Visiting a Lighthouse and Following the Geocache Road

After exploring the animal safari, we decided to take a small adventure to check out the area, visit the Marblehead Lighthouse, and grab an Ohio geocache or two, seeing what interesting places we would find along the way.  It's always fun going off the beaten path and exploring areas that one normally wouldn't go unless there was a geocache hidden there.

Checking out the "beach" at East Harbor State Park

We thought maybe we could look for sea glass, but this beach was too stinky.

The first place was an EarthCache, which isn't something hidden but actually teaches you a little science about the area you visit.  This one was called Groovy in East Harbor and led us to an area where there was evidence of glacial movement.  It was also inside a state park, so we drove around for a bit, checking out what all there was to see and do there.  The beach was very stinky and there wasn't a lot to see or do, so we quickly moved on to our geocache location.

It was a short but slightly interesting visit.

You can see the glacial grooves in the rock here.

Really, that was all that was there, besides a little mud that we all tried hard to avoid.

After finding the EarthCache, we headed over to see the famous Marblehead Lighthouse, one of the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes, built in 1821.  Grandpa Ernie, Elliot and Everett stayed behind while we checked things out, but joined us before we were finished looking around.

You can see the size of the lighthouse, compared to Vicky and Ernie as they posed for a photo.

Ethan enjoyed running around, looking in all the cracks and searching for lake treasures.

Do you see that?  What is it?

No fear, Ethan will see what it is.
(It turned out to be a piece of hard plastic, not cool glass like we thought.)

A few of the rocks had holes in them from the water eroding over time.

After visiting the lighthouse, we went on to explore other two geocaches that were side by side near Marblehead Supply quarry, and by the description, were to provide a decent overlook.

The cache was located in a cemetery, that was only accessible by driving to the back of a parking lot, so if it wasn't for the cache directions, we would have never found it.

Quarry Point was the easiest one to spot, and after walking around, searching high and low, we finally found Ready-Set-Blast right before we were going to give up!  It was in plain sight if only you positioned yourself correctly.

We didn't spy the geocache right away, but we did find a few friends.

Finally found it!!

Do you see the 2nd geocache?

Ethan found it after I told him it was hanging right in front of him.

Ethan, with the limestone quarry behind him.

While searching, we enjoyed looking at the HUGE, impressive quarry below, and determined by a little google research and discussion, that it must have been a limestone quarry due to the turquoise puddles that looked amazingly beautiful when the sun was shining (but so amazingly toxic if one were to swim in it).

Overlooking Marblehead Supply limestone quarry

From this area, we could see Cedar Point amusement park in the distance.

After finding the last few caches, we headed back to the condo to rest and recharge.  It was a fun day and we needed to rest up for our trip to the amusement park in the morning!

The harbor behind our condo.