It’s Halloweekends time at Cedar Point!

by Katie Hammel on

As a child growing up in the Midwest, Autumn always meant the same traditions. Sundays spent raking the leaves from the yard, visits to cider mills, and an annual October trip to Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio.

Cedar Point. . .in October? Yes! If you live in the Midwest, you probably know that Cedar Point stays open on weekends through November 1. If you didn’t know, you’ll want to plan a trip now because, while night can be cold, hours are limited, and not all the rides are open (including, of course, the water rides and the Soak City park), the lack of crowds makes this the perfect time to get your roller coaster fix.

For the whole month, the park is open from 6pm to midnight on Fridays, noon to midnight on Saturdays, and 11am to 8pm on Sundays (except for October 11 when it’s open 10am-10pm). And with those reduced hours come reduced prices on Friday nights and Saturdays after 4pm. Daily admission is normally $44.99, but during those times it drops to $29.99 per adult.

During Halloweekends most of the park’s major coasters like Millennium Force, Raptor, Magnum, and Blue Streak are all open, though some of the smaller attractions are closed. The park is decked out for Halloween with zombies, crypts, monsters, and pumpkins scattered around, and there are haunted houses of varying scare factors, a Halloween parade, and costume contests for kids.

But the best part is that, rather than waiting up to 2 hours for your favorite coaster like you will in the peak of summer, you’ll rarely wait more than 30 minutes to move through the line during Halloweekends. At many times, especially when it gets a bit chillier late in the season, you’ll zip through in just a few minutes. You get more coaster time for less money.

Cedar Point is one hour from the Cleveland airport and Sandusky, where the park is located, is serviced by Amtrak and Greyhound. There are several hotels located just outside the park gates and in the town of Sandusky ranging from around $70 to $200 per night.

Wineries with outdoor music offer perfection: 10 wineries and 9 states

by Jamie Rhein on

As I sipped a glass of red wine at Harpersfield Winery in Geneva, Ohio on the last Saturday in August while listening to the Hollywood Slim Band, one of my favorite Ohio-based groups, I thought what a perfect finale evening to the last month of summer. The setting sun that cast its warm glow over the scene–plus the plate of cheese, meats and olives served up with warm bread cinched the thought.

When music is mixed with wine and an outdoor winery patio, the combination is unbeatable, particularly when the weather is favorable. September and October offer similar opportunities. Even as temperatures cool in the evening, there are still days left to enjoy a fine glass of wine where grapes hang in luscious bunches nearby and music plays.

Here are 9 more suggestions for wineries with patios or porches that offer live music entertainment. Several have been in business for years, and others are newcomers. At some, when the temperatures cool, music moves indoors.

Arrington Vineyards, Arrington, Tennessee. With its “Music in the Vines” this winery serves up music regulars on various weekend days through October. From the covered deck you can savor wine while taking in a sunset over the Tennessee hills.

Easley Winery, Indianapolis, Indiana. Kids are welcome at Groovin’ in the Garden, this winery’s weekend music happenings. Through September you can listen to music, drink wine and enjoy food while your kids are indulged with grape juice

Greenvale Vineyards, Portsmouth, Rhode Island. At this winery situated on an historic farm, jazz music is paired with wine tasting. For $15, visitors enjoy the music while sampling 6 different award-winning wines. At the end of the tasting, you keep the glass. Outdoor enjoyment comes in the form of daily wine tours.

La Buena Vida Vineyards, Grapevine, Texas. Spanish tiles and flowing fountains are part of the allure that capture a sense of place. There’s live music every Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon.

Mount Pleasant Winery, Augusta Missouri. Established 1859 in the first Appelation Wine District in the United States, this winery offers live music and more. There are murder mystery performances and specialty dinners throughout the year. Click here for music schedule.

Oak Glenn Winery, Hermann, Missouri. The winery sits on land once owned by George Husmann who was instrumental in the early beginning of American wine production.The music schedule is through October.

