The Beach

I have a friend who moved to the eastern Cleveland 'burbs about 8 years ago. Cleveland is close to his family in Dunkirk NY and very close to my hometown. (only 70 minutes from their house)

She always tells me she brings the kids to the water park in my hometown (really nice water park) But they have never gone to the beach. WHAT?

Now if you go to my hometown the beach is THE thing to do in summer. I've told her for years to go to the beach, her girls will love it. Then in March when we stayed at their house we discussed this again. They drive 70 minutes to go to Wegmans grocery store in my hometown because they don't have one. Yet they don't go to the beach. That baffles me.

I spoke to her last Thursday and she told me her sister in law in Dunkirk is meeting her with her children at the beach. It's in the middle for both. 

She said, "I know you will like that I'm finally doing it." 

She made a few quips about the beach and I said, "You will think you're anywhere but PA. Trust me the girls will love this and so will you. You will not be disappointed.  She was ever so doubtful. I text my friend Katie and asked what she thought the best beach was for the family. Since I no longer live there I wanted to give her the right one. Each beach has it's own personality.  

I try to avoid the family beaches most times so I wanted to be sure my idea of beach 8 or 10 would be correct.  My friend said, Beach 8, with concessions, bathrooms and lifeguards.  Apparently there is a life guard shortage so she knew this one was going to have all that was needed. 

I also suggest they go to Sara's at the entrance to the beach and have lunch or an orange sherbert twist. She again laughed. I told her the best hot dog she will ever have east of Chicago. She told me I should work for their Chamber of Commerce.

Well I got a call from my friend who thought the beach would be awful and guess what? She was floored. She couldn't believe this was here all along she said. WHY? I've only been telling you for 8 or 9 years. She thought it was like florida with bad sand. That made me laugh but it's spot on true!

She went on and on from the lunch and ice cream to the beach itself. I told her to drive the entire peninsula first before going to the beach so they could see historical things as well as the trails and all beaches. Guess who's going back next week? She wants the girls to do the historical things as well as the beach.

She made me laugh when she apologized to me. I told her to apologize to her daughters because they were never taken there. She laughed. She just went on and on and waxed poetic about The Peninsula as the locals call it, but it's Presque Isle State Park. And yes, it's free to go there which is rare for a state park.

Here is a photo of how it jets out from the city of Erie PA

This is beach 10 where the wind is perfect for kites (they have major kite tournaments here) and wind surfing.

There is boating, fishing, nature trails and an environmental programs at the Nature Center, there are bike paths and walking paths, you can rent bikes, you can rent boats if you don't have one. All kinds of events take place here. There are beaches that allow those in wheelchairs access to the beach and water. (how cool is that) There are picnic tables and grills throughout the park. There is so much to do here for all levels of activities that if you are bored here you are boring. I took my nieces when they were little to a lecture of sorts on all the critters at the environmental bldg. A ranger came out and told the kids all kinds of things which made my nieces excited to see some of the animals found in the park. 

My nieces were 5 and 6 at the time. They heard the man speak of foxes. 

They had also just seen the Disney animated movie The Fox and The Hound. When we left we took a ride around the peninsula. We saw foxes in this small area we pulled into and they wanted to get out and pet the baby foxes. The 5-year-old wanted to get out of the car and opened the door. I grabbed her arm and said no, these are not friendly like in the movie. These are wild animals, remember what the ranger said? I put on the child locks just in case. We sat in this area and watched them. I kept telling the girls that they are so small I bet the mommy is around somewhere. They wanted to wait until the mommy showed up. They were worried they were lost. They were cracking me up. We waited and sure enough, mom comes along and they all go back into the woods. 

I love beaches but I also love this place in all 4 seasons. They do a great winter festival. Rick made a snow sculpture of sorts of a Porsche. I must find that photo. He came in honorable mention. He and I spent all seasons there. I liked to cross country ski there. The trails bring you through such wonderful scenes. Once I about peed my pants because a bunch of deer was standing on the trail. I stopped and hoped they would just move along. They were huge and I was alone. We stared at each other for what seemed like a long time. Then one of them made a snort and I still stood there frozen. Then slowly one by one they just crossed over the trail and went into the woods. whew. I didn't want to piss off the deer.

