Ohio Road Trips 2nd Edition

Excerpts from Trip 1

Gateway to Amish Country

Baltic, Sugarcreek

A Museum Of Cheese

They celebrate cheese in this town because it is one of the staples of life here. This tiny museum on the main street shows, in specially prepared rooms, how early cheese-making was done. It also offers a peek into the past of this community with a nice display of local memorabilia and early vehicles.

Alpine Hills Museum
330-852-4113
106 W. Main St. • Sugarcreek

Food The Amish Way

There are several Amish-style restaurants in and around Sugarcreek. This one is operated by the same firm that owns Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek. They serve the traditional Amish fare of beef, turkey, and ham with lots of mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, as well as a large salad bar, homemade bread, and pies—all for a reasonable price. Most everything is made fresh each day in the kitchen. There is also a bakery in-house so you can take home some of those Amish goodies. Closed on Sundays.

Dutch Valley Restaurant
330-852-4627
1343 Old Route 39 NE • Sugarcreek

A Modern Inn

This is a luxurious place to stay while exploring Ohio's Little Switzerland or Amish country. Sitting high on a hillside overlooking State Route 39, the 69-room inn has a country look to it, but inside you'll find spacious rooms, some with fireplaces and balconies. All rooms have at least a queen-sized bed or larger and feature locally handcrafted furnishings made with oak and cherry wood. There is even an indoor swimming pool where you can relax after a day of exploring the countryside. The inn is located next to the Dutch Valley Restaurant and is only a short distance from two wineries.

Carlisle Inn, Sugarcreek
877-422-7547
1357 Old Rte. 39 • Sugarcreek

Flour Power

This mill has operated for more than a hundred years. Owner Alvin Miller still grinds his flour daily from grain that he has dried in large tubs out behind the mill. My wife, Bonnie, insists this is the only flour she has ever found that makes the perfect loaf of bread in a bread-making machine. Closed on Sundays.

Baltic Mills
330-897-0522
111 Main St. • Baltic

The Oldest Cheese Factory in America

The Steiner Cheese Company in the sleepy little town of Baltic has a legitimate claim as the oldest manufacturer of Swiss Cheese in America. In 1833, Swiss cheese maker Jacob Steiner came to this area, bringing along his copper cheese-making kettle. The land reminded him of his native Switzerland, and soon he was joined by relatives and friends who were also immigrating to America. The lush pastures of Holmes and Tuscarawas Counties attracted farmers and herds of milk-producing cows. Steiner began making cheese just as he had in his native Switzerland, one small batch at a time.

The company continues that practice today, hand-crafting their cheese and still winning awards for some of the best Swiss cheese, not only in Ohio but across the country. You can watch them make the cheese each day at the factory through an observation window or make a reservation for a guided tour of the factory operation.

A retail store offers all the various types of their cheese, from classic Swiss cheese to more modern baby Swiss and even smoked cheese.

Steiner Cheese
330-897-5505
201 Mill Street • Baltic

Guest Cabins

These getaway cabins are operated by a Mennonite couple. Several modern cabins are located around a small lake behind their home. While not luxurious, the cabins are clean and have electricity and bathrooms, a gas-fired fireplace, two bedrooms, a small dining and living room, and a porch to sit on and watch the sunsets from. They welcome children (there is even a small playground near the edge of the lake and paddle boats with fishing). This is a nice family getaway spot, nestled on a quiet side road surrounded by Amish and Mennonite farms.

Mel and Mary Raber's Cabins
330-893-2695
2972 Township Rd. 190 • Baltic

Excerpts from Trip 19

Winery Capital of Ohio

Conneaut, Geneva, Madison

A Young Winery

Tarsitano Winery is just up the road from a covered bridge. The wine cellar is in the basement of the 1850 farmhouse, and a nearby cedar barn doubles as a wine store, café, and tasting room. While the winery still offers only a few varieties of wine, they have already won some prestigious awards. The owners are local residents and can give you good tips on other sights to see in the county.

