New Cedar Point Boardwalk

/

We recently attended Cedar Point Media Day and checked out the new Cedar Point Boardwalk. It was so picturesque and cool! The food in the new Grand Pavilion was amazing too! It is an amazing place to grab some dinner and enjoy those amazing Lake Erie views.

More than an amusement park, Cedar Point continues to expand its attractions, signature events and festivals, year-round overnight accommodations and multi-day offerings, giving families so many reasons to explore the park and create new memories while solidifying their annual traditions.

“The Boardwalk is our vision of what the classic Cedar Point Boardwalk would have felt like long ago: the sights, the sounds, the electricity of the experience – this new area captures it all,” said Carrie Boldman, vice president and general manager of Cedar Point. “Lakeside attractions have always been a part of Cedar Point’s 153-year history, and that tradition lives on. We can’t wait for our guests to enjoy this stunning new centerpiece of summertime fun.”

Wild Mouse Roller Coaster

Cedar Point’s legacy of roller coaster thrills continues with the addition of the Wild Mouse roller coaster. A nod to the park’s original Wild Mouse coaster, the modern version will provide a ride experience the original couldn’t – its cars will spin 360 degrees as they navigate the ride’s 1,312 feet of bright orange track.

The spins, dips, drops and hairpin turns of Wild Mouse will thrill coaster lovers young and young-at-heart. Standing 52 feet tall, the Wild Mouse ride experience is an unpredictable game of “cat and mouse,” complete with six mouse-themed cars and one cheese-themed car. The coaster’s free-form spinning action changes with the number of riders aboard each car, providing one-of-a-kind experiences with no two rides being exactly the same.

Riders must be at least 42” tall to ride with a supervising companion, or 48” tall to ride alone. Wild Mouse is manufactured by Zamperla® and joins Cedar Point’s unmatched ride collection as the 18th roller coaster at America’s Roller Coast®.

Cedar Point’s Grand Pavilion

Serving as the anchor to The Boardwalk, Cedar Point’s Grand Pavilion commemorates the park’s original Grand Pavilion entertainment space, which made its debut back in 1888.

In 2023, Cedar Point’s Grand Pavilion will take many cues from the original. The bi-level complex will be home to a new restaurant featuring culinary items not found anywhere else in the park (plus many traditional favorites), a lake view bar for relaxation and conversation, indoor and outdoor seating plus viewing decks with unparalleled panoramas of Cedar Point, the Cedar Point Beach and the Lake Erie shoreline. 

More Family Fun

Guests will be immersed in the evocative nostalgia of The Boardwalk with a full collection of family rides that are quintessential Cedar Point. Two existing family attractions, Matterhorn and Scrambler, will be relocated to The Boardwalk with Scrambler receiving a refresh and new name: Atomic Scrambler. The Tiki Twirl spinning ride will also be refreshed and renamed as former park classic Calypso. These rides join Wild Mouse, Giant Wheel, Troika, Dodgem, GateKeeper and WindSeeker in the park’s new hub for a full range of pint-sized to giant-sized thrills for the whole family.

Lake George: Fort William Henry

/

Canva source

I have always had an interest in battlefields and old homes. I am a history and genealogy addict. I have been to most of the Revolutionary War battlefields in NY- Fort Ticonderoga, Fort William Henry at Lake George, and the Battlefield at Saratoga.

I have ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. One being Seth Pomeroy, my 2nd cousin, 7 generations back, who I wrote about recently.

Author photo

Last year, we went to Fort William Henry, which was an amazing look at life during the Revolutionary War.

Author photo

To refresh your memory, the battle was from July 3–7, 1757. According to Wikipedia:

In one of the most notorious incidents of the French and Indian War, Montcalm’s Indian allies violated the agreed terms of surrender and attacked the British column, which had been deprived of ammunition, as it left the fort. They killed and scalped many soldiers, took as captives women, children, servants, and slaves, and slaughtered sick and wounded prisoners. Early accounts of the events called it a massacre and implied that as many as 1,500 people were killed, although it is unlikely more than 200 people (less than 10% of the British fighting strength) were actually killed in the massacre.[5]

At the time of our tour, I did not know this history. I kind of went into the tour completely blind.

As we entered the main bunkhouse, I split off from the group (not crazy about groups during Covid time) and stood near a stairway that went into the 2nd floor of the bunk. The tour guide was talking extensively about life in the fort but I could not stop looking up to the 2nd floor.

