August 2026: A Great Lakes Road Trip: Day 4

Day 4: Monday August 10, 2026

This morning started with me stalking weather forecasts and we ended up having a slower start than anticipated, thanks to quite a storm rolling across Lake Erie about 7:30 am. It was pretty wild to watch the lighthouse just disappear in the storm clouds.

While it stormed, we had a breakfast of road snacks and packed up. Once the storm started winding down, I filled bags with ice (I’d literally packed a couple boxes of different sized Ziploc bags, and these were a great thing to have with us) for the cooler. When the storm was really over, we hauled our stuff out to the car and checked out. Then it was off to the park for round 2.

We got to the park about 9:30, half an hour after early entry for hotel guests officially started. We wandered a bit, before Nick got into line for Top Thrill 2. This was a ride he had said yesterday he did not need to ride, but with ride closures plus early entry ride limitations, he decided to ride it anyway. I think he waited about 40 minutes. This ride is NUTS. I occupied my time waiting by getting the Coke Freestyle package for me for the day and social media-ing. Eventually he re-emerged, thoroughly impressed by this coaster.

 
We headed deeper into the park, where we took pictures and then Nick and I both rode Iron Dragon. This is probably Cedar Point’s version of a family coaster. It was totally doable for me. We also marveled over the fact that to evacuate one coaster, people would have to go down dozens of spiral staircases. That coaster wasn’t on my list anyway, but it really wasn’t after that. I HATE spiral staircases.

 
Then Nick saw that Millenium Force, which is apparently the original giga-coaster, whatever that means, was practically a walk on, so I held the stuff while he headed off to ride the giga-coaster.

Nick reappeared probably 10 minutes later, having enjoyed Millenium Force. He said his beard got pretty wild on that one. After that, we wandered through Frontier Town, me grateful that Disney’s Frontierland does not have live animals, unlike Cedar Point’s Frontier Town. This area was RANK. We also got the soda package for the day for Nick. This really is a solid deal. You get a wristband. At each soda station or quick service restaurant, they just scan your wristband and hand you a cup. That same cup of soda is $5+ if purchased individually. The soda package was about $23 with taxes. So 4-5 sodas and it’s paid for itself. Most stations had Freestyle machines.

After a decent break, Nick found his way to Steel Vengeance. This ended up being a MUCH longer wait than what was posted, but it also ended up being his favorite coaster at Cedar Point. He emerged grinning like a kid in a candy shop after that one.

By now it was time for some food, so we headed in the direction of Happy Friar, because who doesn’t like loaded fries?! We split whatever they were calling the fries that were dusted with bbq seasoning and then had pulled pork and bbq sauce on top. These were pretty good. They would have been better if they had had cheese sauce too, but they made a good lunch.

From here we could see that Gemini was actually running for basically the first time since we’d arrived in Sandusky, so while I cleaned up from lunch, Nick headed off to ride that. It was a short wait, and he emerged just as the ride shut down, with guests stuck partway along the track. He did not like this one. Something about male anatomy slapping against the coaster seat.

By now our time at Cedar Point was starting to wind down. We did a little shopping, discovering that there are embroidery kits for sale in the store check out lines for all of us stuff holding wives. We took our picture with a Snoopy statue for my Peanuts loving mother in law. We rode Blue Steel, which is a 1950s wooden roller coaster that I’m pretty sure re-aligned my brain. Nick decided he didn’t want to ride a coaster that had previously been on his list. 

We wandered the park a bit more and then Nick decided he wanted to ride Steel Vengeance once more time. So we made our way there, I took his stuff, and then I set off to find dole whip while he waited in line. I got pineapple strawberry swirl, and it made my day. Then I headed back to Steel Vengeance to wait for Nick, where the people watching was excellent. My personal favorite was the kid that was probably about 10 who admitted to his mom after exiting the ride that, while on the ride, he had “said the f word”. Considering it’s a wooden roller coaster (now on a steel track) that has corkscrews, I didn’t blame him in the least. Seemed like his mom didn’t either.

Nick emerged eventually and decided he had done all he needed to at Cedar Point. So after another soda stop (yes, we did get our money’s worth!) we made our way out of the park and back to the hotel parking lot.

Back at the car, we got organized for the drive, programmed the GPS, and headed out. It was about an hour and 20 minute, very easy drive to our next hotel, the Home2 Suites Perrysburg Levis Commons, a little south of Toledo.

Check in was easy, and after finding the parking lot, we quickly hauled our stuff in and settled in to room 306. We were very happy with this room.

 
Once settled in, we made dinner decisions and walked to dinner. Levis Commons is a business/shopping complex with stores, a movie theater, restaurants and other businesses. I hadn’t really realized this when booking, but really appreciated the convenience factor now.

A 3 minute walk brought us to Bar Louie, a chain we’d never been to, but that we would absolutely go back to. Dinner was great here. As an added bonus, their happy hour runs later than most so we were able to take full advantage of that. The big thing for their happy hour is $6 martinis and they have numerous “signature martinis”, most that are not typical. We’re not martini drinkers, but we had no issue finding inexpensive beverages to drink here. And they were legitimate cocktails. Our first round was a raspberry lemonade martini for me and an espresso martini for Nick. We also got the pretzel bite appetizer. I had a grilled chicken sandwich for dinner that had to be the most tender grilled chicken I’ve ever had. I don’t actually remember what Nick ate for dinner. For our second round of drinks, I had basically a margarita in a martini glass and Nick got the s’mores martini. Food and beverage were excellent and service was too. This was a great find, and being able to walk here from the hotel was wonderful.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel where we chilled, I stalked some weather forecasts and we crashed early.

