After getting settled last night, we were all in our beds by about 1030pm. 

This morning, I got up and started looking at our options for the day.  I realized that one of the things we wanted to do, riding the railway, was only open on weekends which meant we had to do it today since we will be leaving on Wednesday. 

Melissa and Joe went to church and I made breakfast.  A few years ago, I created a 16 day menu with grocery lists for camper trips.  Today’s scheduled breakfast was French toast, sausage links and strawberries.  We set up an outdoor dish station and everyone washed their own dishes and then we all got ready to head to the park.

We loaded into two cars and met at Boston Mill Visitor Center.  The kids all started work on their first Junior Ranger booklet of the trip while my mom supervised.  Melissa, Joe and I went to unload the kayaks we brought.  I thought I had everything in the vehicle I needed for the kayaks but I could not find the seats.  The good news is that the seats are not required for use, just for comfort. 

While we waited for the train, we ate a picnic lunch I packed.  The train was running a bit behind but when it arrived we handed off our kayaks to the guys in one of the last cars who loaded them into large open cars.   We boarded and paid and then took about a 10 minute ride to the next station. 

The railway operates round trip scenic trips for about $20 a rider but they allow National Park visitors to ride one-way for $5.  This allows you to walk/hike, bike or kayak one-way.  Today, Mary, Anna, Lily and Joey decided to kayak.  Only Anna had any recent kayak experience.  We helped all 4 teens into their kayaks and sent them off.

We were told that there was a broken dam that we were avoiding going over by choosing this leg of the Cuyahoga River to kayak but immediately after the put-in, they had to go over some rapids and each kayak took a turn getting stuck on the rocks.  There were several other rapids they went over along the way as well but they never capsized.  Thank goodness because it would have “dampened” the experience for them.

The rest of us walked the path which is near the river but not always within sight of it.  We tried to keep up with the kayakers but they quickly out-paced us. 

The path we walked is known as the Tow Path because it runs along a man-made canal that was used before cars became popular.  People and goods were transported on boats in the canal pulled by mules on the path. 

Katy, Nova, and Esme walked the 2.4 miles with Joe, Melissa, my mom and me.  They actually did great and didn’t complain too much.  In fact, they got ahead of us adults because we stopped to look at the flora and fauna.  We used our “bird app” to identify what birds we were hearing.  My mom spotted and identified a blue heron and I spotted and identified a cormorant.  Melissa saw a giant frog the size of a dinner plate! 

We were a little worried that the teens would overshoot their spot to get out of the river but they were waiting for us when we got there. They seemed to mostly enjoy it and made the trouble of bringing the kayaks worth it.

We both ran errands and then dropped off some of the kids at the playground in the park we are camping at.  The adults cooked 12 steaks, asparagus and green beans, and egg noodles on two camp stoves and then we feasted.  Everyone ate really well, probably hungry from the exertion of our adventure today. 

We also did some cleaning and organizing and more setting up of stuff on our campsites.  I wanted to find those kayak seats…where did I put them?  I pulled lots of stuff out of the camper and still couldn’t find them.  Maybe I left them home…  Then Melissa said, “Did you put them under a seat or in a hidden compartment in the car? “.  Eureka!  That’s exactly where I put them. 

Power was finally restored to our campground just before dinner was served and we were all able to charge up our devices tonight.  The kids ended the day with some board games and “ghosts in the graveyard” and Melissa and I wrote our blog entries at a picnic table.

It’s pretty cool again tonight so we will bundle up in our sleeping bags again!

Yatzeck’s blog for the day