Tarsitano Winery
440-224-2444
4871 Hatches Corners Rd. • Conneaut

Sleep At A Winery

Buccia Vineyards is a small winery tucked away on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. What makes it unusual is that you can sleep in the winery. Buccia's offers a bed and breakfast that is open year-round, right inside the winemaking building. Each of the rooms offers a six-person hot tub, as well as a private bath. Their tasting room is open year-round, and they say they are “children and pet friendly” with prior consent.

Buccia Winery Bed and Breakfast
440-593-5976
518 Gore Rd. • Conneaut

Winery In A Church

One of the more unusual wineries in Ashtabula County is located on its namesake, South River Road. The South River Vineyard not only makes great wine, it is located in a former church that dates back to 1892. Today, it has been restored to much or its original charm and doubles not only as a winery but as a wedding chapel. The church building was originally located in Portage County, where it was abandoned for nearly 30 years. Heather and Gene Siegel bought it and moved it board by board to its new location is in the midst of acres of grapes on a hill overlooking Lake Erie.

South River Vineyard
440-466-6676
6062 S. River Rd. • Geneva

Romantic Dining

How about a romantic lunch or dinner in the middle of a vineyard? You can do it at Ferrante's in Geneva. The Ferrante family offers fine Italian cuisine as well as some of their fine wines to go with your meal. One of my favorites is the pepe carciofo, an appetizer made of Romano, mozzarella, and cheddar cheeses mixed with roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, black olives, and fresh herbs. It's baked and served with bread for dipping, and it is almost a meal in itself. For a main course, I like their pollo pasta Rockefeller. It's chicken breast sautéed with fresh spinach, bacon, tomatoes, and Swiss cheese, tossed with white wine and served on a bed of linguine.

By the way, they also have a wine tasting room and store in the restaurant where you can sample and purchase bottles of wine to take home. Tours of the winery are available.

Ferrante Winery and Ristorante
440-466-8466
5585 State Rte. 307 • Geneva

A Luxury Stay Among The Vines

When you first arrive at the Polly Harper Inn, you would swear the building has been standing in the middle of a field of grape vines for centuries, but you would be wrong.

The Polly Harper Inn, although designed to look like it has been part of the Western Reserve for a couple of hundred years, is, in fact, a modern home with many nice amenities. It was built as a bed and breakfast. The bedrooms come with queen-sized four-poster beds. There are gas fireplaces in each room, and for a luxurious touch each of the rooms has a whirlpool bath for two people, as well as private bathrooms. It's located in the middle of wine country and sits right in the middle of a vineyard, yet it is close to many restaurants, covered bridges, and other activities.

Polly Harper Inn
440-466-6183
6308 S. River Rd. • Geneva

Ice Wine (And More)

The last time Tony Debevec invited me out to watch his crew pick grapes, I should have noticed something a bit unusual. It was January, the temperature was near zero, there was a foot of snow on the ground, and the wind was blowing more snow all over. But sure enough, out in the vineyards atop a windy hill were a dozen frozen grape-pickers bundled against the near-blinding blizzard, all of them picking frozen grapes off net-covered vines. Later, in the warmth of the winery, clutching a cup of hot spiced wine, Tony explained that this is how they make a special wine called ice wine, just one of the many wonderful wines produced at Ohio's largest estate winery. During the summer months, they offer both food and entertainment, too.

Chalet Debonne Vineyards
440-466-3485
7743 Doty Rd. • Madison

Excerpts from Trip 45

Cincinnati Area, North

Cincinnati, Fairfield, Hamilton, Kings Island, Mason

Jungle Jim

No one will accuse Jim Bonaminio of being conservative in his approach to the grocery business. Take the entrance to his store in Fairfield, just outside of Cincinnati: There is a jungle lake filled with life-sized, fiberglass, pink and blue hippopotami, an elephant spouting water, giraffes, and other creatures of the jungle. There is even a waterfall.

