The 1st Annual FireFish Festival

This year was the first annual FireFish Festival in Lorain. The festival was held on Broadway in the historic center of Lorain. It filled alleys with music and performances, vacant businesses with artwork and the streets with fire. At the center of it all was the Fire Fish, a giant paper mache structure that housed about 8 people inside to make the fish come to life.

The festival is put on by the founder of the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland, James Levin. According to the website the mission of tie FireFish is to expand upon Lorain County's "Follow the Fish" program. Follow the Fish was started in 2012 at the Stocker Arts Building of Lorain County Community College. 87 fish sculptures were created by 33 artists from all over the county to celebrate our greatest natural resource, Lake Erie. The sculptures were places around the county in front of local businesses as sort of a showcase. This was all brought together for the first time this year as a festival.

So here are some pictures that I snapped while Sarah and I explored the FireFish Festival. Once again I apologize for the phone camera in low light.

Latin band up by the entrance on Broadway back dropped by firetrucks.

Brownhelm School Open House (Part 2)

I left off on the last post having fully explored the first floor of the Brownhelm School building. After that I decided to make my way up the stairwell to the second floor, not quite knowing if I was allowed to or not. Once I reached the top I heard voices, telling me that it was okay to explore.

This old classroom was being used for storage.

Brownhelm School Open House (Part 1)

In an earlier post (which you can read here) I took you to the township I grew up in and showed you the old Brownhelm School. Well, for the first time ever I was able to go inside for an open house to view the work that the historical society has been doing to bring the school back to its former glory. It was a really neat experience exploring the building and talking to some of the former students that had actually attended school here.

Lorain Skate World

A few weeks back I touched on the demolition of the historic motel's along the lakefront on West Erie Avenue in Lorain and briefly mentioned that one of the remaining (and still thriving) businesses in the are was the Lorain Skate World.

My mother recently shared an article with me that she found in the Lorain Journal about Skate World that you can check out here. If you don't feel like doing any of that reading nonsense I will give you the abridged version. This year Skate World is celebrating their 40th anniversary and are having a skate night where the original organ (which has remained on site all these years) will be brought back to life by the original organ player and Lorain native Johnny Sharp.

Overlook Road (Then and Now)

I found an interesting picture a while back taken of Overlook Road in Vermilion from 1950. Why the picture was taken I have no idea, but it is neat to see the development of the street.

Overlook Road in 1950 looking north toward the lake. (Vermilion Views)

Lake Erie Crushers

The Lake Erie Crushers started playing in 2008 in the city of Avon. They play in what is known as the "Frontier Division". Tonight my mom scored some free tickets so Sarah, Mom and I decided to attend. It was a good night for it considering it was "Wiener Wednesday", which translates to $1 hot dogs.

Mom, Sarah and I.