Father's Day - 2022

Hope all "Fathers" had a wonderful day celebrating as the rest of us appreciate and thank you for being such great role models.

Cheers to the Patriarch of our family!

Mark and I remember our Dads today with great pride and love!    And many memories of spending past Father's Days with them.

We thank Michael, Philip and Patrick for giving us Drew, Davis, Brady, Blair, Luke, Maeve, Liam and Connor!   And so proud of their parenting with their kiddos.   Patrick would be so proud of his boys!

 A special tribute to their Dad

 

Woke up to the sound of a high-powered blower - Dennis, one of the owners was attempting to blow away the gazillion mayflies that returned last night worse than ever!    Sure appreciate his efforts.   Mark went out later and used our little shop vac, but almost an endless task as those little critters had covered the windows, door, boat, dock, etc......they were EVERYWHERE and today the wind is almost nil???    We concluded that with the strong wind the past 2 days, the big majority of mayflies arrived and promptly died so the dead bugs were all over the place.   But without the wind, they are alive and well and very bothersome.   We heard stories of towns getting the snow plow out and using the blade to scoop them up when the streets are inundated with them.   Unreal!!!

Later Dennis came around and power washed the dock!    What a guy!   He is one of 4 owners and a real workaholic here at the marina (his regular job is an oral surgeon and name of his boat is "Jaws"). 

At 11, we left for Lindsey, Ohio (pop 440) first getting the bikes off the boat and blew off all the mayflies that were in every nook and crannie before we put them in the car - unreal!!!    We parked in the city park lot, got the bikes out and enjoyed another awesome ride thru the country with lots of farms and fields of corn, beans, wheat and oats.    Also passed under a canopy of pretty trees - the weather (73 and all sunshine) was spectacular.    A few more bikers out today but for the most part, had the trail to ourselves.    We drove under I80-90 (Ohio Turnpike).

Along the North Coast Inland Trail

We later drove to Elmore (1,756) and had lunch at the Portage Inn.    We shared a salad and a pizza sub - 👍.   Driving thru the country, we came upon the Hopfinger Zimmerman Memorial Park out in the middle of nowhere.    It was only 6 miles from Port Clinton but we had never been on this road and so we stopped to check it out as a possibility for Luke and Blair.     Lorraine Zimmerman had a dream for her late parents (Raymond and Delores) farm to turn it into a playground for children (with huge dog park).   They also dedicated it to Jack's late parents (Pete and Joan Zimmerman).   Lorraine and husband Jack who have no children wanted a special place for kiddos and this 80-acre very spacious park is just that plus it's all FREE!

Beautiful playground equipment, swimming, fishing and paddle boats - a pavilion for parties, picnics, etc.   They've got new basketball courts and recently installed pickle ball courts.   This all started in 2016 and gradually adding more amenities.   LOTS of room for the kiddies to run off their energy.   It is beautiful.....and we will be back!

Clear clean pretty water

Lorraine and Jack standing on bridge

Part of the massive playground 

Came back to oodles more mayflies everywhere - it was a nice reprieve to be away from them for a few hours - ha!!!    We are having some good laughs after getting comments about our bugs, including the recipe for "mayfly cocktail" from Mark's brother Jim and also how to make a mayfly burger (using 500,000 mayflies) but 7 times the protein of a normal beef burger!!!!     No thanks, Jim!!!!  😆

Read and just hung out till it was time for ice cream - we walked to Scooters (1st time) but the walk was not pleasant as the mayflies attacked and our shirts/pants were covered - lots of shooing before we could go back on Catrina and quickly close the door.

8 siblings on zoom tonight - updates on health issues.   Janet - still hurting after her spine surgery especially at night, hard to get a good nights sleep and doesn't see her surgeon till July 8th; Tom still has his head down from retina detachment - sees the doctor Wednesday; Joan goes to vascular Dr. about her legs/feet this week

  Mark enjoyed all the phone calls from our kids and texts from grandkiddos.   It's been a great day and wishing y'all the same for the week ahead.