Along the walk to the front door are giant replicas of strawberries, bananas, and an orange.

Welcome to Jungle Jim's Grocery. One of the first things you spot upon walking into the store is a giant ear of corn and a stick of butter. This is a big store! The produce section alone covers nearly an acre and represents fresh fruit and vegetables from every corner of the earth. High overhead is a giant-sized can of Campbell's soup swinging on a child's playset. A stuffed animal that looks like Elvis breaks into song every few minutes in the bakery. If you see a man dressed like someone on a jungle safari rolling up and down the aisles on a Segway, that futuristic two-wheeled scooter, and stopping to help someone choose the freshest vegetables, you have just met “Jungle” Jim Bonaminio, the owner.

Jim Bonaminio grew up in Lorain County and began his career selling fruit and vegetables out of the back of his pickup truck at busy intersections. Today he is considered one of the top independent grocers in America, as well as one of the most innovative. He even built an “Event Center” on the upper stories of his neighborhood grocery colossus and installed a monorail from his parking lot to transport people from the lot to the upper deck. From bathrooms that have won awards for “America's best bathroom” to a real fire truck suspended over a giant display of hot sauce, this is a very different experience when it comes to grocery shopping.

Why all the weirdness? Bonaminio points out that kids love to come to his grocery store—and that children often influence where parents shop. He also notes that the giant fiberglass animals and the waterfall help people remember and talk about his store. While some of his competitors may call Jim Bonaminio crazy, he's laughing all the way to the bank.

Open seven days a week.

Jungle Jim's Grocery
513-674-6000
5440 Dixie Hwy. • Fairfield

About That Cincinnati Chili

You can't come to Cincinnati without trying the chili for which the city is famous. Whether you have it three-way or four-way, it is a gastronomic experience. The chili, more like spaghetti with a cinnamon-flavored tomato sauce, is served with optional cheese, onions, and red beans. There are chili shops all over Cincinnati. The one we tried is perhaps the best known.

Skyline Chili
513-874-1188
4180 Thunderbird Ln. • Fairfield
79 restaurants in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Florida; contact the main office for location information

Wakeboarding in Southwest Ohio

Want to enjoy the sport of wakeboarding (sort of a cross between a snowboard and water skis) but don't own a boat? You might visit Ohio's first cable-wakeboard park near near Cincinnati.

It works this way: There is a 10-acre lake with a cable system running overhead. Riders sit on a pier along one side of the water as the cable system circles the lake; when it reaches the last rider, it hooks his or her cable and tugs them onto the lake at speeds of up to 20 mph.

According to first-time riders, it looks easier than it actually is. In fact, they recommend that beginners launch themselves on their knees and ride that way until they are comfortable with the cable speed. Basically, when they are not too busy, riders can stay on the cable until they fall off; then they swim to shore and get back in line for the next available cable. Six people can ride the lake at one time.

For more experienced riders who can stand all the way around the course, there are ramps and other obstacles to navigate through and over.

According to one skilled rider, the advantage of the cable system versus a boat is cost. But the drawback is you keep going around the same circle time after time, unlike a boat where you can move up and down the shoreline to change the scenery.

Wake Nation
513-887-9253
201 Joe Nuxhall Way • Fairfield

Giant Sculptures

This unusual outdoor cultural center features more than three dozen enormous works of art placed on hills and in valleys.

Harry Wilks wanted to build a special home along the Great Miami River in Butler County. He had a large art collection that he planned to house in his new home. But when it was finished, the location was so beautiful that many other people also wanted to build along the same area of the river. Wilks, in an effort to protect the environment, started buying up the property and invited sculptors to bring their works to his growing hillside property. He eventually created a sculpture park and donated his land, his home, and his collection to a non-profit corporation that today operates this outdoor sculpture park and museum. Some of the sculptures are so huge that passing airplanes can spot them from the air. (The largest, Abracadabra, by Alexander Liberman, is two-and-a-half stories tall and nearly four stories wide.)

