When I told people that I spent last year's family vacation in the Sandusky, Ohio, area, everyone asked, "Did you go to Cedar Point?"

While Cedar Point is the big-money draw for the area, there is plenty to do without stepping foot in its hours-long ride lines and paying the life blood-draining admission prices.

So, no, we did not go to Cedar Point. But we did lots of other things and found that we ran out of time to do all that we could.

Sandusky has a lovely downtown of Victorian and stone houses, and an expansive, well-maintained central square of flower gardens, a fountain, a flower clock and a gazebo.

The Carnegie Library across the street, which was built in 1901, traps architecture buffs with its magnificent construction, and readers with its well-stocked shelves and dynamite children's area.

Across another street, the Merry-Go-Round Museum is in an old post office with a rotunda design -- just perfect for the carousel that is open for rides at the end of every tour.

The displays change each year, but often feature odd carousel animals -- lions, ostriches, pigs, cows -- flowing-mane horses beautifully bejeweled in the Coney Island style, portable carousels and the intricately carved facades of dismantled units.

Visitors can watch volunteers carve a horse, which is raffled off yearly when it's finished.

Animals of the living variety are a big attraction of the area. The African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton has a large drive-through area. The elk, bison and fallow deer will stick their heads in your window, sharing their slobber as they hunt for food. Other animals include giraffes, alpacas, llamas, zebras and ostriches.

A walk-through section shows off kangaroos, warthogs and other animals, animal shows and pony and camel rides.

In Lagoon Deer Park in Castalia, the animals come to you. The fallow deer "attack" you as soon as you walk into the viewing area, because most visitors are armed with a bag of peanuts. Their assertiveness is a bit much for smaller children, but a laugh for most of the adults.

Beware: they nibble anything -- camera bags, purses, jackets, your butt.

You also can feed -- from the other side of a fence -- Abyssinian donkeys, four-horned sheep, mountain goats, llamas and other large critters.

Mostly critterless, Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island has the feel of an amusement park midway during the tourist season with restaurants, shops and a carousel.

Accessible by ferry, the island is 3 1/2 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide, and can be traversed by foot, rented bicycle, golf cart, car or "train," which is a bunch of seat carts pulled by a motorized vehicle.

The train tour shows off historical sites, old Victorian buildings and the lay of the land.

There are two caves open to the public: Perry's Cave and Crystal Cave; many more are private.

We didn't make Crystal Cave -- it's below the Heineman Winery and is said to have the world's largest known geode -- but slipped and ducked our way through Perry's Cave. It's small, essentially a wide room with a very low ceiling. At 5 feet, 10 inches, I spent much of my time stooping.

The cave, which only takes about 30 minutes to get through, was created by the lake water, which eroded a layer of gypsum between two layers of limestone.

Perry's Cave is an excellent example of the hazards of rampant tourism. Most of the formations were vandalized years ago by souvenir hunters, leaving only soda straw formations and small calcite flowstone.

The cave got its name because Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry's men entered it to collect water for sailors who suffered from dysentery. The so-called healing power of the water was exploited later when it was pumped to the surface for mineral baths.

Perry is invoked often on the island, especially at Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial.

Built in the 1910s, the 352-foot Greek Doric column made of granite and topped with bronze commemorates Perry's naval victory over the British during the war of 1812. The victory kept part of the United States from becoming part of Canada.

From the observation deck on top -- reachable by elevator -- you can see much of the island, neighboring islands and the naval "battlefield," as maps point out ship movements.

Back on the mainland, fans of Perry's Cave will want to check out Seneca Caverns, near Bellevue. They say it has seven levels and it's a lot of work to get to each one as you climb down rocks to the Old Mystery River.

I made the descent backward to assist my wary, 4-year-old daughters.

Also formed by the erosion of gypsum, the cave has very few formations, but looks like it probably didn't have many to begin with; just a few soda straws, beginning drapery and some pockets of calcite.

Bellevue also boasts the Mad River and NKP Railroad Museum, home to memorabilia covering just about every aspect of railroad life.

The youngest visitors will get the biggest kick climbing through the Amtrak and Pullman passenger cars, a World War II troop carrier, a mail car, box cars and various engines and cabooses young and old.

The museum has far more cars than it can properly display, so rail buffs should set aside a good hunk of time for a proper visit.

Bellevue also is home to Lyme Village, a concocted town with buildings as simple as a log cabin, and as grand as a Victorian mansion.

The centerpiece is the three-story mansion of John Wright, a cantankerous but prosperous farmer-turned-banker. He was so mean that he locked boys he caught skating on his pond in the ice house, and so vain that he snuck to the construction site of a neighbor's house to make sure his would be bigger.

Gorgeous inside and out, the 1880s-era mansion is decked out in antiques and historical displays.

The rest of Lyme Village shows how the other half lived with a one-room log house that was lived in through 1951, an 1830 log house that served as a tavern and home, an 1846 log church, an 1860s school, an 1876 barn, a blacksmith's shop, a general store and the Lyme post office, which was first used in 1824.

With Lake Erie nearby, seafood is always the catch of the day in area restaurants. The Angry Trout in Bay View serves your trout on a plank, the Crescent Tavern in Put-in-Bay features walleye sandwiches, and perch and swordfish are specialties at the Marina Retreat Restaurant in Marblehead.

The Homestead Restaurant in Milan, a converted Victorian house furnished with antiques, is the perfect place for a steak.

Well, that's what we did in six days, and we didn't even make the Inland Seas Maritime Museum in Vermilion, Thomas Edison's birthplace in Milan, the Prehistoric Forest on Marblehead, or the Confederate prison site and cemetery on Johnson's Island.

What amusement park?