5 Really Great Things About Sandusky, OH (That Aren't Amusement Parks)

1. Meijer: It's the only "big box" store I know of where you can get Thai basil, a hunting bow, Chilean red wine and white lithium grease in the same trip. Not that I ever took advantage of that. Why Pay More! (Yes, it really uses that unfortunate punctuation.)
2. Amazingly good take-out Thai: The OK Wok hides its heritage behind that Generic Chinese Restaurant Name, but the owner, his nephew and his daughter run an amazingly tight ship ("9 orders? 13 minutes."). That ship also produces consistently great food. I still can't believe that I've had meals that cost twice as much at white-napkin restaurants that didn't get the loving attention that this little strip-mall joint gave its Catfish Curry, or its way-too-good-for-North-Central-Ohio Pad Thai.
3. The Lake Erie Islands: Specifically, Kelleys Island and Put-in-Bay. Each could easily warrant its own list, but let's break it down: Golf carts can be rented and driven as legal street vehicles; Kelleys has beatiful ultra-small-town scenery, while Put-in-Bay is one crazy, island-sized weekend party; Both give you dozens of "Lost"-esque questions to ask oneself about living on a lake that freezes over ("How do they keep milk stocked? What if the power goes out? Who plows the roads?")
4. "Members Only" clubs: Left over from the benevolent associations that were once the center of industrial town life (the Knights, the Orioles, etc.), there's still a few places in Sandusky (or Perkins) where you need a card to get in, or the owner has to buzz you in. Weird and potentially discriminatory? Yeah. Cool Prohibition-era feeling every time you walk in? You bet.
5. Ranting about the street layout: Every 'burg has its share of What In The Name Of God Were They Thinking intersections, but only in Sandusky can you say it was a Masonic conspiracy and not get laughed at.
   Why? Because it literally was a Masonic conspiracy. From Wiki:
   

   Downtown Sandusky was designed according a modified grid plan known as the Kilbourne Plat after its designer. The original street pattern featured a grid overlaid with streets resembling the symbols of Freemasonry. Hector Kilbourne was a surveyor who laid out this grid in downtown Sandusky. He was the first Worshipful Master of the Sandusky Masonic Lodge.

   The result? Multiple 5-way intersections in a city smaller than most suburbs, axle-straining 25-degree turns and dozens of useless triangular parks. And a sense of awe at what could've happened if the Knights of Columbus had gotten their hands on that street plan.