Today the park is a year-round tourist attraction, from summer concerts to holiday lighting displays in the winter. There are more than 40 monumental works of art scattered over 250 acres of hillside. Contact the park for a calendar of special events.

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum
513-887-9514
1763 Hamiltion-Cleves Rd. • Hamilton

Kings Island Amusement Park

One of America's most famous theme parks, Kings Island has more than 350 acres of thrill rides, a water park, shops, and restaurants. It is home of The Beast, the world's longest wooden roller coaster; and The Racer, a double-track wooden coaster with one train running forward and one running backward.

Boomerang Bay is a 15-acre water park with an Australian flavor; its 15 water slides, including inner tube rides, are guaranteed to get you very wet and cool you off on a hot Ohio summer day.

Kings Island
800-288-0808
6300 Kings Island Dr. • Kings Island

A Dive-In Movie Theater

No, that's not a typo; there really is a “Dive”-in movie theater in southwestern Ohio. It's at one of my favorite aquatic parks, the Beach Waterpark in Mason, just across from Kings Island Amusement Park.

I got acquainted with the Beach many years ago. My son Craig, then about 10 years old, and I went to do a story for television on the park. We were floating on inner tubes down the Lazy Miami River (actually, a man-made shallow stream that runs 1,200 feet throughout the park). It was a cold day, and when I reached to adjust the inner tube I was riding in my wedding ring slipped off my finger and into the water. I tried to grab it, but the current swept it away. We climbed out and searched the entire length of the ride, but no ring. With hundreds of people in the water and dozens of drains and catch basins along the route, I just figured I had seen the last of my wedding ring. I did alert park personnel, and they assured me they would alert maintenance people to watch for the ring, but I really felt the ring was gone. We spent the rest of the day finishing our story and, toward evening, we started to leave. As we crossed a bridge over the “river,” I saw a lifeguard and thought I might as well mention the loss to her. As I was standing on the bridge telling her about the loss of the ring, she continued to watch the riders in the water. Suddenly she said, “Look!” and leaped over the bridge into the water, which is only about thigh-deep throughout the course. She bent over and scooped up my ring, which was tumbling along the bottom on the current. I guess that is the day I should have also gone out and bought a lottery ticket.

So you can understand why I feel fond of the Beach and its personnel. But fondness has nothing to do with the fact that this is one of the major water parks in Ohio, and, perhaps, the only one that has a Dive-in Movie Theater. At the Kahuna Beach section of the park on Saturday nights they offer family films on a big screen. You can either watch from a lounge chair on the sand of the beach or dive in and float in an inner tube while enjoying the movie. With about 50 different water rides and even a water roller coaster this is a perfect place to spend a hot Ohio summer day or weekend.

The Beach Waterpark
800-886-7946
2590 Waterpark Dr. • Mason

Some Bargain Shopping

Just outside of Cincinnati is a place that manufactures down-filled comforters for some of the major department and specialty stores in America. They have an outlet store at the factory, where you can buy not only the comforters but down-filled clothing, as well. The best buys are the comforter seconds, which may have been rejected by the department stores because of a crooked stitch or mismatched fabric. You can usually save up to 50 percent on these items, but you have to ask for them.

Down-Lite International
513-489-3696
7818 Palace Dr. • Cincinnati

Homemade Potato Chips

One of my favorite stops just on the north side of Cincinnati is a former drive-in restaurant that has made chicken their specialty. They marinate fresh Amish-raised chickens in citrus juices before cooking. It's their biggest seller, and they also make fresh, homemade potato chips to go with their meals. It's a great place to take kids.

Silver Spring House Restaurant
513-489-7044
8322 E. Kemper Rd. • Cincinnati