Thwarted, or, I need a GPS

Last Monday I thought it would be fun to take Little Man to the beach. There are supposedly some nice beaches along the shore of Lake Erie, and I did buy him a nice, reusable swim diaper, and the weather was appropriately warm for such an activity, and it might not be good weather for much longer, so it was time to take advantage.

First, I did a little research about where to go. There was a site with a lovely picture of a beach, with families having a great time. I printed off some directions to this beach, slathered sunscreen all over little man and put him in his swim trunks (not the diaper yet, though). I packed a bag full of beach items: towel, beach toys, sunscreen, snacks, water, hat, swim diaper. We were off!

The directions were simple enough to follow, until the crucial finding-the-beach point. That is when things got hairy. The road veered off strangely (Cleveland has many, many weird intersections), and I hesitantly continued forward along the extremely curvy road, but it didn’t look promising. I made a three-point turn and ventured onto a more promising looking side street which was vaguely familiar. It was a rocky beach which we had once visited, but it was not the sand-filled family friendly beach I wanted. I turned around (again) and went back the first way, which seemed more in line with the directions. It really didn’t seem to lead anywhere beach-like. There was however, a street I passed which the directions indicated was the “you’ve gone too far point.” so I turned back around (AGAIN) and watched the odometer very carefully until I reached the appropriate distance. I turned into the state park area (it was actually labeled as such, so I got a little hopeful). Now there was a fork in the road (not noted on the directions!), so I guessed and went left, but all I saw was a lodge type of building surrounded by official rangerish vehicles. I saw some cars driving nearby, on the other choice, so I went back to the fork and turned left, but that road ended in an official looking potentially barbed wired fence, and I promptly turned around (AGAIN!!!).

I decided to forget the beach and head to a small water park I had passed on the way. By the time we got there, Little Man was fast asleep. I even tried waking him up (I was that committed to this trip) to no avail.

So we went back home. I think I took a nap. We’ll try again a different day.