cleveland

It has quite literally been two years since I have posted on this blog. (Tells you how much I travel…) Thought I would finally write up some posts about my latest trip to Cleveland, Ohio. Due to my sister’s bridal shower, I was expected to be there for festivities. This trip was fairly quick, and with a dying camera battery, I tried to take as many photos as I could.

My sisters fiancés step-mother-in-law picked us up from the airport and drove us around Cleveland a bit before settling among the two houses our family would be staying at. Whilst my parents stayed with the future in-laws, us children (read: my sister, her fiancé, and I) stayed two houses down at the step-mother-in-law’s sisters house. For those of you who are still with me, the houses we stayed at were beautiful in their own ways. The house my parents were staying at was a more modern home with lavish furniture and so many plants.

While the house “the kids” stayed at was definitely more gothic, victorian. I honestly felt like I was in a horror film with it’s creaky floors, and doors, and spider web windows. No seriously…

…these people really love their lemons.

cleveland II

After settling in, we all gathered in the car once more to pick up some more future family members. Amongst going to a campus, we also took trips to a couple of places that were on our list of “Must Visit”. John Carroll University was absolutely gorgeous. Honestly, if I wasn’t so hooked on SCAD’s campus at Savannah, Georgia, this one may be a close second. Then again, Ohio campuses have always appealed to me.

Big Fun, Tommy’s Restaurant, various GeoCaching hiding places, and The Christmas Story House were on the to-do list besides the bridal shower. Big Fun is a store crammed with antiques, vintage, old fashioned, hard to find- basically gags, toys, collector’s items. You need a rare gem, Big Fun probably has it.

There is literally too many things to photograph in there. I wouldn’t have gotten everything. However, they have multiple sections for Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz (they love this film apparently), KISS, magic tricks, phallic-shaped things (you read that right), comic books, all things LQBTQ, and plenty more. These photos only scratch the surface.

Next we went and had lunch at Tommy’s/Tommy’s Restaurant/Tommy’s Coventry– depending who you are. This place was a great find; I would definitely go back! I personally had the Dee-Lite, a pita filled with beans, garlic, chili powder, green peppers, ginger, onions, and cheese. Delicious! I was told by in-laws that we had to try their malts/shakes, and indeed we did.

This pita was so good, I had trouble finishing my plate. Plus the malt I ordered was huge. For the record, you practically receive a glass and a half when you order one.

cleveland III

Amongst all the stores, geocaching, and campus visits, my family took a trip up to Lake Erie. My sister’s in-law on the fiance’s mother’s side lived up there practically right next to the lake. In fact, I honestly cannot remember the order we did everything, so I’ll just put some photos here that I may have missed. Here’s bits of Lake Erie, and GeoCaching in a cemetery and church.

Besides Geocaching spots, cemeteries are places my family loves to visit. Anyone remember the Boston trip? The burial grounds went far and actually had roads to drive down. Plus, down towards the central pond, there were statues and plenty of Jewish headstones.

I could’ve spent the whole day among these grounds, but alas, we had two more places to get to…

cleveland IV

Ah, the A Christmas Story House. We all remember the house, right? I mean, it is pretty recognizable. Trying to find a parking spot for this place is insane when you have multiple people waving flags at you, practically begging for you to park in their driveway for 5$, 10$, 15$. The prices get higher the closer you get to the house. Luckily, my family found a (free) parking space right in front of this beloved house.

For any fans of this film, I’ll stop boring you with my words and commence with the photos. Mind you, with a dying camera battery, I tried to get as many photos as I could. (Here’s the official site.)

If you’re a fan of the film, you should visit. You can put LifeBuoy Soap in your mouth after you say the ‘fudge’ word, pick up the phone and hear Alfie’s friends mom screaming about her son, and hold your very own Major Award! (There’s plenty around the site.) Plus, you can take the tour… in a bunny pajama suit. How cool is that? You get to roam around the house, try on costume pieces, play with the props, take a closer look at the cars driven in the film, and look at props and influences in a tiny museum across the road.

For example, the legs in the Nehi soda advertisement above served as inspiration for the design of the Leg Lamp. Plus, if you look closely at the chalk board, the A++++ is still on the actual board from filming all those years ago. If you want some more facts about A Christmas Story, click here.

Finally, what the trip was originally made for. My sister’s bridal shower. Her Ohioan one at least. Unfortunately, my camera’s battery was dying and I could barely take photos without it shutting down on me. However, it was a lovely (read: nerve-wrecking) affair. So many new people to meet and chat with, the party was a bit over-whelming at times! Fun, nonetheless! My sister was treated to lovely gifts, and had stories and tips given to her from experienced wedded women. The party was lovely after all!

