Mount Adams to the BB Riverboat below, if I see a boat, I always have the urge to get on it. So I bought us tickets online, and we hiked down Mount Adams and made our way to the BB Riverboat dock...