Sharrott Winery, Winslow, New Jersey. This family-owned winery that focuses on sustainable practices is one of the newest of winery offerings. Listen to live music through September from the lawn and the patio. Click here for the live music series.

Simon Creek Vineyard, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. With cheese and wine making a fine pair, Wisconsin makes sense as a place to head. At this winery, live music is added to the mix each Sunday through September 20. There are free tastings and tours daily.

Warwick Valley Winery and Distillery, Warwick, New York. Located in the gorgeous scenery of Hudson Valley, this winery offers live music each weekend afternoon. Five times a year the winery also hosts music festival weekends.

Here’s a short clip of the Hollywood Slim Band at Harpersfield Winery and Vineyard this past July thanks to Koskim 23 who happened upon the band on a do-it-yourself winery tour of northern Ohio.

Labor Day picnics: Make yours memorable. Tips and where to go suggestions

by Jamie Rhein on

Katie’s post on how to turn a Labor Day barbecue into a multi-cultural affair is a mouth-watering read that gave me the feeling that the sweet Italian sausages I bought for a cook-out could use some jazzing up. Put Katie’s read together with tips I picked up this summer during a chat with one of Hip Hostess’s event planners, Amber Cleary, and Labor Day could easily be turned into an event to remember fondly when you’re back at work on Tuesday. (Hopefully, that good mood will take you all the way to the next weekend.) If you look past your backyard for a picnic location, even better..

I tried a couple of Amber’s ideas out on my last picnic when I headed to the Columbus Symphony’s outdoor Picnic with the Pops concert with Christopher Cross.

Amber’s mantra about making an event special and personal, gave me more umph when I thought of putting together the fixin’s, something that Katie touched upon when she suggested dressing up Labor Day fare with a cultural twist.

Here are the ideas, plus suggestions for simple places to take your picnic for the last holiday of summer. (This photo was taken last Labor Day as Yourdon strolled around Central Park in Manhattan.)

Amber’s Tip #1 (plus my interpretation): Depending upon the number of people in the group, pack salads and side dishes in Chinese food carry-out boxes–the small size. Each person gets his or her own box (or boxes) depending upon what you put in them. This makes food transportable, and once the food is eaten, you can throw the box away. An advantage is that there won’t be a bowl to take home, and you won’t need to bring plates or serving spoons.

For my Picnic with the Pops outing, I made Amber’s Shrimp and Orzo Salad and Fruit Salad with Lime Dressing. Here’s a fruit salad recipe from the Food Network that has a tropical twist and another version served up in a martini glass here. For a version of a shrimp and orzo salad from Cooking Light, click here.

More food container suggestions:

Tip # 2. Here’s a tip that I found on Amber’s blog. Desserts like pudding can be served in a jar. She’s done this with chocolate mousse. Each person get his or her own jar. Jars can be recycled or taken back home for the next picnic.

Tip # 3. Put dry type eats in origami containers. I was at a party once where a snack mix was served in a handmade paper bowl. Very cool, and a Japanese tradition that adds a cultural flair. Amber has served individual packages of cookies in handmade boxes. If the bowl interests you, here’s a link to a how to make one.

Tip #4. How about flat bottomed ice-cream cones? Then you can eat the container. Trail mix would be great, I think. Each could be wrapped in Saran wrap or paper to keep the goods from falling out.

Tip # 5. For beverages, consider individual water bottles. When I met Amber, she handed me a Camelback water bottle filled with a Sauza Peach Margarita, a lovely concoction of DeKuyper Luscious Peachtree Schnapps Liqueur, DeKuyper Signature Triple Sec, Sauza Tequila, sour mix and lime. It was absolutely yummy.

Think of any cold beverage and water bottle pairing. This would save on cups. Water bottles could be labeled with people’s names. Better yet, tell people to bring their water bottles to the picnic and you’ll fill it with something special. It doesn’t need to be an alcoholic version of something special, but. if you’re looking for spiked drink suggestions, check out the DeKuyper’s Web site Mix Master page.

With drinks and food in hand, don’t forget the details that can make your Labor Day picnic more personal and special.

