Erie Lodgings
22 August 2016
The falls may be far from my favorite place in the world, but I can now say that I have seen one of the seven wonders of the natural world twice. Oh wait...its not one. It barely makes the 7 natural wonders of North America. Well at least that validates my feelings of general disappointment towards them.
Today I was expecting some spectacular, nearly constant views of Lake Erie from our route. Nearly constant might be pushing it, but I was not disappointed. The minute we crossed the Peace Bridge from Canada to the US the lake was visible. And when we came through the border we got a view from the eastern-most point of the lake. For the majority of our drive we chose to leave I-90 behind and take the slower Route 5 that promised scenic detours.
Our first planned stop was Dunkirk Lighthouse. In our approach we passed what was obviously a fantastic road-side grill. It looked like a typical ice cream place, but had a terrific bbq menu as well. This is the type of place you hope find while on such a trip and are not to be passed up. Thank you, town of Dunkirk, NY...oh right, the lighthouse. It provided a great view of the lake and made for a terrific picture.
Presque Isle was our second planned stop and was starting to seem like it could be a waste of time. Even as we parked next to the lighthouse - note that I had looked for lighthouses on the lake because the purpose of a lighthosue promises that its visible from the lake and therefore in return should provide a good view of it - I didn't think it was worth getting out of the car. But crossing the road, sand, a beach was clearly visible. And as we walked out to the water, we got the best view of the day.
Two hours later as we approached our final destination for the day, Cleveland, we took our first unplanned detour to Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve. Just to stretch our legs on a walk, on which we saw plenty of nature, would have been enough. However, the preserve had a designated outlook where you could see the Cleveland skyline and, of course, Lake Erie. This, I would tell all the guidebooks, is the best way to see Cleveland.