Filed under: OH, Sandusky, Travel, Winery | Tags: firelands, OH, Sandusky, wine, Winery
Got the dogs to the borders (Justine’s parents) last night so that the day could start early. Hit the road right on time at 7am with a short stop for McD’s and gas and headed west. We didn’t stop for lunch until we were in Ohio, just before Cleveland. Somewhat congested getting through town, saw the Browns stadium and the Sports Complex.
The GPS did not let us down and we pulled into Firelands Winery at 3:15pm. A beautiful outfit with a small vineyard right on site. They have 2 styles of wine, of course dry and sweet and champagne as well. The dry wines are made from their own grapes grown by Lake Erie on the unique soils and conditions made possible by the limestone and underground streams. Read all about the Firelands Winery and their unique process here: http://www.firelandswinery.com/index.html
For the sweet wines they import from areas around the great lakes. We toured the facility and got to see the final stages of bottling champagne. Pictures are posted at: http://picasaweb.google.com/john.ord/SanduskyDay1
You can not give away alcohol in Ohio so the tasting cost a whopping $2 each. We sampled 6 wines finishing with blueberry and blackberry. I was not a big fan of those 2 flavors but Justine sure was. Good visit and we walked out with a case to fill Justine’s new wine rack.
Checked into the hotel and headed out for dinner at Applebee’s. After dinner we cruised around to mark the locations of all our stops over the next few days. Bed time for now
Big O here starting up the blog to record the travels and tribulations of Zach. Since it is really me that can’t seen to grow up it should really be me covering me. But this way I have a good excuse.
So anyway, we are packing out in the morning for Sandusky, OH! 8 hour shot west to the home of Callahan Auto Parts and the Roller Coaster Capital of the World. If you can’t guess the first reference then go rent Tommy Boy, every one should really own it. The second is talking about Cedar Point Amusement Park – these are the folks that started the roller coaster wars. At any one time they have held records for tallest, fastest and most G’s. They have in operation almost 20 roller coasters and Zach and I will attempt to ride all of them several times.
The good part of the weekend is that there is a percentage that if may rain – crowds will be down and the track will be wet – speed baby! The bad part is there will be lightning involved, that does not play nice with a 15 story coaster.
OK, so that is it for now. Full agenda the whole weekend and I promise that this will be a meaningful blog with all sorts of info and reviews on the trip. Alarm clock at 5am, highway at 7am, McD’s at 7:30am. Those are the plans so far, see you back here later…
Filed under: Uncategorized
Well here is dad again in hopes that Zach will pick up and work on this. For now I will fill in as Ghost Writer. We have a new trip that we are in process of. Took a winter break and headed south…far south. San Antonio, Sedona and Tuson are the stops and some of this stuff needs a story otherwise I will be repeating myself over and over again.
Filed under: Hawaii
1st morning view from the lanai
Hello, Zach here again with another stop on our trip. We have also uploaded all the pics so far to our Picasa Album for everyone to see: http://picasaweb.google.com/john.ord
The dark colored lava in this picture is 100 years old. The brown lava is 200 years old.
This is a plant that grew on the lava, this is how the hard rock begins to break down. We were staying in Kona and this side of the island is like a desert.
We stopped at the black sand beach on our way to the volcano. This sand is the result of 100’s of years of the ocean beating on the lava flow.
Supervising future sand production.
As we got closer to the volcano we went from desert conditions too almost rain forest, every thing was green and we saw a lot of flowers lke in this picture.
We made it all the way up the top of the volcano and had lunch on the edge of the creator. We were over 4000 feet above sea level.
This is a fisure. They are very deep vents that produce sulfur dioxide steam. I was standing in it and had trouble breathinf the rest of the day.
We traveled all the way down the face of the volcano to where the lava flowed across the road and into the ocean. I hiked across this lava flow that just happend in 2005. We were told that there is a lava tube still flowing under ground and into the ocean.
Just in case you were wondering what a lava tube was I am standing in one. This tube is big enough to drive a bus through! Can you imagine this full of molten rock flowing at over 40 miles per hour??? There was a part of the tube that was open but left natural and didn’t have any lights. We didn’t go because we did not have a flash light.
With so much to do and see we are finding it hard to settle down long enough to fire up the laptop for an entry. While Zach is taking a “hiamoe iki” or nap I will just review a little about the state of Hawaii itself and some randon info.
Many people get confused when talking about the islands known as the state Hawaii or sometimes referred to as the Hawaiian Islands. The primary airport coming from what is referred to as “stateside” or as Dog the Bounty Hunter calls it “the Mainland” is located in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. We flew into that airport from the states and then connected to go to the island of Hawaii or “The Big Island”.
While there we stayed in Kona which is south of Kailua which you can see on the map. There is one main road on all the islands traveling all around the outside or coastline of the islands. There are only some roads to the middle of the islands but they are rare and mostly 4×4 accessable only. You have to remember that these islands were formed by volcanos from the ocean floor, little bit tough to run a highway up and over especially when the place wants to blow every now and then.
Hawaii is the youngest of the islands and is still very active with a lava flow as recent as 2005. Zach and I took a hike one afternoon to where one of the roads was cut off by that eruption, I will let him fill you in with his pictures and commentary. Zach will have 2 entries for Hawaii and then onto Kaua’i where we are now. Kaua’i is the oldest of the islands and has been reclaimed by nature again as most to the island is green again. Most of this island is considered rain forest with 400+ inches of rain a year. Zach and I will be taking a “mud buggy” ride tomorrow to a hidden waterfall at the center of the island, agian he will have the details on this one for sure after he calms down. Kaua’i is called Hawaii’s Island of Discovery and it shows with all there is to see, mission impossible in the week that we will be here. It’s movie list of who’s who ranges from Puff the Magic Dragon in Hanali to King Kong in Anahola to pile of other movies including George of the Jungle, Jurassic Park, James Bond, etc, etc. Enough for now, dinner time for you guys but lunch is on here. Aloha!
The plane ride to Atlanta was very smooth. It was a newer plane and we were seated towards the front of the plane. In Atlanta we transferred to a huge jumbo jet with 7 seats to each row. This flight was 9 hours long and we were able to watch 4 movies. The movies were the Flying Scotsmen, Meet The Robinsons,Shooter, and Oceans Thirteen.
“Honolulu Airport”
There was a huge indoor forest when you were walking to your plane. The whole airport was open. There were no walls and birds were flying everywhere.
“Ride to Kona”
When we took off and the seatbelt light turned off a lady came around with papaya/pineapple/guava juice. After that I took out my mp3 player, listened to 5 songs and then we landed.
”chillin’ with the laptop”
The first thing my dad and I did was hook up to the internet. This hotel has wifi internet but the signal was messed up so dad had to set the laptop up to the hotels wifi.
”Syracuse Airport entrance”
It took us about 2 hours to get to the hotel. This is a piciture out the front doors of the hotel, we are that close to the airport. Our flight leaves at 6:45am and we have to wake up at 3 in the morning to get there to check bags with securty.
Our next stop is Atlanta, GA.
“my dinner came in that”
Just kidding with ya!! I think this is for rats, I found it outside of the hotel. THANK GOD WE ARE STAYING HERE JUST 1 NIGHT.
Filed under: General
Mr. Ord here, we are about to take the family across the country and then some to spend almost 2 weeks in Hawaii. As part of Zach’s school work and as a way for all his friends and family to stay in touch I have started a blog for Zach.
For those in Komputor Klub you already know what a blog is. A blog site is very much like a website but a lot easier to edit. Zach will be able to keep a journal going of his adventures while on vacation and you will be able to comment back. Enjoy!
