WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT FRANKFORT MINERAL SPRINGS?
Seriously, you’re all fired.
In the event there are two of you who are innocent because you didn’t know about it either, allow me to share some details from our little adventure.
It started out REAL bad. I had planned to take the girls to Cuyahoga Falls to go to The Gorge. I haven’t been there in a jillion years, but it’s a fun place for a quick hike and some water play. Also, Swenson’s is close enough to it that I was having dreams of milkshakes and egg salad sandwiches and … UGH. I did not get to fulfill my Swenson’s dreams because my children couldn’t focus on getting out the door in a timely manner if their lives depended on it. As we were making the drive there, I realized it was going to be a REAL short trip because of Pokey and her sister Pokier, so I improvised.
We stopped at the beach at Raccoon Creek State Park instead. Which, it was a good idea, except we didn’t have swimsuits, so Pokey and Pokier very quickly began to get on my nerves. Then I had a moment of thinking we would rent a boat and go for a cruise, but Pokier scares me. She doesn’t comprehend the instructions, “Sit down. It’s not safe to stand.” I know this because we fight this battle often.
So often.
Thus, I bailed on the beach and on the boat idea and was just about to give up on all of the things when a sign caught my eye. The little sign at the side of the road said “Frankfort Mineral Springs” and the words “Mineral Springs” fit in my interests. We pulled over and totally winged it.
It was a good choice.
It turned out that the trails for that particular part of Raccoon Creek are very Mila-friendly. They’re well-defined and not too steep and not that long and basically, even Pokier could find her way from Point A to Point B in a reasonable amount of time.
And, man, Point B is a good point to be at.
So we wandered around for about two hours, the girls perfectly happy to explore and check things out. They both had fun, for totally different reasons, which is A HUGE WIN OMG because that age gap thing makes entertaining them both with one activity a not easy task.
As a bonus, our visit led to a quick Google history lesson, in which we learned that Frankfort Mineral Springs used to be a super fancy resort for very wealthy people. The remains of one of the buildings can still be explored, which Pokier thought was SO AWESOME. We learned a lot about the hotel burning down in the early 1900’s, we realized that the stairs that led down to the springs are probably more than 100 years old, and generally it was a super interesting history that, while lacking in sordid drama, made it even more fun for Pokey the History Nerd.
If you go, we’ll probably see you there. I expect that we will be there all of the times in the coming months.