Summer Pleasures
* Previous sales, special orders
& layaways excluded.
ChECk OUT
THE
PAINTERS
ANd
WALLPAPER
HANGERS
IN OUR
MARkETplACE
HOME ANd
SERVICE
CUIdE
5/22
1997
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Now producing 18 wines and juices
from native grapes and European
hybrids, it's one of several wineries
throughout the Lake Erie region. The
art of winemaking took root and pros-
pered here in the mid-1800s when Ger-
man immigrants, former Rhineland
vintners, found the limestone soil and
the climate, tempered by the lake effect,
highly favorable for growing grapes.
A brief ferry ride from Put-in-Bay, in
a renovated, Civil War-era stone farm-
house on Kelleys Island, the Kelleys
Island Wine Co. also offers wine sam-
plings. On a laidback island where bicy-
cles outnumber cars and birdwatching
is a time-honored pastime, the winery's
outdoor country wine garden, with a
parents' pavilion anci children's play
area, often is the hottest spot around.
Friday night steak barbecues, Saturday
"Brats for a Buck" and Wednesday
chicken dinners are popular with locals
and visitors alike.
Several eateries in the small village
serve Lake Erie perch; headquarters for
late-night action on this island of 150
year-round residents is Bag the Moon
Saloon and the Caddy Shack.
Kelleys Island — all 2,800 acres of it
— is on the National Register of His-
toric Places, thanks to its unusual histo-
ry and archeology and its Victorian-fla-
vored architecture and atmosphere. The
largest freshwater island in the United
States, it's named for a pair of Cleveland
brothers who bought the entire isle in
the 1830s for $4,200 — or just $1.50
an acre. Over the decades, island popu-
lation and fortunes have ebbed and
flowed, dependent on the vagaries of
the wine and limestone industries.
Though Kelleys' limestone built many
of the grand old buildings in Detroit,
Cleveland and Toledo, only one work-
ing quarry remains.
Visiting Kelleys today, whether for a
few hours or a few days, is like taking a
step back in time. It demands down-
shifting into that lazy, hazy state-of-
being known as island time, just right
for fishing in the bass- and walleye-rich
waters of Lake Erie or curling up with a
good book on an old-fashioned glider
on the porch of a bed-and-breakfast.
The island's dozen b&b's range from
quaint Mom-and-Pop-style lodgings to
the elegant new Water's Edge Retreat, a
three-story, Victorian-style inn, painted
turquoise and pink, with private baths,
in-suite Jacuzzis and wraparound porch.
Cedar Point's resorts are just a short walk away from all the excitement.
Other lodging choices include cozy cot-
tages, new condos and tent-camping in
Kelleys Island State Park.
The park, on a sandy beach on the
north shore, is across from the island's
unique geologic feature, Glacial Grooves
State Memorial, the largest such glacial
formation in North America. Gashed 15
feet deep into the limestone bedrock by
retreating glaciers about 30,000 years
ago, the grooves were discovered in the
early 1960s, less than 40 years ago. They
look like a huge strip of gray Turkish
taffy, nearly 400 feet long and up to 35
feet across. Visitors strolling around the
perimeter also can see fossils of marine
invertebrate animals that lived on the
floor of the Devonian Sea some 350
million years ago.
Back on the island's south shore, and
less impressive, Inscription Rock, is a
flat-topped limestone boulder with faint
etchings from the time more than 300
years ago when Erie Indians roamed the
woods. Before the action of waves and
people wore them down, the pic-
tographs showed birds, animals and
eight human figures, some smoking
pipes.
The rock is across the street from
Kelley Mansion, a three-story, Civil
War-era landmark noted for its free-
standing spiral staircase and rose-col-
ored cut crystal windows. Some believe
construction work on this and other
island homes was performed by Civil
War confederate prisoners "borrowed"
from a camp on nearby Johnson's
Island, just across the lake.
Tired of sightseeing? There's plenty
of time left to kick back and, fanned by
lake breezes, watch the sunset from a
hammock. That, after all, is what an
island idyll is all about — even in
Lake Erie. ❑
Information
Station
* Ottawa County Visitors Bureau:
(800) 441-1271.
* Put-in-Bay Chamber of Com-
merce: (419) 285-2832.
* Sandusky/Erie County Conven-
tion & Visitors Bureau: (800) 255-
3743.
* Kelleys Island Chamber of Com-
merce: (419) 746-2360.
* COSI Toledo: (419) 244-2674.
* Toledo Zoo: (419) 385-5721.
* Tony Packo's Cafe: (419) 691-
1953.
* Maumee Bay State Park Resort:
(800) 282-7275 or (419) 836-
1466. * Cedar Point: Call (888)
775-4242 for lodging information;
ask about special package rates.