Fossil Park

We went to fossil park near Toledo last weekend, but I couldn't write about it then because, of course, our server was down more down than up.
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But the technician, a very competent and pleasant young man, was here this morning and we're up and running again.

Fossil park is a public park near Toledo, in Sylvania, Ohio. Admission is free and the place has a ton of fossils to find.

Things to know if you decide to make the trip:

• Fossil park is basically an old quarry where trucks come and dump loads of shale every two weeks between May and October. The shale has tons of fossils, but you do have to work at finding them.
• The directions you'll get online don't take yopu to the park, they take you to the ice cream parlour. Once you've wandered around the shopping center for a bit, try crossing Centennial Street (the highway).
  
• As an old quarry, it can get *hot* in there. Wear your hat and cover your skin with something light. Also bring water to drink.
  
• As an old quarry, the "luxuries" are pretty sparse. There are some reasonably clean portable toilets up the hill from the quarry, and there is some suspiciously dark water for washing your fossils available in a tank in the center of the quarry. That's it.
• There is no food or drink available at the park, so if you plan to be there a while, you'll want to bring water and something easy to eat with filthy hands. There is, however, a nice Strohs ice cream parlour across the highway as you leave for the day -- YUM!
  

Jack and Connor had a blast -- but I don't think fossils came into it much -- they had fun running around, banging rocks together and playing in puddles. Even so, they did find a few small fossils. Neal, Connor's Dad, was far more persistent and found *two* gorgeous, complete specimens! It's worth a trip with older kids who grok and the smaller kids won't be too bored -- if only because of the amazement of watching adults playing in the dirt!