  • A cloth table cloth, either to spread on the ground or put over a table. Mine is from India. It’s colorful, lightweight and easy to carry.
  • A real basket. It doesn’t have to be a picnic basket, but is large enough to hold the tablecloth, utensils and whatever else you want to bring along to set the scene. (At Picnic with the Pops, I’ve seen candles and flowers.)
  • A cooler to hold whatever food you’re bringing along. The older I get, the more a cooler with wheels sounds like a good idea.
  • Something to sit on that offers back support. The older I get, the more I want something to sit on.

For a hiking picnic, divide up food into individual cold pack type lunch bags for each person to carry his or her own, or divide up the food so each person is carrying part of the meal.

Instead of staying in your backyard for Labor Day, consider these options that are possibly close to home. The more portable your picnic, the more travel friendly:

  • A cemetery. No, don’t eat on a grave. Many older cemeteries are equipped with ponds and grassy areas for spreading out a blanket, eating a meal and enjoying solitude. Many, like Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus, where writer James Thurber is buried, have become bird sanctuaries thanks to the urban sprawl that has taken up swatches of their habitat..
  • A city or a metro park. Many metropolitan areas have parks that serve as an oasis for bike riders, roller bladers and nature hounds. Often the shelter houses and picnic tables are first come, first serve, but even without a shelter find a shade tree, spread out your tablecloth and settle down for an afternoon of leisure.
  • A college campus. Many universities have public spaces edged with massive, leafy trees and grassy lawns.
  • The grounds of an historic site. Many tourist attractions have picnic areas attached. Bring your picnic along while you learn more about the background of the area. Before you go, make sure the site is open. Many sites have had to cut back hours due to budget woes.
  • A lake shore-From The Great Lakes to a small lake that not many people know about, a lake shore picnic offers views of the sky as well as the water.
  • A river bank. Scope out a spot where the foliage is less dense and get comfortable.
  • A beach–These are the days when the water may be too cold for a swim, but perfect for a long walk on the sand after a meal.
  • A field in the middle of nowhere— Drive out of town until you get to the middle of nowhere, most probably on a country road and look for a spot that calls to you.
  • Along a trail. Divide your meal into various spots along the trail to give you motivation to keep going to as far as you want to head and back.

And here’s a Web site dedicated to picnic spots across the United States.

Whatever you do this Labor Day, take a tip from Amber and make it personal and fun.

Great Lakes Brewing: Saving the planet one beer at a time

by Katie Hammel on

At a recent farm dinner I attended, a multi-course meal of farm-fresh, organic ingredients was paired with beers from Great Lakes Brewing. As we dined and drank, we were treated to an informal lesson on brewing from owner Pat Conway, who also gave us the lowdown on the many greet initiatives that Great Lakes has undertaken in an effort to be environmentally responsible while producing top-notch beer. It’s a philosophy that the company calls a “triple bottom line” – a mission to run an environmentally and socially responsible business while still turning a profit – and it seems to be paying off.

The Cleveland, Ohio, brewery opened in 1988 as the state’s first micro-brewery and has been growing, and racking up awards, ever since. The Dortmunder Gold, one of the brewery’s first beers, was originally called the Heisman. After it won a gold medal in the Dortmunder category at the Great American Beer Festival in 1990, the New York Athletic Club noticed that the Heisman name was be used and requested it be changed. Other beers are more fancifully named and reflect the brewery’s location in the Great Lakes Region. There’s Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, honoring the boat that famously sank in Lake Superior; Eliot Ness, named for the man rumored to be responsible for the bullet holes in the brewery’s bar; and Burning River, a nod to the infamous burning of the Cuyahoga River in 1969.

But what makes these beers so special, aside from the quirky names and indisputable quality (each has won numerous Gold Medals at competitions around the world), is that they are produced using so many green and sustainable methods. The owners, brothers Pat and Daniel Conway, say they take a full-circle approach to reduce waste and make the company more efficient. This approach has filtered down to all levels of staff, and dictates the methods used in all aspects of the business.

