Hangin’ on to Summer
A past visit for the Pfister family to Margaritaville on the East Bank of the Flats
Can you believe it, it’s August already!
The lack of rainy weekends and significantly warmer days than other Summers totally has us spoiled in Northern Ohio. I feel, from my own family’s experience, that anything we wanted to do outside or place we wanted to go, we just up and did it. This kept the activity calendar quite busy and fueled the speed at which this Summer has sped by.
When I was a child growing up on a farm in Hinckley…
June was always the getting-used-to-throttling-down month. I was always excited with July creeping in with the Fourth celebration and those awesome fireworks that had been stored in the garage under lock and key for the past six months, since my dad brought them home from his business travels in the South.
In the seventies and eighties, fireworks could only be purchased in a few Southern states. My siblings and I were always eager to watch dad unwrap everything from bottle rockets, firecrackers to aerial bombs from the back of the station wagon, yes it was a dodge! The entire kit and caboodle was locked away ‘til our parents hosted the Annual Pfister Family Picnic on the farm every year. (Hopefully, many of my readers have a Summer get-together with family members who may only get together once a year. But when you do, it is special.)
The remainder of July usually found me knee-deep in local ponds, fishing for turtles and bass and totally relaxed with a few odd jobs here and there.
But then came the first sign of the waning of Summer… The Medina County Fair. It was just not fair (pun intended) that yesterday we were cleaning out our lockers and now I’m battling with the decision… elephant ear or funnel cake? Once the fair ended, Summer felt pretty downhill after that.
So my ever-loving-and-dedicated mother would pack us up in the station wagon and, as she called it, “make one more Summer memory.”
There wasn’t that much to do in Hinckley back in the day… and Parma was only so exciting… but be it a trip to the Cleveland Art Museum, Natural History Museum, or Geauga Lake… us kids loved it! To this day, I can’t tell you what all I did in June growing up, but I can name many August get-aways with my mom and siblings that were pretty cool.
Dr. Pfister pays a visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art
The idea for this blog came to me two nights ago, when it dawned on me that from last weekend to Tuesday night, my wife and I had taken our boys to Medina’s Friday Night Concert in the Gazebo, Cleveland’s Art Museum, and the Medina County Fair!
History was repeating itself. We were having fun, making memories, and two of the three events were free… Mom would be proud!
Medina County Fair, 2024
I know my readers are very creative and family-oriented, but at the risk of boring you, I’ll drop a few ideas that you might try in the next week or so to hold on to Summer just a bit longer, as you create a memory.
As you read this, the Medina County Fair will be in full-swing with the Demo Derby Friday night, Truck and Tractor Pull Saturday night, and the Cracker Jack Circus Show and Ohio State Arm-Wrestling on Sunday. But really, do you need a reason more than… fair-food… to go?!
If it’s the Ohio State Fair in Columbus you want to see, you will need to hurry because it, too, ends on Sunday, August 4th. You could see the State Fair on Saturday, spend the night (hopefully with family) and then go to the Columbus Zoo on Sunday. If you haven’t seen the Columbus Zoo located on the Scioto River lately, you are in for a treat (and only 113 miles from Medina!).
There are way too many county fairs in the area to list them here… and they run until middle of September.
The Lorain County Fair, August 18th – 25th in Wellington, is on my bucket list due to an interesting grandstand show… Combine Derby! According to my patients, huge combines on their last legs (a new one will set you back north of 250K) actually go to battle like car demo derbies ‘til only one is still running. Saturday night, August 24th at 7:00 PM in Wellington, at the fairgrounds, Combine Derby and Pick-Up Truck Derby headline this year’s entertainment for just 15 dollars a ticket… how could you go wrong with this memory? Unless the kids start asking for a combine for Christmas!
Red River Gorge, Kentucky
If you really want to go off the grid like my receptionist Donna and her family did, a five-hour drive south to Kentucky will put you into a National Geological Area in the Daniel Boone National Forest called the Red River Gorge.
This place is loaded with family fun and memory-making adventures from Tree Top Zip-Lining to clear bottom kayak tours of colorfully lit flooded mine shafts and cave exploration. The number of hiking trails is too numerous to list, but the highlight is the hike to the 215-foot tall Natural Bridge with its 1116 ft. elevation — it is truly a sight to see. Cabins can be rented on location, so hiking can be done right from your front door.
Closer to home, the Akron and Cleveland Zoos are great places to spend the day or combo with another same-day adventure.
The smaller Akron Zoo lends itself much better to combo-ing with another adventure in the same day. If the Cleveland Zoo is your destination and you add the Rainforest, unless you are an Olympic athlete or your kids are, that alone is a full day’s agenda!
I have always found Wade Park with its Art, Natural History, Auto Museums, and Botanical Gardens to start the day (and pizza at any one of the fine Italian restaurants in Little Italy to end the day) to be a lasting memory that also tastes great.
While still in Cleveland but on the West side, the Aquarium at the Powerhouse is a great new addition in the last couple of years. Families can also rent SUP boards, kayaks, and jet skis in the Flats and then bowl and have dinner at Punch Bowl Social or any of the other dozen or so eateries located there. Margaretville is pretty cool; you can actually get a reservation to eat sitting on one of their indoor pontoon boats. Especially appealing to those prone to motion sickness!
Another full-day agenda is a trip on the Jet Express to Kelly’s Island or Put in Bay, either bicycling or driving a golf cart and taking in the sites from glacier grooves at Kelly’s to Perry’s Monument at Put in Bay.
If time is limited, let’s look even closer to home…
Medina’s Friday Night Concert with pizza and/or ice cream from any of the scrumptious offerings around the Square is always a great start to the weekend.
The Foundry is another Medina gem, with its diverse culinary menu and custom creative beverages that are sure to please the most refined palate. If you haven’t tried their Duckpin bowling, well you just haven’t lived. And if Duckpin bowling is a little tame for you, then High Voltage Karting, as close to face-stretching formula-one racing that most of us will ever get, is definitely a must-do memory-maker.
Those who still haven’t been to Castle Noel, you know who you are, Christmas in July can (according to renowned artist, sculptor, and owner, Mark Klaus) be extended to Labor Day for those wanting to make Christmas memories this Summer.
Well, there you have my short list of things to do near (and not-so near) that will put a smile on your families’ faces (as well as your own) this Summer, knowing that first come memories… then come traditions.
As parents, I don’t know about you, we’ve noticed that not every event excites everyone in the family, but trying is what parenting is all about. I love my work and being at the office, but my wife always tells me… there is always enough time to work, but not always enough time to create memories.
Go out and make some memories this weekend,
Dr. Pfister