| Featured Photo: “Nature’s Red Bouquet, Holden Arboretum” Kirtland, Ohio—2007 |
Having just written about viewing the 2024 solar eclipse, I want to give a quick introduction to the state of Ohio, and to relate why it means so much to my family. And for all intents and purposes, these posts will also serve as a kind-of narrated family photo album for my two sons.
1. A Very Brief History of Mentor
Ohio became a travel destination for me through marriage. My wife was raised in Mentor, Ohio—a small city situated about 25 miles northeast of Cleveland, along the south shore of Lake Erie. The town was first settled in 1797 and formally established in 1855, but it was probably James A. Garfield who put Mentor on the map. Garfield purchased a home there in 1876, from which he conducted the first successful front porch campaign to become the 20th president of the United States. Garfield’s house in Mentor is now maintained as a National Historic Site, which our family has toured once or twice while visiting my wife’s parents.
The decade from 1960 to 1970 was a time of explosive growth for this particular Cleveland suburb, with Mentor’s population swelling from 4,000 to 37,000. My wife’s family first moved to Mentor during this boom, building a house during the mid-1960’s in a new development just three miles from Garfield’s home.
2. Early Visits
After my wife and I were married, we began traveling to Mentor to spend the Christmas holidays with her parents. She and I exchanged presents in their living room for our first Yuletide together in 1996…
…and the following year, we were welcomed by a festively decorated tree that was draped in garland and dripping with ornaments, surrounded by lots of gifts.
In 1998, Ohio had a white Christmas, and we were thrilled to drive past a snow-capped tree farm near Mentor.
On that visit, I drank lots of coffee to ward off the cold…
…and considered myself somewhat prescient for anticipating the snowy weather: I gave my wife a getaway vacation to Disney World, complete with Mickey Mouse ears to wear.
The Christmas of 1999 brought even more snow, and it was all I could do to keep warm. Standing in front of the snow drifts at my in-laws’ house, I had bundled myself into my super-puffy London Fog winter coat (which I still wear when I shovel snow back home).
One evening, we braved the cold and ventured out over the slippery roads to reach the Mentor Ice Arena where we skated in unsteady circles over the smooth ice.
Also in 1999, we continued my wife’s family tradition of “hide the Santa”, shown here hanging helplessly upside down amidst fronds of eucalyptus.
That was the last year before kids arrived in our lives, and it seemed everyone—and everything—anticipated the joy that would follow. I took this photo just down the street from my in-law’s house, laughing because even the fire hydrant—knee-deep in snow—was wearing a jolly, curved elf hat.
When our first son was born in 2000, we drove from our recently purchased home in the Philadelphia suburbs with our four-month-old in tow—safely buckled in a car seat—to spend his first Christmas in Mentor. It was there, while lying on an infant play mat, with encouragement provided by his proud Grandpa that our son first rolled over. I took this photo mid-turn during his remarkable feat.
By the time our second son came along, we decided it was easier on the boys and on us to celebrate Christmas at our own home in Pennsylvania. During those years, my in-laws would travel from Ohio—their car loaded with presents in shiny wrapping paper—to enjoy the holiday with their two grandsons. Despite our younger son’s first Christmas not being in Mentor, I offer this photo—in the spirit of equal opportunity embarrassment—when he was also four months old, seemingly attempting the same roll-over technique while gazing up at the mobile above his infant pack-and-play.
3. Later Visits
Over the years, we continued to prioritize our vacations to include visits with my wife’s parents in the suburbs of Cleveland. We found the weather more predictable during the summer, so we started a tradition of enjoying the Fourth of July in Ohio. In 2006, when the boys were four and six years old, we picnicked at a park in Mentor, my younger son showing his delight…
…and my older son relaxing on the lush lawn…
…before properly celebrating the holiday with sparklers after dark.
Mentor’s location along Lake Erie afforded an array of natural resources to appreciate, including Mentor Marsh, the largest coastal wetland in Northeast Ohio, and Headlands Beach State Park, the longest public swimming beach in Ohio. The beach boasts one lighthouse set upon the breakwall jutting into the lake and another one nearby that is even older (erected in 1871) and now open for climbing. We first viewed the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse in 2007…
…and returned two years later with the boys ready to tackle the black spiral staircase and take in the view from the summit.
On other visits, the boys had fun finding new toys in their grandparents’ house, like the mini-bowling alley they created in the summer of 2007.
That same year, the boys and I discovered what my wife and her parents already knew: there was an amazing world of natural beauty to explore (and photograph) at Holden Arboretum, in nearby Kirtland, Ohio. During our time there, I took these pictures…
…along with today’s Featured Photo of the rich red “pincushion” flowers of the Macedonian scabious plant, with a solitary firefly resting in broad daylight.
Just five miles from the arboretum is the Kirtland Temple, which we visited in 2008. Constructed under the direction of Joseph Smith, dedicated in 1836, and now a National Historic Landmark, the building was the first temple used for meeting and worship by the Mormons, before they continued their western trek that led them to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Looking back at these photos from many visits over several years, it’s clear we spent lots of great family time in the Cleveland suburbs. And with Cleveland itself just 20 miles to the southwest along Ohio State Road 2, we were able to explore the wonderful sights there as well.
(To be continued…)
This was so much fun to read and the photos made me smile so much. Those boys had to be the cutest little boys in the world, and I had a few cute ones of my own, so I know. I didn’t know much about the Ohio you visited so often, so this was really interesting to me. Very interesting post.
Oh Mark! This is your element! Lots of great, great pictures and stories for your boys (and us) to enjoy and learn from. Hope this one was easier to write—spectacular!!!
I loved seeing the photos of your boys growing up during your visits to Ohio. I did not recall that you travelled to Ohio for so many years.
What a fun trip down memory lane, especially enjoyed the photos of you and Mom before Bradley and I were born and the photos of Grandma and Grandpa’s old house too that I have so many early memories of as well. I also remember the lighthouse staircase, not sure if that’s the actual memory of it happening or just the retellings of it later that are in my memory, but fun to remember all these moments again!