The brewery’s delivery truck and shuttle bus run on recycled restaurant vegetable oil, and they require that the trucks used by their distributors do the same. All cardboard, glass, aluminum, paper and brewer’s barley is recycled. Newsletters, napkins, and menus are printed on recycled paper, all beer packaging is done with unbleached “eco-carton” and Pat says they even go so far as to re-use the blank sides of printer paper for internal documents. The brewery cooler features skylights and sensors to reduce electricity used for lighting, and the cooling system brings in cold air from outside in the winter to reduce the amount of energy required to keep the temperature constant.

Great Lakes works with local organic farmers to serve only the freshest food in their restaurant. Currently, 60% of their food supply comes from local and organic sources, though Pat says they are striving for 100%. They recently contracted with an Amish farmer who will provide the kitchen with meat from animals that graze on the brewery’s own barley waste. Spent grain goes to a baker who makes pretzels and beer-bread served at the restaurant, and another local farm uses brewery grains to fertilize the organic mushrooms they grow and then sell back to Great Lakes for use in entrees. Other organic waste is fed to worms. In a process called vermicomposting, the worms turn the waste into fertilizer, which is used to grow herbs in the brewery’s garden. Even the low-fill beers (beers that aren’t quite filled to the top by the bottling machinery) are saved and used for sauces, salad dressings, and soups. The low-filled Edmund Fitzgerald Porter bottles are used by a local ice cream shop to make chocolate chunk ice cream.

The brewery’s outdoor beer garden is also eco-friendly. Rather than let the space go to waste during Cleveland’s bitterly-cold winters, the Conway brothers decided to cover it with a retractable canvas roofing, packed straw bales into the walls for insulation, and added a fireplace to warm the space. They were using wood logs for the fire, until one employee had a bright idea. Instead of composting the spent cinnamon sticks used to make the Christmas Ale, why not compress them into logs to fuel the beer garden fireplace? The result of all these features is that, even on the coldest days of winter, it costs just $8 per day to heat the beer garden.

The result of all these sustainable efforts is staggering. Great Lakes Brewing, a $25 million business, has zero waste bills. Pat says he looks at waste removal as “waste opportunity” and is always searching for new ways to make the business green, and keep it growing. But the brothers aren’t just pocketing all that profit. The company also contributes to the community. Every year they participate in the Great Lakes Burning River Festival, which raises awareness and funds for environmental cleanup in the Great Lakes Region. An environmentally responsible company that gives back to the community and makes delicious craft beer – I think we can all cheers to that.

If you can make it out the Cleveland brewery, in addition to dining in the brewpub or enjoying drinks in the beer garden, you can take a guided tour of the brewery facilities, attend “beer school” to learn all about the brewing process, or enjoy a multi-course Brewmaster’s dinner paired with beer. You can also find Great Lakes beers in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Drag out summer after Labor Day: 12 ideas

by Jamie Rhein on

So what if it’s almost the end of August, kids are heading back to school in droves, and Labor Day is almost here?

There are ways to drag out that summer feeling with easy-going, inexpensive travel. Pick places that you haven’t been to before to heighten a sense of adventure — something that summers are made for.

Here are 12 ideas to get you started into dragging out summer–at least until the leaves start to change color.

(This gorgeous shot of summer was taken in Ireland.)

1. Go to an old-fashioned ice-cream parlor or stand that you have not been to before and try a new flavor. As treats go, ice-cream is affordable and has nutritional value–if you ignore the sugar and fat. For example, at Tom’s Ice-Cream Bowl in Zanesville, Ohio, there’s a wonderful concoction made with coconut and chocolate chips. Tom’s Ice-Cream Bowl is one of my new favorite travel destinations and worth the drive. If you have a favorite parlor or stand, do tell. (Margot’s is in San Juan Bautista, CA.)

2. Go to a festival–any festival. Although Labor Day festivals abound, look for one that is after Labor Day. The Honeyfest in Lithopolis, Ohio fits that category. Held the first Saturday after Labor Day (this year, Sept. 12), this is a festival that blends music, honey, food and art into a lovely concoction with a summertime feel. I’m sure there are other festivals like this one that are organized by folks who hate to say good-bye to summer as well.

