A Needed Get Away, Part 5

We woke up at our leisure the next morning and had breakfast in the dining room. Afterwards we took another stroll around the campus in the opposite direction and decided it was time to head into the city.

Patricia had not seen Cleveland in 37 years... it was time. We took Euclid all the way into town. One thing about Cleveland... the streets are horrid. You can not call them roads... maybe one large continuous pot hole... Anyway, it looks as though they are putting in a light rail down Euclid which made the drive awful... lots of orange barrels and driving on shoulders. Businesses must be taking a beating. The inability to get to the entrance of a building will definitely stop patronage.

As you get closer to the city, there is a section of town that looks deserted... an area where you don't walk alone at night... or during the day... Up on the right behind the orange barrels was an Econoline-- old rusted, beat up... a couple of police cars. Michael was driving and as we passed... it was apparent that this was a crime scene-- violence, serious assault, possible homicide? I don't know. I did not see anything in the Plain Dealer about it. The back of the van was open and a police officer was taking photos... not something you want to see everyday...

On over to Tower City... That whole area was also torn to bits... so it was quickly decided for us that shopping would not be on the agenda. I don't think Michael was real torn up over that... Instead, we made our way over towards Burke Lakefront Airport and the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Typically, Michael and I make the trek up to Cleveland every year to see the Cleveland Air Show, but this year we had not made any concrete plans until the last minute. We parked at Burke and walked back towards the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. There is a great little museum right on the lake-- it is a WWII era submarine called the USS Cod. If you are in the Cleveland area, this is a little gem of a museum. Over Labor Day Weekend (and I would imagine other holidays), they have folks dressed as WWII era sailors, there are folks camped out in tents and kids seem to really enjoy it.

We walked down to the George Voinovich Bicentennial Park. Because George has been doing a lot of crying of late... Michael wept a few tears on Mr. Voinovich's behalf. Why did they name this piece of earth after him??

A lot of folks were sitting over in this area watching the airshow.... free... not bad... but they are missing all the up close and in your face stuff... to each his own.

The airshow was on top of us and nothing makes me happier than seeing one of these behemoth's flying overhead. I just love the C-17 Globemaster. Click for a larger "in your face" view.
Moon over the Hall of Fame.


The best part was that Patricia had never seen anything like this before... ever. And she really enjoyed it. She was dazzled by the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team and amazed by Sean Tucker flying like a mad man. A little later an F/A-18 Hornet took to the skies and since Michael and I have been to a couple of these we knew to expect a high speed fly by. My mother in law was blown away! I wish I had gotten that picture. Terrific. In hindsight, we should have stayed so she could have seen the Thunderbirds in their F-16's...

My most favorite aircraft-- The C-130. Herkeng, you'll have to tell me exactly which one this is. Behind it, you can see a WWII/Korean War era F4U Corsair. As we left Cleveland the C-130 took to the skies and if you have ever been to Burke... well the C-130 is as large as the runway...

We left Cleveland... if you've never been... it is a wonderful place for a quick getaway. The city has something for everyone-- sports, amusement parks, museums of all kinds, the arts, the neighborhoods, the lake.... it's a great time.

One final post... Grandpa's Cheesebarn...