Mentor Headlands (the Beach!)

Dr. Jay and I went to get up close and personal with Lake Erie last Sunday at Headlands Beach State Park. It's weird how much it's like a beach on, say, Long Island Sound. Small waves, not that cold, kind of pebbly. I kept forgetting we were on a lake.

On the other hand, it was pretty crowded, and you can't swim out that far, maybe only 30 feet, and then just as we were getting in, the lifeguards blew their whistles and made everyone get out. So in those ways, it was less like the ocean and more like a pool.

It's also the northern terminus for the Buckeye Trail, and there's a lighthouse on a spur of land at one end of the beach that we walked out to.

Time Zone

Have I mentioned that, being near the westernmost edge of the eastern time zone, it gets light later and stays light later than it does in, say, Connecticut? Which is cool, because who really needs it to get light at like at 5 am? (Other than people who have to get up at 5.) All it does for me is wake me up too early. But staying light till past 9 pm, like it does here. Well, that's something.

Does that make sense? It stays light roughly an hour later at the western end of a time zone than it does at the eastern end? I like it!

Coventry Village Street Fair

Last night we went to the Coventry Village Street Fair . It was a nice evening to be outside, and there were lots of people walking up and down the street, talking to vendors, eating, and running into their neighbors. There are two more this summer, and we plan to go back.

Cool Cleveland blog

Hey! This guy is so busy having fun in Cleveland, it tires me out just reading about it.

Cool Cleveland Blog

I'm getting some great ideas from him about local events to check out, like the St. Demetrios Greek Festival going on this weekend.

Beautiful day!

Man, the weather today is awesome! Sunny and warm. So hard to come back into the basement when lunch was over. And the weather icons in my browser show a little line of suns. I hope the weekend will be like this!

More on the garden

The gardening is proceeding. We've constructed raised beds and planted a combination of the seedlings I started, seeds, and plants we bought already started.

A while back I went to Gali's Florist and Garden Center to get some gardening stuff, and it was nice and the people were nice and helpful.

Cleveland Originals

An organization for "Independent, locally-owned restaurants in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio": Cleveland Originals.

#1 Pho

Ok, one last post will wrap up the visit with the library school friends that took place in April...

I have posted before about Vietnamese food, and pho in particular. #1 Pho is practically next door to Pho Hoa (a more dedicated noodle-house type place that is FAR less visible from the street) that I've posted about before. #1 Pho probably has more atmosphere than Pho Hoa and a more varied menu selection. As I recall, we all really liked our food, and it was a very nice experience.

I have mixed feelings about recommending #1 Pho, because I think they probably take a lot of business from Pho Hoa, and the last thing I want to have happen is for there to be FEWER noodle options in Cleveland. Ok, I would definitely recommend #1 Pho, but PLEASE try Pho Hoa, too. They specialize more and is more of a mom-n-pop kind of place, and there should be room for both of them, right?

If I was in charge of things, I would move Pho Hoa to Coventry, where they could have a more visible spot with more natural light, not to mention being EXTREMELY convenient for me. Surely, Coventry is ready for Bubble Tea? Plus, there must be students at Case who would go for the cheap and delicious sandwiches and bowls of noodles. If I prayed, I would pray for Pho Hoa to move to Coventry and be a smahing success.

Lake View Cemetery

When the library school friends came a while back, we decided to check out Lake View Cemetery over on Mayfield near Little Italy. It had been highly recommended as a place to take out of town guests, but we were skeptical. But I've never heard of a cemetery that's so much like a park and that has so much going on!

We went up in the Garfield Monument to see the view, which was nice, but would have been better if it had been less foggy and rainy. On a sunny day, I'm sure it's gorgeous. But the monument itself was pretty interesting, and the docent there was happy to tell us about the history of the monument. She also recommended we go to the Wade Chapel in the cemetery, which turned out to be an excellent idea.

The chapel has these fantastic Tiffany glass windows and mosaics, and, the day we were there, a fabulous docent who engaged us for a good half hour, telling us local history, the history of the chapel, explaining the symbolism of the murals in the chapel, and pointing out interesting details and technical points of interest about the chapel.

We hadn't planned to go to the chapel, but it turned out to be a highlight of the visit! It's free. I highly recommend it.

Udupi Cafe

We went to Udupi Cafe for the first time when my library school friends visited. It was soooooo good. We've been back three times since, and it might be one of those things (like Ramen--see previous post) that every time I eat it, I go, Oh, it's never been THIS good!