3. Get out that bicycle or the roller blades, strap on a helmet and head out to celebrate your inner child. If you don’t own a bicycle or roller blades, rent. One of my favorite places to rent roller blades is Santa Monica, California. Skate to Venice Beach to browse the craft tables that people set up on weekends. Also, at any given hour, there is someone doing entertainment for donations only. My favorite is the guy who juggles chain saws. (The photo of cyclists and roller bladers by Herkie was taken in Iowa.)

4. Find a historic home that has been turned into a museum. Often these museums are operated by volunteers who are passionate about history and what makes their house museum worth visiting. As a bonus, admission is generally inexpensive. Although hours often are cut back after Labor Day, many historic houses offer a weekend visit option. My favorite house museum is the Dinsmore Homestead near Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, about a half-hour from Cincinnati. Another fascinating home is the Copper King Mansion in Butte, Montana. Again, if you have a favorite historic home, pass along your suggestions.

5. Grab a fishing pole for a lazy hour or two of trying to catch a fish. Even if you end up with nada, watching the water ripple and the clouds move overhead is a cheap summer-like treat. Before you go, find out what the regulations are for a fishing license. In Ohio, people age 15 and under and age 60 and over don’t need a license. My son fished on the Smith River in Montana last summer using a friend’s borrowed pole. This summer was an evening visit to Sharon Woods Metro Park in Westerville, Ohio. Neither experience cost money. State parks are a good place to look for a free to inexpensive fishing location.

6. Take a merry-go-round ride, even if you don’t have a kid with you. Several parks and towns have merry-go-rounds as stand alone attractions. Last summer we took a spin on the merry-go-round in Saratoga, New York. The National Mall in Washington, D.C. also has a merry-go-round, as does Central Park in New York City. For two more carousel gems, check out the one in downtown Mansfield, Ohio, and my favorite, the merry-go-round in Missoula, Montana.

7. Rent a paddle boat for an hour. If you have more than two people who want to take a paddle boat ride, but you only want to rent for an hour, split the hour with the same boat. We did this in Sturbridge, Massachusetts one summer. Paddle boat rentals, I’ve found, are surprisingly cheap. A little over a week ago, the ONLY cheap thing we did in Greece was rent a paddle boat in Corfu.

8. Go tide-pooling to see what critters have become temporarily caught between the beach and the ocean. Once, near Thomaston, Maine, we spent hours walking along craggy rocks checking out the variety. Of course, Maine can feel nippy come September, but elsewhere, the temperatures are still comfortably summer.

9. It’s not too late to head to a swimming hole and float in an inner tube or swing off a rope to land in the water. The most memorable swimming hole I’ve been to is in New Braunfels, Texas between Austin and San Antonio.

10. Hike to a summit no matter how high the mountain. Getting to the top of a hill can also feel like an accomplishment. The trail to the top of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque, New Mexico offers a huge reward those who end up a mile higher than where they started at the parking lot where the trailhead begins. The view from the top is splendid. Look for Mt. Taylor near Grants, New Mexico in the distance.

(Clinton Steeds took this shot on Ryan Mountain at Joshua Tree.)

11. Drive out of town or the city, if that’s where you happen to live,and find a field. Once found, spread out a blanket, lie down and look up at the stars. Find the Big Dipper if nothing else. This summer, in addition to the Big Dipper, I was lucky enough to see shooting stars one night near Telluride, Colorado.

12. Baseball season is not over yet. For a down-home version of baseball, head to a minor league game. Those teams are still into crowd pleasing and involve spectators in the fun of the sport. When we were at an Isotope’s game this summer in Albuquerque, the excitement and fun of spectator participation, turned the kids of friends of ours into baseball fans.

And, one more thing. Wherever you go, wear white. The adage that you aren’t supposed to wear white after Labor Day is made to ignore, particularly by anyone who wants a summery feel.