Seniors Discover Mentor

This senior spent a couple of years in graduate school at Ohio State in Columbus, but never encountered the neat city called Mentor. Mentor was first settled in 1797. The population runs right at 48,000, so it’s not small.

CNNMoney.com ranked Mentor 37th in a list of the Top 100 Best Places to Live in America so we just have to check out the city for senior visitors. It is known as The City of Choice.

There is a lot of history that focuses on Mentor. In 1876 James E. Garfield purchased a home in Mentor, from which he conducted the first successful front porch campaign for the presidency. Must have worked, he was elected president and coined the term ‘Mentorite’ when referring to a native of the city.

Seniors Check Out National Historic Site

Garfield’s 20-room farmhouse that is now a National Historic Site. The site includes guided tours of the Garfield home, visitor center exhibits, a biographical film, walking paths, and dozens of special events each year.

You will find plenty of other things to fill in your itinerary including the Headlands Beach State Park that attracts senior visitors. If you missed this year’s BeachFest, you missed a great time. One of the “coolest’ sites in town is the Mentor Civic Center, an indoor ice skating complex with two regulation-size ice rinks, a studio rink, locker rooms and a snack bar.

Senior Birders Head for Mentor Marsh

The City of Mentor maintains over 1200 acres of green space including 34 parks and public facilities that accounts in part why it is a great place to live. Add it all up and you have more recreational opportunities than you can find in many major cities. Plus, Mentor’s location on Ohio’s north coast makes it a major destination for those who can’t get enough of the great outdoors.

Senior birders, you will find more than 250 species that have been recorded around Mentor Marsh. Great numbers of waterfowl also stop at the Marsh. During seasonal migrations you’re sure to see Blue-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Gadwall, American Black Duck, Northern Shoveler and Hooded Merganser.

Bring along those clubs and spend some time at the Black Brook Course designed by Bertie Way. And ladies,  Mentor is one great shopping destination with nearly 600 retail businesses. In 1961, the Great Lakes Mall opened as the world’s largest indoor shopping mall. So many superlatives in just one city! Check it out for yourself.  jeb