Most of what I know about the place, I learned from this article in Scene: The Other India.

My advice: when you enter at the front of the restaurant, march in purposefully and try to make eye contact with one of the many servers who hang out at the back. No one greets you at the front, and we had trouble once being seated, hidden, in a corner, by someone who may have been a busperson. So, that time, the service wasn't great, but the first time we went, the waiter explained the menu to us and made recommendations, and was just generally very helpful, so I think it was just bad luck.

Also, the first time we went, we got the Chana Bhatura and the Masala Dosai. One of the times we went, we decided to get something different, and ended up ordering somethings that, I have to say, included some tastes that were foreign enough to me that I did not like them. So we've gone back to our two favorites, and we crave them when we haven't been there for a while. If you go, and you can't remember what things I'm recommending, there are labelled pictures of four dishes all over the restaurant. These two are in opposite corners of the poster. One is the giant puff of fried dough, and the other is the GIANT pancake/crepe thing folded in half.

And the fat in the yogurt in a sweet lassi cuts the heat better than water, so you should probably get one of those, too.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

The last stop on the Bun tour today, was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

We went there a few months back when my library school friends visited, and we love it. Dr. Jay's aunt and uncle got us a membership, so he and I get in for free, so we don't feel bad about going over and over, and we don't feel we need to see it all when we go.

It totally surpassed my expectations. It's a very professionally run museum, but hip and irreverant (as you might expect) but very respectful to the music without being, I don't know, too star-struck. Every time we go, I discover a new favorite part. The first time, I felt like I could have spent hours in the interactive exhibit showing how musicians have influenced each other. I also felt a very strong desire to put on Jimi Hendrix's clothes. I guess it put me in touch with my inner Jimi Hendrix, because I didn't feel that about, say, David Bowie's costumes, and I love David Bowie. Oh, and there's a wall about censorship, with clips of interviews, etc., that's very inspiring.

This time, I loved two things I missed the first time. One was the Jimi Hendrix Surround Sound Theater, which is about what you would expect: concert footage in a little theater with surround sound. The other was an MTV exhbit with clips of videos that tell stories about MTV as well as the evolution of music videos. I love music videos, even though I haven't really gotten to watch them since 1989 when I left for college, so I was fixated. I told Dr. Jay that if I ever run away, he might want to check there first.

The last thing about the RRHoF is that they have a deck that looks out over the lake, and it is just beatiful out there. It's right next to the giant Wall prop from The Wall. You can't miss it.

Great Lakes Brewing Company

As I said a few posts ago, I'm not a beer drinker. Neither is Dr. Jay. But the more I heard about the Great Lakes Brewing Company, the more I liked it, so we went there for lunch with the Buns after the Trolly ride.

What did I hear? Well, I'm glad you asked. First, they have great names for their beers, like Holy Moses, the label of which features a picture of Moses Cleaveland parting Lake Erie, with the Cleveland skyline in the background. Then there's another called Burning River, which I probably don't need to explain. They're cool.

But also, Dr. Jay has gotten into this vermicomposting thing, which I won't get into in this post, and they do that, too. Here's a page about all kinds of cool stuff they do. Supporting local farmers, concern for the environment.

So we went for lunch, and it was really good. I had bratwurst, pierogis, and cabbage. The bratwurst was juicy, and mustard wicked hot, the cabbage a little sweet (so nice after the mustard!), and the pierogis chewy, potatoe-y, salty, and delicious. Poppa Bun had the Walleye Bites appetizer as an entree, and it was great, too.

Some of their desserts looked pretty cool, too, but we didn't try any today. We sat outside at the GLBC, and we could see the West Side Market from where we were. And across the street, on Saturdays, there's a craft/flea market. I didn't have much time to look, but I can tell you there was someone selling vinyl LPs and someone else selling really cool jewelry made from found objects. And across the street was a place called Talkies Film and Coffee Bar which we didn't try, but I'm intrigued. I guess they show old movies somewhere in there, but I didn't see them anywhere.

West Side Market, revisited

Ok, we've revisited it MANY times since I posted about it back in, I don't know, January?

After Lolly the Trolley, we dropped by the West Side Market. One thing to add about the WSM, (other than the cake I just ate) is that if you go early in the day, parking is easier. If you go LATE in the day (4:30-ish?) parking is easy AND many of the vendors are trying to move items they don't want to pack up, and are sometimes ready to bargain.)

