If you have ever been to Erie, Pa odds are good you’ve been past Sara’s Restaurant. Only, it’s not just a restaurant. It’s a nostalgic, roadside attraction and tradition for visitors to Presque Isle State Park since 1980.
It started out as an ice cream stand but now has a menu of hot dogs, cheeseburgers, onion rings and the like and it is always busy. Luckily, there’s a big parking lot, lots of outdoor seating, plenty of fun things to look at and staff that hustles to keep things moving.
Their motto is “Food tastes better with a smile” and we saw lots of smiles as families pose for pictures with things like Simpsons characters and a giant Humpty Dumpty perched atop a lifeguard chair. We wandered around outside so I could drool over advertising pieces before giggling at signs inside.
We did just get shakes because there’s not much food on the menu that’s vegetarian friendly other than fries and onion rings and maybe not them depending on how they’re fried. But I am not their target market and there was still ice cream.
There are sundaes, floats and cones to choose from but I opted for a shake. That’s the one thing I forgot to take a picture of but it was just the right consistency, a mild chocolate, and the perfect size.
I can see why folks have made a trek to Sara’s an annual tradition! Want to learn more? Visit their website so you can plan your visit. Hop over the Make the Journey Fun Facebook page today to see more pictures from my visit over Labor Day weekend!
Saturday’s adventures took me to a place that has been on my to do list for most of my adult life. Seems like I read an article about it in Victoria Magazine when I was a teenager but somehow never found my way there. It’s called Hartman Rock Garden and, while small, it’s one of the most extraordinary folk art sites you’ll find in Ohio.
It all began when Springfield resident Harry George “Ben” Hartman was laid off from his job in 1932. He was a molder at the Springfield Machine Tool Company foundry. The Great Depression was tightening its grip on the country, work was hard to find, and he was not impressed with all his newfound free time. So what’s a guy to do? He set to work building a cement fishing pond in his back yard. He enjoyed that so much he began building all sorts of miniature buildings and characters throughout his back yard.
He left words of encouragement in the stone including the phrases “let us smile” and “seek the good life” for visitors to enjoy these many years later.
Hartman created a truly unique stone garden using hundreds of thousands of stones before his death in 1944. His wife Mary took on the role of maintaining his work, planting flowers and keeping it open to visitors until her death in 1997. While we call it a rock garden, Mary referred to it as a “garden of love.”
After her passing, the garden fell into a state of disrepair and was facing a bulldozer. That’s when the Kohler Foundation stepped in to buy the property and restore the garden. The Kohler company is know for faucets but the foundation is known for preserving bits of Americana across the country. Today, the garden is run by a local nonprofit organization and a small army of volunteers who are keeping it going.
This is a great little side trip if you’re in the Springfield area. Just remember that this is folk art and it is quite old so don’t go looking for perfection. While there were a few of us oohing and aahing over things, there was some guy complaining that he expected to to be nicer. Don’t be that guy, please.
Get the address and other details over at their 
When you’re driving down the road and encounter a giant pink elephant, you turn around and go back for a closer look.
I know little about grapes or wineries as I’m not a drinker but I do know about roadside attractions and this one is awesome.