A Weekend in Sandusky... or was it Kalahari

At the entrance to the lagoon footbridge that leads to Kalahari, America’s Waterpark Resort in Sandusky, is a sign about the real Kalahari. Kalahari is a large semi-desert in southern Africa. It extends 362,500 square miles across Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa where elephant, giraffe, lion and cheetah graze after heavy rains.

It’s odd to be in Sandusky, which has the Sandusky Bay and Cedar Point and the proximity of Marblehead, Catawba, Port Clinton and the Erie Islands, but not be on the Lake. Even odder to be in a place that feels like Kalahari. A weekend combining the waterpark resort experience with some Sandusky Bay Firelands sightseeing can make everyone in the family happy.

We investigated our three choices of indoor waterpark resorts--Kalahari, Great Wolf Lodge, and Castaway Bay--on the internet and decided on Kalahari because of the theme and its size. Great Wolf Lodge, formerly Great Bear Lodge, is reminiscent of the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone, but we had already been there, and Castaway Bay, my first choice, was smaller in area. Since my husband ultimately chose Kalahari, his weekend refrain was “Claudia, isn’t this the best water park in Sandusky?”

The Kalahari fantasy was carried out throughout the property, and I looked for the flaws on the stage set of an African plain. I wondered whether they have red-beaked black swans like the ones in the water below the footbridge in the semi-desert? Can a family of monkeys, portrayed as a statue by the entrance, live in a place with so few trees? It was a place that raised questions.

The safari-garbed porters were welcoming and looked like they just emerged from khaki-colored tents in a sand-dusted camp. Tusked wall sconces, African native masks, and shadow images of hunting men hung on rough-hewn walls above bright-colored carpeting. It felt pretty African. In the lobby, children can be photographed with real baby tigers. My next question was whether the domestication of wild animals was good for the baby tigers? And was our western romanticism of African culture in a place where the rooms cost $300 a night appropriate?

I decided to enjoy our stay as I did when I pretended I was in Morocco at Epcot in semi-tropical Florida. We were there to have fun. Our two-room suite was extremely spacious and very comfortable, and the mosquito nets were sure to keep the bugs away from us as we slept in the climate-controlled room (there I go again). When we turned on the fireplace, Paul brought up how Reagan enjoyed a roaring fire in his air conditioned home. The luxurious suite had two bedrooms, each with its own bath and eating areas, separated by a door that locked. Every detail was attended to, from the body-sized pillows to the mini-fridge. The balcony of our room overlooked the outdoor patio and pool.

Everything was under one roof. Clothing and gift boutiques, a full-service spa, a convenience store, a make-your-own pottery shop, a large arcade, mini golf, and an indoor playground make it difficult to leave. The main dining room was a Caribbean, Asian, and Mediterranean restaurant with Las Vegas ambience, but we could choose a more casual laid-back place. There was a lounge in the lobby and one in the waterpark. For breakfast, there was Java Manjaro with beautiful homemade pastries and Krispy Kreme donuts. The Candy Hut with its chocolate covered anything, from marshmallows to strawberries to caramel apples, tempted us. Pizza was available and could be delivered to the room.

The Waterpark was lively and noisy and full of almost naked people just looking for a good time. Some tried to surf or boogie board in the FlowRider, and few succeeded. Leopard’s Lair is a huge indoor water gym with 3000 feet of net crawls and slides; I watched a father crawl along the bottom of the pool like an alligator with his son on his back. Older kids liked Crocodile Cove activity pool where they could shoot basketballs. There was an indoor-outdoor spa, a Zip Coaster, a family raft ride, a lazy river, water slides, and tube rides. I lazed down the river, sometimes getting soaked by roaring falls and narrow arching streams, then took my inner tube with me to a slide and went up and slid down over and over again. Did it make sense to have elephants painted on the walls along the Lazy River route? Were waterfalls this abundant in a place that only gets a few inches of rain a year? More importantly, is the place ecologically sound?

It makes good economic sense for Sandusky to capitalize on the need for the people of the great industrial cities on the north coast—Cleveland, Toledo, and Detroit—to get away from their work-a-day lives. Cedar Point’s success (it has been judged the best amusement park in the world for 9 years) proves there’s an amusement park market in Ohio’s vacationland. Judging from the number of year-round restaurants along Route 250, business is no longer seasonal.

By dinnertime, we were ready to get outside in the unusual October summertime weather. Our daughter remembered Damon’s at Battery Park Marina, our favorite place on the Sandusky Bay. The menus say “Food with a View”--Damon’s overlooks the Bay with the marina in the foreground and Johnson’s Island and Marblehead Peninsula in the background. Sailboats float by like still-life paintings, and to the east, Cedar Point, a marvel of human ingenuity, juts into the water like an inflated Coney Island. Sandusky was founded in 1818 and became a vacation spot by the 1880s. Its earliest buildings were carved from limestone by German and Irish stonesetters. Buildings downtown include the 1867 Cassedy-West Building, which has a rock-cut façade and eaves trimmed with cut-stone decorations. Another significant building is The G.A. Boeckling Building, built in 1928, has a Spanish motif with terra-cotta trim, and was built as the administrative building for the president and general manager of Cedar Point.

Many piers jag Sandusky’s waterfront: Washington Street Pier, Meigs Street Pier and Jackson Street Pier among them. Parkland accents the Bay from Washington Street Pier to the Public Boat Ramps. Jackson Street Pier, in the newly-developed Paper District, affords great views of the Bay, Marblehead Peninsula, and Cedar Point, where the excursion boats, the Pelee Islander and Goodtime I dock. The Goodtime I stops at Kelley’s Island and Put-in-Bay, while the Jet Express, a modern catamaran, is a faster mode of transportation to the Islands.

We enjoyed our sunset dinner at Damon’s Grill, then walked along the plank walkways past the boats in the Marina with Cedar Point’s lights to the east. Live country music filtered through the air while the town held its annual Bay Pumpkin Festival at the Bay Pavilion. Sandusky also hosts bass fisherman events and an ice festival, so a weekend away could be combined with a festival. The Downtime Main Street Trolley, the Greenhouse, a Merry-Go-Round Museum, the Maritime Museum across from Battery Park, and the Follett House Museum are other tourist destinations. Hours can be wiled away in the intriguing antique stores, and a tour to the DixonTiconderoga crayon factory, south of downtown, affords an opportunity to explore crayon making done the same way it’s been done for many years.

When the winter blues call for a weekend getaway, a trip to Sandusky is not complete without exploring the heart of Sandusky as an industrial town and a lakeside tourist destination. Dancing at Cedar Point and the building of the Hotel Breakers lured 19th century fun-lovers, and today’s amusements continue the adventure that make Sandusky special.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com
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