We didn't stay for the lovely bratwurst, though. We went right down the street to the Great Lakes Brewing Company...

Lolly the Trolley - Cleveland City Sightseeing Tours

A friend of mine got us a gift certificate for Lolly the Trolley before we moved here, and today seemed like the perfect day to use it.

We did the one hour tour, and I learned so much and felt so great about Cleveland. I would highly recommend the tour to be one of the first things you do when you visit, so you can get an idea of what else you might want to do while you're here. I learned a bunch about buildings and public art downtown, the history of the city, and things to do.

I know that tours like this are designed to shine a flattering light on an area, but what can I say? I'm a sucker. Information about the ethnic groups who moved here over time, the church that was the last stop on the Underground Railroad before the ferry trip to Canada and freedom, and the Gay Pride parade that was going on downtown today overwhelmed me with respect for my new city. Not to mention the glittering Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, the lake full of sailboats, and the apartments and condos that the tourguide pointed out as having been added to areas of downtown recently.

Cleveland ChopHouse

The Buns love a good steak, so we asked around and decided to go to The Cleveland ChopHouse for dinner last night. It's in the Warehouse District, where we never really go, but we should. I had a house salad, which is very solid and right-on, which is to say: neither frou-frou nor a plate of iceberg lettuce. Then the New York Strip with the Cheddar Mashed Potatoes. The steak was excellent. The mashed potatoes were amazing. They were really heavy and rich and cheesy, but not stringy or gooey like you might think. They went so well with the steak.

I'm no steak expert, but I would happily go back when more people from out of town come and want to take us out. Also, they brew their own been, which I think is cool, even though I don't like beer.

Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority

I've been meaning to post about the RTA (Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority) for a while, and this seems like a good time to start, since the Buns took it from the airport.

You can get it in the basement of the airport, so it's easier than taking a shuttle to a car rental place, and cheaper!

Today I love Cleveland more than I ever thought possible

I love it when people visit us, because we get to be tourists in Cleveland. Dr. Jay's dad, Poppa Bun, and stepmom, Momma Bun, visited us last night and today from the southeastern US, where they live. We had an amazing 24 hours.

It's a lot cooler this weekend than it was for a while (it was like in the 90s there for a long stretch!), and though the day started off overcast, it became sunny with a blue sky and fluffy clouds.

I'm going to try to write about what we did this weekend so I don't get even farther behind. Dr. Jay and I just ate an enormous piece of chocolate mousse cake from Vera's Nationality Bakery that Poppa Bun got for us at West Side Market, so we'll see how long that keeps me going before I crash. Since I brought it up, the cake. Oh, the cake. So cocoa-y and dark and not too sweet. Dense, dark cake, cocoa-y mousse between the layers, and frosting that was maybe half way to ganache? I don't know, but I recommend it highly.

CMJ Rock Hall Music Fest

Oh, cleaning up some old drafts I have laying around. The CMJ Rock Hall Music Fest has passed, but it sounds like they're going to do another next year. It sounds pretty great, for those who aren't too old to stay out late...and not so packed yet that, like SXSW in Austin, it's impossible to get in to see any acts if you're not, like, a record company executive or press.

Mad Greek

A restaurant over at Cedar Fairmont (the intersection of Cedar and Farimont!) is a place called the Mad Greek. We've been there a few times, and really like it. It has the disadvantage of being across the street from Aladdin's, which we LOVE, so we don't end up there as often as we might. And my parents loved it when we took them there.

They serve a combination of Greek and Indian foods. I've mostly concentrated on the Greek, and I think the Moussaka has been my favorite. As I recall, it has eggplant, ground meat, cheese, and pine nuts. Really good.

And I'm not usually too concerned about decor, but the feel of the Mad Greek is that you're in a walled garden in the Mediterranean. Which is especially like a vacation in the middle of winter! They might have a patio in summer, too, but I'm not sure.

Western Reserve Historical Society

Ok. This place is very cool. Went here in, um, December, and just getting around to posting about it.

The Western Reserve Historical Society is very similar to one of the places I worked in Cali. The focus is regional history. They have a museum as well as a library and research center that is used quite often for genealogical research. They have an aviation and car collection, and maintain some historic houses to tour.

This is the kind of place I love, because it makes history fun. It gives history shape and substance but is interesting and hip at the same time.