After the mere (what felt like afternoon) day and a half in Cleveland, my family was escorted to the airport to return back to our Florida home, and my sister and her fiancé drove towards Georgia.

miami

 

 

My family had an impromptu trip to Miami (or what we consider Home; with a capital H). After four-something hours driving down, it was time to a.) find a parking spot and b.) hit the streets to my dad’s 20 year Hard Rock Cafe reunion.

There were some people I even knew there (and still know) and who my family were pretty much going to the event for in the first place. Basically, if said people weren’t there, there would have not been a trip in the first place.

Although I’ve only lived there personally for the first few years of my life, I still felt a bit of nostalgia walking and driving around town. Nonetheless, all my family did was walk around a port/pier and have dinner at HRC. Nothing really to go on further with unfortunately. Trust me, I wish I had some crazy story to sneak into here, but it was a pretty mellow night. I will say however that people (that are not from South Florida) look at you weird when I said, ‘Went to Miami, and slept in Jupiter.’

cape cod + boston

After coming home at the early hours of this morn, I’m still a little woozy. My family has taken recent vacation ideas via visiting my traveling sister, Amanda, and following her everywhere she goes (read: works). This time, it was the island Cape Cod at Chatham.

Amanda was working with some Ohio Uni crew at Monomoy Theatre. A theatre with so much history, but hard to find on the Internet to give you facts. Sigh. Nonetheless, the place was pretty and falling apart with it’s rotten wood panels, crackled paint, and overgrown plants… in a good way.

My family stayed 30 minutes away in a Super 8 (classy, I know) down a winding two lane road, which I later found out was the main highway. Scary to know that’s the main road when I’m used to I4 in Orlando.

Most of the first day was settling down and taking the theatre tour. The second day was touring the city of Chatham. Small town, mom and pop shops, family owned restaurants, victorian and lighthouses, you know the deal. We walked around, up and down the main road, multiple times to keep ourselves occupied whilst my sister was designing.

There were so many boats…

Among all the water craft was also wind craft dating 1797, that also churned corn! However the wind wasn’t strong enough for the blades to go.

cape cod + boston part II

Among our trip up north, there was an abundance of cemetery visits; including historical ones. Cue the photos:

The Seamen’s Cemetery was indeed very small with only two memorials (a big rock, and small square box in front of a tree) and an actual tombstone. One of which my mother was afraid (or at least nervous) to go near for there was an actual dead body buried at the spot. Unfortunately, there is no information on said tombstone because it’s old, it’s deteriorated.

However, the Seaside Cemetery had plenty of tombstones (very pretty ones too!) that ranged a long ways away. I went as deep as I could and only made it halfway in/across the hilly land. Many of the stones were covered in yellow mustard-colored algae (?), but some were perfectly clean (or at least mostly; see Clara’s). To be in an area with only dead people and no one else around, my parents waited at the entrance for your truly, definitely gave a spooky effect.

What didn’t give the spooky effect was being in a cemetery with loads of people in the Granary Burial Grounds. Founded in 1660, but the first burial was 1666 (hm), it holds some of the most historical people in US History. As a history buff, this riled me. Within the grounds are Mother Goose, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin’s parents, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere to name a few. Down the street is King’s Chapel Burying Ground which hold more important figures as well; John Winthrop and William Dawes to name a couple.

Next to the burial ground was the chapel itself. A very important candle is inside in the front right, George Washington’s bust to the front left, royal seating boxes in the front of the house, and cheeky ones in the middle. Fun Fact: Theodore Roosevelt went to King’s Chapel for service and despised sitting with the royals in the front. He wanted nothing to do with them and instead to rebel, sat in the booth that held actual pirates in the 1700’s: booth 25.

cape cod + boston part III

Another main thing we did (besides walking in “Ptown”/Provincetown, but I didn’t take enough photos there) was take the Cape Cod JFK Tour. Pretty much did a full marathon of walking all over a small town for insights to the famous family. Complete with snipets played on the phone! (Watch upcoming photos so you can try out the number too.)

Sorry there’s no number 4 and 10-12. We were on a two hour meter and 4, and 10-12 was a long ways away and we didn’t want to take chances. But we visited 8 out of the 12, not bad!

By the way… did you know there are boats at Cape Cod? (Family’s run on joke for the rest of time.)

After walking the marathon, my legs felt like jelly. But it was nice exercise, and nice to see some semi-historic parts of the city that the beloved family went to. It’s also interesting to walk by these areas and have natives walk by without even glancing or batting an eyelash at such places. These are historic landmarks, and they just merely walk by. I suppose I do the same in my city too.

cape cod + boston part IV

I’m getting to a really long post series about five days in MA, so I’m just going to wrap it up here with miscellaneous photos from all over and from things that were merely left out of explanation.

CHATHAM:

PROVINCETOWN: (turns out, I actually had a lot of photos there and didn’t realize it)

BOSTON: (more pictures of Boston than you could ever ask for.)

and we’re off!

Travel blog of a 23 year old girl who sometimes goes on trips.