About a week and a half ago, my husband and I decided we wanted to go do something since he had some vacation time off work. We love visiting state parks and taking the kids on hiking trips. We have been to most of the parks and hiking trails that are kind of close by on multiple occasions so we decided we wanted to see something new. You might have seen my previous posts about our Seneca Caverns experience in Bellevue, Ohio. If not, I’ll leave the links at the bottom of this post. Anyway, after we saw that it took almost 3 hours to get there and were so so close to Sandusky, we decided we would stay overnight and visit Lake Erie since we have never been there before.
It was an impressive site to see. As we were driving through Sandusky on our way to Port Clinton, we crossed over a bridge on the highway and the site of the lake was really amazing. We love being on the water but this was the largest body of water we have personally seen. You know what the sad thing is? When my husband and I first got married, we lived in VA when he was in the Marine Corps. We were two hours away from VA Beach and we never went. Why we never went to see the ocean is beyond me. Anyway, the kids were kind of taken with the beauty of it too and the size. They got really excited and couldn’t wait to ride the ferry.
The photo above is a shot from the ferry when we were heading back to the mainland from Put In Bay.
So we got to Port Clinton where Miller Ferry is located. I was so exciting! They have free all day parking up there but we couldn’t find a lot that had any room left so we parked in one of their paying lots that was right there. All we had to do was walk across the street really. I was pretty surprised that the parking for all day was only $5. They do have overnight parking too if you are staying on the island. Anyway, we paid to park, grabbed our things and headed over to buy our round trip tickets.
The round trip tickets were great prices. It’s actually cheaper going to Put In Bay than the other bigger island, Kelleys Island. There are a couple other smaller islands you can check out too. Miller Ferry also goes to Middle Bass Island where they have weekend history tours. But we decided on Put In Bay because of it being a smaller island and we really only had the day before we had to drive back home that evening. Ticket prices at Miller Ferry were only $7 per adult round trip and only $3 per child round trip (I believe Miller is the only ferry going to Put In Bay, there’s another ferry for Kelleys Island).
Miller Ferry is a vehicle and passenger ferry. On the trip over to Put In Bay, we sat up top in the passenger area. We thought it best since it was the morning hours and there were a lot of people heading over. They allow passengers to stand at the bottom off to the sides where the cars are parked but with it being crowded and having the kids, we decided to sit up top. The views were amazing!
I mean, just look at that horizon. I know it’s one of the great lakes and it’s not like the ocean but the horizon is spectacular. It’s like it really is never ending. There’s something about just looking at it and getting lost. I actually find it pretty peaceful. With the smells of the water and the scent on the air, it’s surreal.
The photo directly above is of Put In Bay. It was so beautiful, I didn’t even want to leave!
But we had to say goodbye to the island and the seagulls. There were tons of seagulls.
We even saw quite a few groups of ducks way out on the water.
On the way back to the mainland and back to our car (I might have shed a tear), we decided to stand on bottom level of the ferry where the cars were parked since there weren’t many people with us on the way back. By the way (since I didn’t mention it earlier), the ferry docks every 20 minutes. There are two of them constantly running. One going one way, the other going the opposite way. That way you aren’t waiting forever waiting to take the ferry back.
Standing on bottom level with the spray of water every so often in our faces was a pretty cool experience. The kids loved it. We loved it. I think riding the ferry was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. The staff at Miller Ferry at both ports were amazing. The staff aboard the ferry boats were also amazing. There was one guy who worked on the ferry boats and he was standing top side talking to my son about the ferry. He kept asking him questions about how it works and all that kind of stuff and the gentleman was more than happy to answer any questions he had.
If I could’ve, I would have just kept riding back and forth. Of course if this trip was actually planned and not last minute, we could have planned a longer trip and planned more activities on the water to do. But we will be back. I will also be taking Miller Ferry again because there were still some things we didn’t get to see at Put In Bay. But we will also spend some time at the beach, some time on the water, and will also take the other ferry to Kelleys Island the next time we go.
Stay tuned because I have a few more posts coming up about Put In Bay in my Mini Vacation Blog Series!
Previous Mini Vacation Posts
Seneca Caverns Part 1 – About the Caverns and our Tour
Seneca Caverns Part 2 – About the Caveman Mining/Sifting Activities
Lake Erie & Miller Ferry – About Miller Ferry and our ride to and from Put In Bay (you are here)
Exploring Put In Bay – Things to do and things to see
Perry’s Cave Family Fun Center at Put In Bay – Things to do and Attractions
The Butterfly House at Put In Bay – Walk among hundreds of beautiful butterflies in the garden greenhouse
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