A rare, protected freshwater estuary emptying into Lake Erie, and home to incredible birds and other wildlife, including bald eagles, huge snapping turtles, and cranes and herons, as well as rare plant species including lotus and huge water lilies. It’s part of a preserve system and jointly operated by the state of Ohio and the federal government, with a great interpretive center. Old Woman Creek itself wends its way through Erie County, and flowed in a deep ravine right across the street from my boyhood home in Berlin Heights. I spent so many wonderful childhood hours in this gorge, that it really is the place where I became myself.