Annual Ohio Trek

Ever since I relocated to Connecticut from Cleveland, I have returned to Ohio to visit family and friends. Since my son, Richard, was born, an objective of those visits has been as a means for Richard to get to know the paternal side of his family tree. And so this year we embarked on our annual vacation to Cleveland and Ohio.

This post will start as an overview of this year's trip. Hopefully, I will find time to create posts to add details. So you might want to check back periodically, to see.

Saturday 23 July 2011
Drove from Connecticut to Ohio. We are staying at my mom's house in Broadview Hts. We discovered that Richard is turning into a giant compared to Grandma Meg (see picture above). As soon as we arrived, Richard wanted to play ping pong. We got a couple of small pizzas from a nearby joint-meatless meatballs apparently. We wanted to watch the Indians game on TV but it was rained out.

Sunday 24 July 2011
Visited the Terminal Tower Observation deck before going to see the Indians play the Chicago White Sox.

Monday 25 July 2011
Visited two cemeteries for the graves of relatives. My dad and (maternal) grandparents are buried at the first one we visited. I hadn't been to the second one since a funeral in 1969. A third cemetery (where paternal relatives are buried) was closed. We also popped in to see the West Side Market. In the evening, we went to see another Indians game (vs. Angels).

Tuesday 26 July 2011
Went to the ClevO Zoo in the afternoon. Then, went to another Indians game in the evening. During the game, someone bumped into my car at the parking garage.

Wednesday 27 July 2011
Attended a Cleveland Indians game that began at noon! We saw a no-hitter; unfortunately, the Tribe was on the losing end. On the way home, we visited the Parma campus of Tri-C (where I had gone to school). We also went to a Salvation Army store in Strongsville hoping to find some Tribe attire but the checkout line was atrociously long.

Had our annual dinner with my mom at the Winking Lizard in Peninsula. For desert, we stopped for ice cream at the Honey Hut in Brecksville.

Thursday 28 July 2011
Drove to Columbus. On the way we stopped at Grandpa's Cheese Barn. Visited Lynn's relatives in Dublin and had a very nice lunch visit with them. Then we stopped at two stores so Richard could get some souvenirs of one of his favorite NHL teams, The Columbus Blue Jackets.

We met my sister, Tina, and had a nice supper with her at Donato's Pizza (near Ohio State). On the way back to Clevo, we made a quick stop in Mansfield so I could show Lynn & Richard where I lived and worked for a brief time after college.

The Indians were not playing today.

Friday 29 July 2011
Sort of a laid back beginning of the day: I got a haircut and had lunch with Richard (at Arby's). Then we drove with my Mom to central Ohio for a gathering at my sister's Mary Lynn "farm." The occasion was to celebrate the recent marriage of (my niece) Hannah and Dave.

Saturday 30 July 2011
Drove back to Connecticut. By the time I got back to my apartment, it was early Sunday morning.

All told, put on 1,935 miles this trip.