4th of July at Put-In-Bay, Ohio

We arrived in Put-In-Bay, Ohio on Wednesday July 2, 2025 just as the sun was preparing to set. There is a giant monument on the island called Perry’s Victory and International Peace Monument and it symbolizes the long-lasting peace between Great Britain, the United States, and Canada after the War of 1812. We could see it from miles out as we approached. We grabbed one of the few remaining mooring balls in the harbor that night, which would give us a front row seat to the fireworks display and access to the water taxi. We had a lovely view of the Boardwalk lit up at night, a huge waterfront restaurant shops. This was also the docking point for the water taxi.

The next morning, we got up and took Bella to shore for a much deserved walk in the park! She had been with us to mainland before in Port Clinton, but never out on the island, so it was fun to bring her around with us this time. There’s a really fun place called the Keys that serves up delicious Bushwhackers (a frozen chocolate coffee cream drink) which are a favorite of ours, so we took Bella with us there first and listened to some music. This place used to allow people to paint driftwood at the bar while they were enjoying a beverage and then they would hang it on the wall of their restaurant, which we did last time we visited. I was really excited to do this again but unfortunately, they literally ran out of real estate to hang driftwood on, so they stopped the painting program. I was bummed but decided to search for our old artwork on the walls amongst the thousands of pieces to see if it was still there. We eventually realized that the driftwood was arranged by year and we had visited in 2021, so we went to that section and to our delight, it was still there!  Fun fact – we originally called our travel blog “Changing Latitudes” until we decided that it was too cliché and sounded too much like the Jimmy Buffett song and we wanted to be more original, so we changed it to Travels of Trouvaille. That is why we painted “Changing Latitudes” on our original driftwood. 😊 

We stopped in several of the little shops in search of patriotic attire for the following days, and Dustin found some American flag shorts and a hat and I scored a fun red, white and blue dress.

After checking out the town and thoroughly exercising the baby dog, we headed back to the boat and decided to just hang out and go swimming in the mooring field since it was really hot out. The water was crystal clear in Put-In-Bay and it was so refreshing to just sit and float and listen to music without having to worry about something coming up under us that wanted to either eat us or inflict pain on us (like in the ocean). I definitely miss seeing the wildlife in the ocean, but freshwater does have its perks!  We blissfully enjoyed our time in the water and as soon as we climbed back up onto the boat, we spotted a snake swimming through the anchorage. Of course, haha! That night we just kind of relaxed on the boat and enjoyed doing a whole lot of nothing!

The next day, we taxied to shore again and this time rented a golf cart so that we could explore the island a little more in depth. There are hundreds of golf carts for rent in different locations. We picked ours up across from the Keys restaurant where we had been the day before. We first drove out to the western side of the island to the Put-In-Bay sign and then drove around the southern point near the airport and ferry terminal. People were starting to arrive to the island in droves, as that night was the fireworks display and the island was a very popular place to watch the show.  The ferry brings people from mainland at Port Clinton and the ferry ride out is about 20-35 minutes each way, depending on whether you take the jet ferry or not.

We drove around trying to find a new place for breakfast, but ended up back at the Keys for lunch instead. Our time sightseeing had allowed the restaurants to really fill up and the Keys is a larger place so they had plenty of tables open when we arrived and it is just a fun vibe so we didn’t mind going back! We love the Florida Keys and this place made us feel like we were there!

After a delicious lunch, we drove over to the Peace Monument and had planned to go up to the top to get a bird’s eye view of the island and our boat, but unfortunately, it was closed that afternoon due to extreme heat! They said it was about 10-15 degrees hotter at the top, which put it at a dangerous temperature for tourists. Instead, we drove out to Scheeff East Point Preserve to the beach, but first made a pit stop to patron some adorable little kids who were peddling lemonade to passersby. Kids selling lemonade always tug at my heartstrings because I was quite the entrepreneur when I was a kid, always scheming up my next way to earn a buck, and lemonade stands were frequent! I always make sure to tip them more than the lemonade itself actually costs and seeing their faces light up with excitement is worth every penny!

We went for a quick walk on the beach and then drove to Massie Cliffside Preserve. There was a short trail through the woods out to the water where we walked along the shoreline and admired the views across the water of the old Lonz Winery, which looks like a castle. This estate is no longer in operation due to a foundation collapse but once upon a time, it looked like a very cool place and the remnants of it still add a historic feel to the island. We also drove past some of the vineyards the day before that are still cultivated by other island wineries.

As we were driving around, we found several public pools where you could pay for a day pass and go lounge at the pool, listen to fun music and most of them had swim up bars. We didn’t end up going to any of them since we could just swim at the boat, but for people visiting from mainland without a boat, this seemed like a fun option! The Sand Bar didn’t look like much from the parking lot, but we peeked inside and it was really nice and looked like a great spot to spend a day!

You might remember me talking about a couple we met named Dustin and Allie in Newark, NY with the boat “Dustination Unknown”. Well, they ended up being in Put-In-Bay the same time as us so we made plans to meet up for a drink. We went to Mojito Bay which is a fun tiki bar with swings and a sand floor where they had live music playing, and then gave them a call to meet up with us and when they answered, they were already at the same place as us about 10 feet away. So funny! We ended up hanging out all afternoon and even serendipitously got to watch the Independence Day parade go by as we sat at the Last Resort Engine Company, a fun fire truck themed bar on one of the main streets. After the parade, we all walked down the street and grabbed some quick provisions at a tiny little grocery store that was still open. We didn’t know if they’d be open the next day since it was a holiday and we were running low on staples like eggs and bread.

We took everything back to the boat, checked on munchkin and then that night, Dustin and I drove over to the other side of the island to a supper club type restaurant called “ The GOAT Soup and Whiskey”. It was an eclectic place with an outdoor biergarten and their slogan is “where fine dining meets flip flops” so it was the perfect place for us to go after a fun day in the sun. They had really good craft cocktails and food!

The entire day ended up being a lot of fun and we ended the night by watching fireworks from the bow of our boat. Unfortunately it started downpouring in the middle of the fireworks show, but we didn’t mind since we had already had such a great day! We really enjoyed our short little stopover and spending the holiday in Put-In-Bay! It was nice to take a break from our dawn to dusk traveling for a moment!