August 2026: A Great Lakes Summer Road Trip: Day 3

Day 3: Sunday August 9, 2026

This was not a trip for sleeping in, so we were up pretty early. We headed down to the “bagel and cereal bar” breakfast right about 7. This was honestly more comprehensive than I was expecting. There were 3 or 4 different flavors of bagels, plus bread for toast, several different types of spreads for the bagels, some fruit, a couple cereals, lots of oatmeal options (the Quaker instant packs in multiple flavors), juices and coffee. Nick and I both had a bagel and then headed back upstairs to round up our stuff, get ice for the cooler, and then we checked out, loaded up the car and headed out.

I’d google mapped the route, including where to get fuel. By doing this, I found that the gas station pretty close to our first destination of the day was 20 cents a gallon cheaper than the gas station next to our hotel. So, our first stop, about 15 minutes from our hotel was the gas station. Then it was off to national park number 16 of 63 for me: Cuyahoga Valley National Park!

Our first stop in the park was Brandywine Falls, because I’d read that the parking lot here is not very big and fills up. This was accurate, but when we got there shortly after 8, parking was no issue. Brandywine Falls was beautiful. I was glad to see there was still water coming over the falls this late in the summer, and we both enjoyed this stop!

Next up was the Ledges. We weren’t actually hiking the Ledges. I think it would be doable for us in terms of ability, but it wasn’t doable for us in terms of time. We were squeezing a lot in today! But, we were here for the Ledges Overlook. This took us a few minutes to find and was…underwhelming.

Then it was off to the Beaver Marsh. We enjoyed this stop quite a bit. There was a nice path to walk on, and we got to see some big birds.

 Our final independent stop in the park was the Boston Mills Visitor Center. This was a decent visitor center complex, and there was a fair amount to see around it too.

 
Then we made the 10 minute drive into Peninsula, where we parked near the train depot. We decided we might have JUST enough time for lunch, so we looked around, and found Fishers. We took a chance to be honest, with our timing, but it all worked out perfectly. The service was fast (and friendly), and the food was excellent! Nick had a pulled pork sandwich and I had a brisket sandwich. We both were very happy with our meals.

Lunch eaten, we headed back to the train depot where we found our boarding area and got ready to ride the rails. We were in the dome car in the Silver Bronco car of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. These trains are old California Zephyr trains, so I was just hoping that it had stayed cool enough for the air conditioner to keep up, up in the dome.

Thankfully it had. The trip overall was good. We had great tablemates, an older couple from Kansas City. There was some decent scenery and on the second half of the trip, we had some legitimate narration and q&a up in our car. We did just the two hour northbound trip, and that was perfect for us. It let us get some more understanding of the area. The full 4 hour trip would have been way too long for us I think.

 
Back in Peninsula, we got back in the car and made the 10-ish minute drive to our final stop in this part of Ohio…Country Maid Ice Cream. Obviously we need some local ice cream on a vacation! I had penuche fudge ice cream (brown sugar and caramel flavor) and Nick had something involving cherries. We both really enjoyed our ice cream, especially after a humid day in the national park.

Then we hopped back in the car for the 90 minute drive to Cedar Point. This drive was also uneventful. It also made me glad, as we got closer to Cedar Point, that I had booked us in a Cedar Point hotel that was practically at the park. The area right before you cross the causeway to Cedar Point is probably not where I want to stay. It was pretty fascinating crossing the causeway. We kinda went around a corner and all of a sudden, roller coasters came into view, kinda looking like they were coming up out of Lake Erie.

There was a definite traffic system, so with a lot of direction from the people working the parking lots, after a tour around the backside of the amusement park, we made it to Hotel Breakers. Unfortunately, I think everyone else that was checking in that day arrived the same time we did. I genuinely think I’ve stood in shorter lines in Disney than what I found when I walked into the lobby. Thankfully, it moved fast enough, and probably 20 minutes later, I was headed back to the car with a packet of stuff. We moved the car to the parking lot, unloaded what we wanted for now, and set off to find our room, 2304 in the main building. We found it easily enough and decided that while we liked having a bench and coat hangers in the entrance area, they could have given the bedroom area a little more space. We also decided that this was definitely not Disney and that their definition of lake view room is a stretch. But, the room itself was clean, so we settled in and made a plan.

 
Plan made, we headed over to Cedar Point. It was about a 5-7 minute walk from our hotel room to the Magnum entrance to the park. We had our tickets already, because I’d booked this as a hotel/ticket package, so we scanned in, and headed in.

Once in the park, we pretty much just walked around just trying to get the lay of the land. Nick did ride one roller coaster, Magnum. The crowds were high and it was HOT and HUMID, so we called it a fairly early night, got frozen drinks at the 21 and COLDER bar (strawberry margarita for me, blue raspberry lemonade for Nick) and headed back to the hotel. That’s the beauty of “enter the day before your real ticket, after 4, for ‘free’” tickets!

Back at the hotel we debated going down to TGI Fridays for some apps, but eventually decided not to. I had a snack bar and then headed down to the beach/boardwalk area behind Hotel Breakers while Nick stayed in the air conditioning.

Most nights during the summer, Cedar Point runs Boardwalk Nights, which involves lots of entertainment. So down on the beach, I found a small kite show. I also found the Bellhop Boys, which was basically Cedar Point’s version of Epcot’s Jammitors. They were great.

When I’d seen enough of the entertainment, I did some picture taking along the beach, before heading back to the room.

Back in the room, we snacked a bit and then crashed for the night.