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Sandusky, Ohio
And all your friends and sedatives mean well but make it worse
Welcome to Cedar Point in Sandusky- a trip that featured a whole lot more screaming, in a good way. Cedar Point is an amusement park on Lake Erie in Ohio, and unlike other amusement parks, Cedar Point is all about the rides- they hold a collection of super fun, super fast rides and coasters that are unmatched anywhere.
If you go to all the trouble of getting yourself out to the middle of Ohio to ride a roller coaster (or two) then you owe it to yourself (and others) to at least do it right. One of the smarter things that we did this trip was stay on the point at the Hotel Breakers, a five minute walk from the park and a waiting oasis if the weather or crowds had dared to turn on us (luckily neither really did). And while the hotel is extremely well located and guests are allowed an early entrance to the park, there are a few drawbacks including cost (it's more expensive than you probably think) and food (which ranged from inedible to barely edible to just plain ok).
The suite we chose was certainly comfortable and had a due east view from the point over the beach, onto the lake and beyond, all from the relative safety of a screened in porch. On our last night, after another full day in the park and just as we left the gates and started walking back to the hotel, the weather on that side of the point abruptly changed with a strong, constant wind that picked up the sand and tried to blind us on the short walk back. Despite such a wind, I kept a promise to myself and others and willfully chose to spend the night sleeping outside in that screened in porch, with nothing to keep me safe from that constant wind, the lake and the stars, unless of course you count all those blankets and that air mattress I dragged all the way to Ohio just so I could sleep (almost) outside. By morning the wind had finally started to die down and awoke to discover that I had survived that long chilly night, one that often felt less like a peaceful lakeside slumber and more like trying to sleep inside a jet engine.
This slideshow page bounces around a bit, including this trip to Washington DC, an Amtrak trip down to the the Modernism show at the Corcoran, which is not pictured here. Instead you’re looking at two pictures from a sunny June day and my tidal basin memorial loop walk, including the waterfalls of the FDR Memorial and the mini Monticello of the Thomas Jefferson one.
The still new Museum of Modern Art building in New York is hard to get used to (I want to like it more than I do), but luckily the big Richard Serra exhibit there (Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years) remains super impressive, even as it takes over the entire sculpture garden.
We’re staying in New York for another temporary exhibit, and this one is in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal. This is Celluloid Skyline, a collection of backdrops of New York City used as backgrounds in movies, located in an actual New York City setting used as a background.
This is my favorite piece at Celluloid Skyline, a backdrop of the original McKim, Mead & White Penn(sylvania) Station. This is perhaps the one building I wish I could go back in time and really see. All of the original pieces are there, the basic plan, the tracks and platforms, some railings and staircases, a little of the underside of the glass block floor that you can see if you know where to look, but all of it now is so crushed and depressing. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine what the space would have really looked like, even when I’m looking at an almost exact simulation of it.
I have been to Acadia National Park in Maine a lot, so many times in fact that it's hard to tell exactly how many times it's been. Maybe eighteen times, maybe twenty, maybe more. Life (like these annual Maine Slideshows) starts to blur together after a while. One thing I am sure of is that during every single one of those eighteen or twenty or more trips I have managed to enjoy at least one common experience. The five star Ocean Trail is (mostly) easy, often along a busy road and always unmissable. It stretches past and connects the best and most popular parts of the park's coast in a quick three mile out and back trip. Along the way are all the rocks and trees and water and cliffs and mountains that you can stand, an easy to understand and hard to ignore reason as to why you came all that way and why you just know that it won't be all that long before you go back again.
It’s October 27th and it’s hockey season. If you know me, you probably know that I’m a New Jersey Devils fan, and was excited to attend the first game at their new home arena, Prudential Center in Newark. It was opening day, and parking wasn’t terrible but it took forever to get through security. But that’s ok, it’s everyone’s first day at the new place. I’m sure everything will settle down once we all get used to it.
My initial response to the arena is that it’s way nicer than the old one at the Meadowlands, although I certainly don’t feel comfortable there yet. And I’m not sure if the hometown Devils do either, since they ended up losing to the Ottawa Senators. But that’s ok, it’s everyone’s first day at the new place. I’m sure everything will settle down once we all get used to it.
