Where to go in Portage County

Mid­way Twin Drive-In — 2736 state Route 59 – 1/ 2 mile east of Kent (be­tween Kent and Ravenna)  330-296-9829
Mid­way Twin Drive-In is one of a lit­tle more than a dozen drive-in the­aters in Ohio. Orig­i­nally de­signed by famed ar­chi­tect Jack Vo­gel and built in 1955, the Mid­way had fea­tured the last stand­ing sleek blue screen tower de­signed by Vo­gel; that screen tower was de­stroyed by a storm in De­cem­ber 2000.
The the­ater fea­tures two screens with dig­i­tal pro­jec­tion and FM stereo sound and broad­casts over FM ra­dio, so a car or por­ta­ble ra­dio is a must. Out­side food can be brought in, but pa­trons must pur­chase a food per­mit (one per ve­hi­cle) to do so. Fea­tures play rain or shine. Dogs are al­lowed, but if they make a mess or dis­turb oth­ers by bark­ing or be­com­ing ag­gres­sive, that pa­tron will be asked to leave with­out a re­fund. Grills are pro­hib­ited, as well as fire­works, sparklers, etc. In keep­ing with a fam­ily at­mos­phere, no al­co­holic bev­er­ages or drugs are al­lowed.  The drive-in fea­tures live en­ter­tain­ment most week­ends be­fore the show­ings start at dark; you can check out the movie and en­ter­tain­ment sched­ules on the Mid­way Twin Drive-In Face­book page or visit the web­site, http:// fun­flick.com.
In­for­ma­tion from http:// fun­flick.com

Aurora Farms — 549 South Chilli­cothe Road, Aurora. 330-562-2000
Aurora Farms Premium Out­lets® is con­ve­niently lo­cated off state Route 43, min­utes from Cleve­land and Akron. Visi­tors can shop at more than 70 de­signer and name brand out­let stores in­clud­ing Coach, Michael Kors, Nike Fac­tory Store Saks Fifth Av­enue Off 5th and the North Face. En­joy brands at sav­ings of 25 per­cent to 65 per­cent for out­door shop­ping that’s al­ways worth the trip.
The shop­ping cen­ter fea­tures ac­ces­si­ble park­ing, marked park­ing for mil­i­tary and vet­er­ans, wheel­chairs (com­pli­men­tary), an ATM, a lost and found, mo­bile de­vice charg­ing sta­tions and a food court that in­cludes Sub­way, Pizza Shop and Her­shey’s Ice Cream.
To make it a fam­ily visit, the cen­ter has baby chang­ing sta­tions, a lounge for nurs­ing moth­ers, marked park­ing for ex­pec­tant moms or fam­i­lies with young chil­dren, strollers, fam­ily re­strooms and a chil­dren’s play area.
All Si­mon Malls, Mills and Premium Out­lets in the U.S. have achieved the na­tional ‘Stor­mReady’ des­ig­na­tion by the Na­tional Weather Ser­vice. This des­ig­na­tion rec­og­nizes Si­mon cen­ters’ pre­pared­ness to han­dle all types of se­vere and po­ten­tially life-threat­en­ing weather sit­u­a­tions.
Spe­cial events are sched­uled through­out the year, in­clud­ing a visit by the Easter Bunny. Visit www.pre­mi­u­mout­lets.com/ out­let/ au­rora-farms or its page on Face­book.
In­for­ma­tion from www.pre­mi­u­mout­lets.com/ out­let/ au­rora-farms.


Tri­an­gle Lake Bog State Na­ture Pre­serve — Lo­cated 1.5 miles north­west of the in­ter­sec­tion of state Route 44 and I-76 on the south side of Sandy Lake Road.
Tri­an­gle Lake Bog com­prises 61 acres in Portage County and is re­ported to be one of the best ex­am­ples of a ket­tle lake bog in Ohio con­tain­ing car­niv­o­rous plants, tama­rack and a float­ing sphag­num mat.
The veg­e­ta­tional zone sur­round­ing this glacial ket­tle lake fol­lows the clas­sic pat­tern of bo­real bogs.
A float­ing sphag­num mat with swamp looses­trife, leather­leaf and tama­racks sur­rounds the dark acidic wa­ters of the bog lake.
Sig­nif­i­cant species found here in­clude north­ern pitcher-plant, round-leaved sun­dew, leather­leaf, high­bush blue­berry, large cran­berry, poi­son sumac and cat­berry.
Spe­cial fea­tures in­clude the spagh­num ket­tle-hole bog, a large stand of tama­rack trees and other rare plants.
Pre­pare for harsh con­di­tions when vis­it­ing a pre­serve. Trails are of­ten unim­proved, nar­row paths that can be­come muddy and slip­pery dur­ing harsh weather. Poi­son ivy, ticks, mos­qui­toes and deer flies can be prob­lem­atic dur­ing the ap­pro­pri­ate sea­sons. Please plan ahead and dress ac­cord­ingly to en­joy the nat­u­ral beauty Ohio’s State Na­ture Pre­serves of­fer.
Fa­cil­i­ties in­clude a park­ing lot, bul­letin board and in­ter­pre­tive signs.
Since 1970, pets have been pro­hib­ited in Ohio’s state na­ture pre­serves. Be­cause of the rar­ity and del­i­cate bal­ance of these spe­cial ecosys­tems, vis­i­tors who bring pets into a state na­ture pre­serve are sub­ject to ci­ta­tions and fines. Regis­tered ser­vice an­i­mals are per­mit­ted in the pre­serves.
For more in­for­ma­tion, visit http:// na­turep­re­serves.ohiodnr.gov/.
In­for­ma­tion from http:// na­turep­re­serves.ohiodnr.gov/.


