Image from here

The stupid mile-long pier. It’s located in Huron, Ohio, and at the end of the pier is the Huron Lighthouse. Growing up in Vermilion, Ohio there wasn’t much to do that we didn’t do on a regular basis. One of the odd-ball things we did was go out to the mile-long pier. The official name wasn’t the mile-long pier, but it is supposedly a mile long – so the local nickname stuck. For some reason, the trips were a bit more frequent once I managed to get the woman who would one day be my wife.

My wife always enjoyed the mile-long pier, except when she managed to get to the end of it she had to use the restroom. This almost always made it a pain since as soon as we made it to the end of the pier we immediately had to turn around and head back on most occasions. When a group of us wanted to head out there we started making her use the restroom at the Riverview Bowling alley just up the street from the pier.

It was one of those places where youth go and hang out in groups. Usually, the minimum number of people we took was three, but I can think of a couple of times it was almost a dozen of us. Climbing from rock to rock to make it to the end of the pier. Since most of the time it was in the evening or close to it, we watched the sunset down. Otherwise, we just headed out and stared into the darkness that was the water of Lake Erie at night time.

Was it a fantastic experience, not in anything that I say that you must do? It was a time period where friends and memories make it important. Too many times the pier started off as a springboard for other activities. Whether it was friends in high school or friends from my early twenties. It was a gathering spot of sorts. Eventually, I’ll get around to heading back and taking some pictures – for now, it has to exist solely in memories.