Rick loved to fish on the bay. Oh, how many 5am mornings he would insist I go with him.  I love being on the water but I am happier at 10am. But I went many times. Rick also took me to the lagoons. You can only go there by tour boat or a boat without a motorized engine. So Rick would fish from his canoe. You could see all kinds of animals that way. I just napped or read and enjoyed the sun. 

Of course there is a lot of historical monuments and history there. The Battle Of Lake Erie is taught in Civics class so I went several times as a kid but if I am being honest the beach was more my thing. 

I was thrilled that my friend finally made that trip. You can't run into a person there and have them not be from Pittsburgh. It's a huge tourist area. Those who live there do not enjoy this enough. But Pittsburghers make the annual 2 hr trek. I met a Pittsburgh family once who was having a family reunion there. I had dropped my chair attempting to make only one trip from the car to the water and boy my arms were full.  I heard the accent when this man said, "Hey I got that for you"

I asked if they were enjoying themselves. He asked if I was local. He said I only meet people here from the 'burgh. I laughed and said it's crazy to me too!  He said if this was my back yard I'd be here every day. I told him I was. He told me they came up for the winter festival and enjoyed it more than they thought. I told him with the amount of snow we get we must have things to do. He laughed and then we went on with our days. I find it sad that a lot of the locals don't appreciate what they have. I know my friend Katie enjoys it as much as me. 

As a young girl, we would ride our bikes to the peninsula. My parents wouldn't allow that. Too far they'd say. So when I rode my bike to Cathy's house we'd ride to the beach. While I was old enough to drive I never got the car. So one summer day at age 16 I headed to Cathy's wearing my suit under my clothes. Cathy, Kim, and I rode to the beach. We would meet boys there you know. Because at 16 what else is on your mind.

I recall a year or so earlier meeting a man who sang in a band who had a song on the local radio. I really think they were more regional than national but I could be wrong. 

One of the guys invited us to their show but my father would not allow me to go. 

I was 15 at the time.  I believe Donnie Iris and The Cruisers was his 2nd band and these guys were part of a band called Jageerz with a hit called the Rapper but I could have that all wrong with the dates and bands. Nonetheless it was Donnie Iris and when they were hitting on us we thought we were so cool which is pretty damn funny now. They followed us like puppies. A young girl in a bikini, remember those days?

We were told we could pick up tickets at will call. Oh, how I wanted to go. 

And oh how mad I was at my father for not allowing me to go to their show. 

Of course, looking back I realize these boys had no idea how young we were. 

We were rockin' our bikini's and we acted older than our years.  

I know we looked far older than we were. (1970?) 

But we were so thrilled they asked little ole us. 

My friends were not allowed to go either. 

That was my short time of being a groupie. HA HA

On the way home from the beach one day we girls were riding back to Cathy's house wearing bathing suits (still wet) with our clothes in our beach bag. 

We could dry off was our lame thinking this way and then put on our street clothes at Cathy's before we two headed home. 

A car full of boys hung from their car windows and smacked our asses while we were on our bikes as they slowly drove by. I fell off my bike as did Cathy. 

I remember vividly that my front tire went off the side of the road onto the gravel and I tried to get back on the road and got smacked again. 

The entire right side of me went across pavement and stones. I had a brush burn from my arms to my ankles. OUCH. All I could think of was how do I tell my parents about this? If I had on shorts it wouldn't be all over me like it is. 

What if they saw me in my bathing suit in our little pool in the back yard?  

Well I never went in our pool until that was gone so my parents could not see this except on my legs and arms. I told them I fell on my way back from Cathy's. 

Good thing I wasn't pinocchio!

I am a beach person but even if you don't like the beach, there are so many other things to do and a sunset on the penisula is gorgeous. On a clear day you can see Canada and I sound like Sarah Palin. LOL

So if you are ever in that neck of the wood you must go. Don't wait like my friend did and then realize you missed out on so much beauty and fun.