If you fondly remember when family entertainment was simpler, the days before CGI sci-fi movies like Avatar and expensive video games that mesmerize the addicted, take a nostalgic visit to the Prehistoric Forest and Mystery Hill on Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline.
Though considered old-fashioned by the cyber set, the big-as-life dinosaurs set in a jungle-like forest with faux rocks and a contrived waterfall, and the strange gravity defying illusions like water running up hill, still mystify and intrigue visitors.
Young children especially enjoy teaming up for water balloon battles between mom and dad and grandma and grandpa. Two launching platforms, each with a rigged up catapult, loft the balloons through a hole in the roof, toward the other. A direct hit on the opposing roof, of course, showers the “enemy” with water and giggles.
Visit the reptile house to see live lizards, turtles, and snakes. But hurry. Open since 1953, the 2010 season will be its last. The owner is retiring.
Prehistoric Forest & Mystery Hill, 8332 E. Harbor Road (Rte. 163, eight miles east of Port Clinton), Marblehead, Ohio. Open 10AM to dark, every day, Memorial Day to Labor Day. Weekends only in May and September.