There were no tourists up there but I felt very strongly that someone was peering down at me. I did not see anything but it’s like a feeling you get in the pit of your stomach.

Author photo

The tour continued and I took a lot of photos. We toured the fort and saw a cannon go off. But it was a continuous feeling of being watched that followed me until we left the fort.

I think it would especially spooky at night. Lake George overall is an amazing place, full of history and gorgeous beyond description.

Gettysburg: Time Travel Back To the 1800's

/

Recently we decided we needed to go to Gettysburg, a brand new battlefield for me to visit.

I was very excited. I love history, especially Civil War era and it had been on my bucket list for a long time.

Nearly a million visitors a year come to Gettysburg National Military Park, where battlefields and memorials cover some 6,000 acres of rolling land just five miles north of the Mason-Dixon line. The site of one of the most consequential battles and most influential speeches in American history, Gettysburg shaped the country as we see it today.

Gettysburg National Military Park was established in 1895 to commemorate an 1863 battle that turned the tides of the Civil War. Situated in rural southern Pennsylvania, this landscape was once a hub for settlers, travelers and traders before bearing witness to the war’s deadliest clash. Today, the park all but surrounds the town of Gettysburg and features 1,300 monuments, 400 cannons and nearly 150 historic buildings. The park also provides diverse habitats that support a range of plants and animals, including the highest density of red-headed woodpeckers of any monitored site in Pennsylvania.


We took the scenic route as they say, through the back roads of PA. It was a beautiful day but driving through the Allegheny Mountains is exhausting. It is not as bad as driving through West Virginia, but pretty close.

So we finally got to the Hampton Inn and it was in a nice location. But there didn’t seem to be a lot of restaurants around. There was a Sheetz, a Ruby Tuesday, and a few other restaurants. I was surprised by such a high tourist area, that it seemed more country than touristy.

The next thing I noticed was the number of crows. A surprising amount. In Ohio, we have a lot of hawks, at least where I live. But in Gettysburg, it’s all crows.

Crows sometimes appear as a method of divination and prophecy. In some mythologies, crows are seen as a sign of bad things to come, but in others, they are considered to be messengers from the gods. Crows often appear as trickster characters in folklore and legend.

I don’t like crows overall because they, to me, aren’t a good omen. And they are whip-smart.


So we check-in, then head over to the museum. They also offer a movie, exhibits, and a gift shop. We decided to check out the museum but not the movie.

So we checked out the museum which was interesting but not that exciting. Most people were NOT wearing masks, which was not surprising. I’ve been doing the same thing for 2 years, so it’s all the same to me.

On the way out, we visited the gift shop and got some cool fake Union money and a Union cap.

The sky was bright blue, it was almost 50 degrees and really we could not ask for a better day.

We headed out to the battlefield, first downloading their $9.99 audio tour that plays on your phone.

There are lots of ways to tour the battlefield, from Segway, to walking to driving to tour buses. Check out this website for everything Gettysburg and to plan your trip.

I tried to go into this situation on the battlefield without knowing too much. I had learned about the Civil War in school. And I had heard about how haunted it is, and how people who don’t even believe in ghosts see or hear things.

But I was trying to go into it with an open mind.

Here is our first stop:

Cars are allowed to park on the side of the road to get out to take photos or just look at the monuments up close.

The very first monument we stopped at, I walked up to it as a crow landed on top of it. I did not take that well. It flew away before I could snap a photo.

The battlefield itself is very quiet. For a place surrounded by civilization, it is a very quiet place. Not a lot of birds and animals, even though these are big open fields.

As we followed the audio tour, I was looking around, trying to take everything in. Then to my left, I spotted movement in the edge of the woods. I swear it looked like a person wearing gray/tan and moving through the trees.

When I looked back they were gone. It was not a human person, it was way off the road where no one was walking. Now, remember, this is during the day and I was not hoping for anything like that.

My husband asked if it was a deer, and I said, no that was not a deer. The next eerie place we visited was Devil’s Den.


This is roped off for now, under construction I guess. So we could not walk up to it, but it definitely had energy coming off it.

I have been to many other historical places like Fort Ticonderoga, Fort William Henry, Williamsburg, etc. but this place had energy all its own.

After our tour, we got some snacks and went back to the hotel room. We decided to take a break before our ghost tour.

