Since we haven't had much snow this winter, I drove Monday to one of my favorite places, Fairport Harbor, Ohio. Wanted to see how much havoc was raised with the recent storm there, and take pictures of the sights.
Fairport is a tiny town on the Lake Erie shore, about 30 miles east of Cleveland. Generations ago, the Slovaks, Hungarians and Finns arrived to build the railroad to Pittsburgh, and those cultures are still strong. Cabbage rolls or chicken paprikash are terrific here, but only if you know someone's Grandma who cooks it up at home. Strangely, there are no ethnic restuarants in Fairport and it seems like an obvious place for one.
The town boasts a Slovenian Club, Finnish Heritage Museum, and a Hungarian Culture Club. It also has two lighthouses; one is a now a maritime museum, the newer one is far out on a stone breakwall. Sunsets here are beautiful, and with the lake frozen over, I expected to shoot a cold wintry scene.
Sometimes, a preconceived idea of a photo blinds me from a better picture.
There was snow, but not as much as expected. The snow belt along Lake Erie is crushed regularly with storms, but this dumped about 15 inches. While that might have closed down York County, snow belt towns here have learned to deal with monster storms. And this storm was not a monster. Drifting on the lakefront was not very obvious, and certainly not very visual.
The lighthouse stood far into the lake, alone. But then, the seagulls arrived. Accustomed to being fed, these feathered beggers expected bread, crackers, cookies, corn. They probably would've eaten lug nuts had a few been dropped. If you saw "Finding Nemo", you remember their one word vocabulary-- "Mine! Mine! Mine!" Exactly.
They were disappointed, but their arrival added another subject in a lonely photo.
After shooting a lot of photos (the gulls are never where they're wanted), we wandered to the older lighthouse, and took pictures of sledders. We didn't get many pictures of snow drifts, or ice-encrusted waterfalls. But these are OK. They'll be there to remember my Monday in Fairport.
For more information about Fairport Harbor, click here
For more information about the Finnsh Heritage Museum, click here
For information about the Fairport Harbor Marine Museum, click here
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