making several roundtrips daily from
Marblehead, Port Clinton and San-,
dusky, summer travelers can leave
southeast Michigan in the morning
and be zipping around in rental golf
carts — the islands' preferred mode of
transportation — by lunchtime. Gen-
erally, it's less than a three-hour drive
from Detroit to the northern Ohio
shore towns that serve as jumping-off
points.
En route, and worth exploring on
either end of an island sojourn, are
such family-friendly attractions as
Cedar Point, Maumee Bay State Park
Resort, the Toledo Zoo and COSI
Toledo, an interactive science center
that opened last year. (See accompany-
ing story.)
"We were surprised to find such
beautiful water and everything so close
by," observes Yaffa Rabin of Oak Park,
whose family barbecued its own
kosher food while vacationing late last
summer on South Bass Island, which
everyone calls, simply, Put-in-Bay.
"We didn't know what to expect —
my brother booked it on the Internet
— but it was very quiet, peaceful and
enjoyable."
They stayed at South Shore Beach
Resort, a small condo complex with a
pool and spacious picnic grounds
away from town. Rabin's husband,
Yerachmiel, rabbi of the Huntington
Woods minyan, took a boat rour with
the older of their nine children and
learned about island history and lore.
The younger children explored the
quaint, four-block village of Put-in-
Bay and enjoyed spinning on Kimber-
ly's Carousel.
Though calm when the family visit-
ed in midweek, Put-in-Bay's taverns,
restaurants and boutiques bustle much
of the summer, shifting into high gear
on weekends and holidays. With 400
year-round residents and about 4,500
summer dwellers, the island welcomes
as many as 16,000 daytrippers on its
busiest days. Many revelers arrive by
pleasure boat, rafting their vessels
together in the marina, seven to eight
deep, and then hopscotching across
boats to party ashore in a scene remi-
niscent of spring break.
During their stay, the Rabins scoot-
ed about the wooded island on golf
carts, ogling dreamy summer homes,
Victorian mansions and cottages with
names like Shangri-La. Along the way,

Yaffa Rabin says, "We actually met a
lot of Jewish people from Cleveland,
most of them visiting for the day. It
was quite interesting — really very
neat."
Over the years, particularly during
the roaring '20s, Put-in-Bay boosters
used a variety of amusements to lure
visitors, from roller coasters and a
pond filled with alligators to a pair of
white stallions that plunged from a
steep tower into a canvas-lined hole
filled with water. Much of the action
took place around the Alexander
House (now the Crescent Tavern),
operated by Chicago stage actor
Thomas B. Alexander and his wife,
Edith Brown; granddaughter of Aboli-
tionist John Brown.
It was her father, John Brown Jr.,
who uncovered Confederate plans to
capture a Union battleship off San-
dusky Bay, free Confederate prisoners
and attack Lake Erie ports during the
Civil War. The retired Union captain
paddled more than 16 miles in a row-
boat from Kelleys Island to warn
Union officials. While his father's
notorious Harper's Ferry exploits are

memorialized in textbooks, John
Brown Jr.'s brush with history is
detailed in the Lake Erie Island His-
torical Society Museum. He's buried
in the island cemetery.
Like everyone who visits Put-in-
Bay, the Rabin family was drawn to
the imposing Doric column that
looms high above the island, visible on
clear days from miles away. America's
third tallest monument (after the St.
Louis Arch and the Washington Mon-
ument), the 352-foot pink granite
tower, commemorating the War of
1812, is known formally as Perry's
Victory and International Peace
Memorial.
It's a tribute to U.S. Commander
Oliver Hazard Perry's victory over a
British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie;
it also symbolizes nearly two centuries
of peace between the United States
and Canada. National Park Service
rangers stationed at the monument,
built between 1912 and 1915, willing-
ly supply details, and occasionally por-
tray historical characters.
After climbing 37 steps and taking
an ear-popping elevator ride to the

observation deck, 317 feet up, it's easy
to slip back in time and envision the
fierce, 3 1/4-hour battle waged on that
fateful September afternoon 185 years
ago, when the war was going badly for
the young American nation.
Gazing out across the lake with its
spectacular aerial view of the islands,
visitors can imagine the smoky battle-
field, where 68 seamen were killed and
188 wounded, as British man-of-wars
battled the larger U.S. fleet. Perry's
decisive victory, which secured the
Northwest territory for the United
States and was a turning point in the
war, inspired the commander's famous
message to Gen. William Henry Har-
rison: "We have met the enemy and
they are ours."
A short ride from the monument,
visitors today can tour Perry's Cave,
where the Americans reportedly stored
ammunition and held British prison-
ers. Nearby, Crystal Cave houses the
world's largest geode, a pocket of rock
discovered 101 years ago by workers
digging a well. Some of the brittle,
bluish-white specimens — the
world's largest known celestite crystals
— are displayed in the
Smithsonian Natural
History Museum in
Washington, D.C.
Crystal Cave is located
beneath another popular
Put-in-Bay tourist stop,
Heineman Winery,
operated by the same
family since 1888 and
one of the few wineries
that survived Prohibition
by selling grape juice.

Left: Perry's Victory and
International Peace
Memorial looms 352 feet
over Put-in-Bay, com-
memorating an American
victor over the British in
the Wizr 0'1812.

Top right: Soak City
WIter Park is the best
way to beat the heat at
Cedar Point.

Bottom right: Thrill-seek-
ers find excitement on the
rollercoasters at Cedar
50)
Point.
1997

S27