I have never been on a ghost tour and was definitely nervous. But where else would I go on one except the most haunted place in the country?

The downtown area is very cute, old, and charming. It is a town straight out of the 1800s. Filled with old brick buildings, it is like time traveling.

We got our tickets and got in line. The girl leading us on tour wore a big hoop skirt, very Civil War era. There were about 10 people on the tour.

The first 45 minutes were walking the back alleys and stopping while the guide told us stories. It was kind of boring, I had hoped for more tours of old homes. I was trying to be a good sport about it and my poor husband, who does not believe in supernatural at all, was trying to play along.

After the tour, we got some Friendly’s ice cream and dinner (takeout) at a burger/pub joint Appalachian Brewing Co.

Everywhere was packed, as it was a Saturday night. We ate take-out back at our hotel room and got to sleep early.

That night, I had the weirdest night’s sleep of my life. Odd, Technicolor dreams, I dreamed of someone chasing me and woke up in a freezing cold room. I slept well(ish) but when 8 am, the sun was bright and I had to get up.

The place was starting to get to me, I could tell.

It is a very subtle thing when you are in Gettysburg. It is not an obvious spooky place, there is just this unsettling undercurrent.

I would not want to be downtown at night or on the battlefield at night either.

Overall though, it is a really fun, amazing place to visit! Especially if you love history, it is a must-see.

More Gettysburg info here

Here are the 20 must-see battlefields.

The Real Wizard of Oz: The Forger of Thunderbolts, Charles Steinmetz

/

Many years ago, my great-grandfather Carmino M. immigrated to America with his wife Philomena. They had 10 kids and he went to work with a genius, one you may have never heard of.

As it was told to me, Carmino worked as a technician with Charles Steinmetz.

Charles Proteus Steinmetz (born Karl August Rudolph Steinmetz, April 9, 1865 — October 26, 1923) was a German-born American mathematician and electrical engineer and professor at Union College. He fostered the development of alternating current that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States, formulating mathematical theories for engineers. He made ground-breaking discoveries in the understanding of hysteresis that enabled engineers to design better electromagnetic apparatus equipment, especially electric motors for use in industry.[1][2][a]

At the time of his death, Steinmetz held over 200 patents.[3] A genius in both mathematics and electronics, he did work that earned him the nicknames “Forger of Thunderbolts”[4] and “The Wizard of Schenectady”.[5] Steinmetz’s equation,[b][6] Steinmetz solids, Steinmetz curves, and Steinmetz equivalent circuit[7] are all named after him, as are numerous honors and scholarships, including the IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award, one of the highest technical recognitions given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers professional society.

Standing only 4 feet tall, he had dwarfism, hunchback, and hip dysplasia, as did his father and grandfather.

But this did not stop him from making a big impact on the world. At the time of his death, he held over 200 patents. He was a genius in mathematics and electronics. He regularly worked with Edison and Einstein.

Einstein and Steinmetz

My great-grandfather Carmino worked with him as a lab assistant and became good friends with him. At some point during their friendship, Steinmetz gifted my great-grandfather a piano.

Source: General Electric Co

He was a very kind person and helped out his other employees as well.

When Joseph LeRoy Hayden, a loyal and hardworking lab assistant, announced that he would marry and look for his own living quarters, Steinmetz made the unusual proposal of opening his large home, complete with research lab, greenhouse, and office to the Haydens and their prospective family. Hayden favored the idea, but his future wife was wary of the unorthodox arrangement. She agreed after Steinmetz’s assurance that she could run the house as she saw fit.[13]

After an uneasy start, the arrangement worked well for all parties, especially after three Hayden children were born. Steinmetz legally adopted Joseph Hayden as his son, becoming grandfather to the youngsters, entertaining them with fantastic stories and spectacular scientific demonstrations. The unusual, harmonious living arrangement lasted for the rest of Steinmetz’s life.[13]

Group tour of the Marconi Wireless Station in Somerset, New Jersey in 1921, including Steinmetz (center) and Albert Einstein (to his right)

According to the Henry Ford Museum:

This cabin was originally located on a steep bank overlooking a tributary of the Mohawk River, just outside of Schenectady, New York. Its simplicity was a contrast to the General Electric laboratories where Steinmetz spent his workweek. It served as a getaway — for quiet study or writing, but also for more animated weekend camp gatherings for selected friends and associates.