Continuing on with our monthly trips, at the end of February we checked off another weekend away. February was incredibly busy for us with extra-curricular activities on the weekend & some other normal family stuff, I almost thought we wouldn’t be able to do it.
If you’re completely lost here, I recently shared on Instagram that we (my family & I) have a goal of taking one trip each month in 2023. Many of you were interested in me sharing so in my free time, I’m doing just that. If you missed January’s trip, you can find info on that HERE.
Anywho, we were able to squeeze in a trip the last weekend of February & checked off a couple places I’ve had on my list for a while.
We booked a night at Maumee Bay Lodge. This location has been on my radar for quite some time since if you know me, you know I love the lake & I was intrigued since it’s the only lakefront lodge Ohio State Parks has to offer. I will start off by saying this trip was *not* sponsored nor were we hosted. Opinions are my own, we paid full price here. I’m sharing since I’m in the business of saving you time & I know you all appreciate honesty.
With that being said, I would say it’s probably worth experiencing for yourself once. I found it to be a little outdated & bare bones. The room we stayed in had a door on each side for the option of conjoining rooms but for us, this meant we could hear our neighbors quite clearly. If you’re a light sleeper, I’d recommend traveling with a sound machine. Noise travels through the walls & doors a lot. I’m not exactly sure I’d recommend if you’re truly looking for some r&r but if you like a lakefront room, then it would be fine. Although we could see the lake, it was a smidge far away as shown by the photo below. I’m assuming when the weather is nice, this may or may not be an issue with noise outside.
I won’t go into details about every amenity they offer besides those I think families would want to know about. There’s a great indoor pool with splash pad & hot tubs. It could get very busy though. I did see an outdoor pool as well if you go during the summer. There’s also an indoor soft play space that is supposed to be for little kids but to be frank, there were teenagers often running amuck through it. We did not need to use this area, these are things I just observed. In addition, they have a racquetball & wallyball court. The best thing about the lodge for me was playing racquetball. There’s also a small arcade. It looked like it was set up the way Main Event is with a play card for games. All in all, I was glad to check it off my list but I’m not sure if I’d return. Worth mentioning there are quite a few hiking trails to explore as well. We liked the boardwalk one which was right near our room.
Alright, moving on from lodging info!
Another reason I planned staying at Maumee Bay was the close proximity to Toledo. Toledo is home to Imagination Station which is a pretty amazing science center. It had been a while since we last visited. In fact, when we last did we mostly stayed in the little kid area for what seemed like the entire day. We were excited to check out the entire place this time & it did not disappoint!
We have a membership to the Great Lake Science Center in Cleveland which means we got into Imagination Station for FREE due to the ASTC Passport Program – highly recommend if you’re a traveling family!
Our favorite was the High Wire Cycle! This was included in admission & is super fun for older kiddos (54″ height requirement.)
We also really enjoyed their Science of Guinness World Records exhibit. They had the World’s Largest Pac-Man game & a bunch of other retro games fun for the parents especially!
There is a pretty massive little kids area for kids in kindergarten & under with a ton of interactive things to do including a very large water play area as well. For older kids, they have an area for workshops called Tinkering in IDEA Lab. This was also included in admission & you could even bring your creations home! Their programs vary by month – when we went, we used linkages to build things that move! The employees there said these workshops are recommended for ages 8 & up. We ended up spending an hour inside building which is unheard of for us anywhere! LOL
I don’t usually base things off of how long we spend there but for reference, we were there for 4 hours which to us is VERY long.
All in all, this trip was great & an easy way to get out of town on the weekend! Highly recommend Luckie’s Barn & Grill for lunch or dinner.
If you missed January’s trip, tap HERE.