May 4 Mu­seum — 101 Tay­lor Hall at Kent State Univer­sity, 300 Mid­way Drive, Kent. 330-672-4660
The May 4 Visi­tors Cen­ter, which opened in 2012, marks the deadly events that led to the death of four peo­ple on the Kent State Univer­sity Cam­pus on May 4, 1970, when the Ohio Na­tional Guard fired into a crowd dur­ing demon­stra­tions against the Viet­nam War.
The cen­ter com­prises three main gal­leries. The first, with signs and sounds of the late 1960s, pro­vides con­text to the events lead­ing up to May 4. The sec­ond gallery fea­tures a video re­cap­ping the events of May 4, 1970. The third gallery has sym­bols and im­agery sur­round­ing Amer­i­can pub­lic opin­ions of the Viet­nam War, the shoot­ing of col­lege stu­dents and Pres­i­dent Richard Nixon’s re­ac­tions.
A “wall of words” fea­tures news­pa­per head­lines from across the na­tion, printed in the wake of the events.
Visi­tors can also visit the Vic­tory Bell and a sculp­ture that still con­tains a bul­let hole as well as mark­ers and memo­ri­als for the four slain men and women.
The May 4 Me­mo­rial is built on a two-and-one-half acre site. A gran­ite plaza, mea­sur­ing 70 feet wide, rests on the crest of the wooded hill­side ad­ja­cent to Tay­lor Hall over­look­ing the Com­mons. Bound by a gran­ite side­walk and bench to the east; to the north, a se­ries of four black gran­ite disks lead from the plaza into the wooded area where four free-stand­ing py­lons are aligned on the hill.
Re­cently added was “Sandy’s Scrap­book” Ex­hi­bi­tion. Sandy Scheuer, a ju­nior hon­ors stu­dent, a speech ther­apy ma­jor and a proud mem­ber of Al­pha Xi Delta soror­ity, was on her way to class on May 4, 1970, when she was shot and killed. The ex­hi­bi­tion is based on the ac­tual scrap­book that Ms. Scheuer kept while at Kent State and will fea­ture items and mem­o­ries pro­vided by her fam­ily and her sis­ter, Au­drey.
“Sandy’s Scrap­book” is the first in what the May 4 Visi­tors Cen­ter hopes will be a se­ries of four ex­hi­bi­tions in trib­ute to the four lives lost on May 4, 1970 – Al­li­son Krause, Jef­frey Miller, San­dra Scheuer and Wil­liam Schroeder. The pur­pose be­hind these ex­hibits is to fo­cus not just on the deaths of these stu­dents, but on the lives that they lived and the peo­ple that they were.
For more in­for­ma­tion about the May 4 Visi­tors Cen­ter at Kent State, visit www.kent.edu/ may4.
From staff re­ports and www.kent.edu/ may4.

Wing­foot Lake State Park — 993 Goodyear Park Blvd., Suffield. 330-628-4720. http:// parks.ohiodnr.gov/ wing­foot­lake
This beau­ti­ful park in south­west­ern Portage County is a pop­u­lar spot for pic­nics and so­cial gath­er­ings and is host to the an­nual Suffield Mu­sic Fes­ti­val in Au­gust.
The park of­fers a va­ri­ety of ac­tiv­i­ties for all ages in­clud­ing an archery range, boat­ing and boat rentals, an 18-hole disc golf course, a dog park, fish­ing, play­grounds, ball­fields, mini-golf, a driv­ing range and walk­ing paths.
Fish­ing for bluegill and bass can be en­joyed from the shore­line. Ad­di­tional fish­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties are avail­able at the ad­ja­cent Wing­foot Lake Wildlife Area, which of­fers a launch ramp.
An ac­ces­si­ble fish­ing pier is near the can­teen. A valid Ohio fish­ing li­cense is re­quired.
Pad­dle­craft and boats with mo­tors up to 10 horse­power are per­mit­ted on the 444-acre lake. Boat rentals (pon­toon and pad­dle­craft) are avail­able from Me­mo­rial Day through La­bor Day, Wed­nes­day through Sun­day, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. A launch ramp is lo­cated in the Wing­foot Lake Wildlife Area ad­ja­cent to the park.
The park was cre­ated in the 1960s by the Goodyear Co. for em­ployee out­ings and cor­po­rate re­treats. The com­pany closed the park in 2006. The Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­u­ral Re­sources pur­chased the prop­erty and added it to the state park sys­tem.
Hav­ing been main­tained as a park set­ting for gen­er­a­tions, the grounds of Wing­foot Lake are graced by groves of ma­jes­tic ma­ture trees with large crowns and abun­dant fo­liage. The habi­tat is ideal for small mam­mals, such as rab­bits, skunks and opos­sum, as well as rap­tors in­clud­ing bald ea­gles, owls and hawks. The lake at­tracts herons and mi­gra­tory wa­ter­fowl.
In­for­ma­tion from parks.ohiodnr.gov/ wing­foot­lake.