Day 13: Sunday

Day 13: Sunday

After eating breakfast we went off to church at St. Dominic which was about 3 miles away. Found it on Mapquest and it appeared easy to get there. Well the church and road weren’t there so we turned on the GPS and found that it was actually in the opposite direction! The church was a little difficult to get to and was almost on the border with the ghetto. We got there a few minutes late but really enjoyed the service. The church does a lot of outreach to their neighbors and also has a mission to El Salvador. On the way back we stopped at a Food Giant store and the Whole Foods store and bought chips, guacamole, and sushi for lunch and got some money. Here is a picture of something we found at the grocery store here in Cleveland. Look closely at the sign!

It turns out that there are no Bank of Americas in Ohio and only 6 ATMs, none in the Cleveland area. Regarding the defective lights in our van, I tried to check the fuses in our van but couldn’t pull them out. I then read on the internet that the lights were working as they were supposed to work. Yeah! We pretty much bummed at the hotel for the rest of the day. We later ate at this tiny restaurant called Yours Truly. It was surprisingly good and inexpensive. Here is an internet picture of the outside and inside so you can see how tiny it is.

While we were there a big thunderstorm came through. We returned to the hotel and called it a night. Tomorrow is Michelle’s portfolio review at Cleveland Institute of Art. Hope it goes well.

Day 12: Saturday

Day 12: Saturday

Being Saturday, traffic was light, so we ventured downtown Cleveland. We found a parking spot near the waterfront and walked a little less than a mile to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Cleveland Brown's football stadium and the Great Lakes Science Museum are next to it. The Hall of Fame is around the bend and can't be seen in this photograph. Lake Erie is on the other side as well.

Cleveland did a nice job of revitalizing this area. Michelle and I both rocked out at the Rock and Roll museum. I was surprised to find out how knowledgeable Michelle was about songs from the 50's, 60's, and 70's since she wasn't born until the 90's! We saw Michael Jackson's famous glove, ZZ Top's funky guitars made of scrap metal, lot's of Elvis material, Steve Tyler's scarf that he use to wrap around the microphone when he sang, and a special tribute to the Grateful Dead. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed so no pictures of exhibits. It was fun times sharing music we liked and disliked with each other in some of the music stations where you could listen to songs. We munched on some lunch there and left after about 3-4 hours. Here is a picture of Michelle in front of the museum.

The trip back to the hotel was rather interesting as the GPS took us back a different direction from how it brought us. The way in was on highways and rather quick (15-20 minutes). The way back was up a long street (12 miles) that led directly to our hotel, but through the ghettos with about 20 stoplights. What was amazing was that after about 16 stoplights, the ghettos suddenly disappeared and on the other side was what could be upper-middle class homes and really nice shopping strips. While driving through the ghettos, a gentleman in the car next to us at a stop light motioned for us to roll down our car window. He told us that our brake lights weren't working. We thanked him and as he drove off, saw that his license plate was from Pennsylvania. Gotta love it; a visitor helping another visitor! At the hotel we checked the lights and determined that some of the lights weren't working while others were. Think it might be a fuse so will study up on this tonight and check it out tomorrow. I went and picked up a pizza from a local restaurant and stopped at Whole Foods for a drink, salad and dessert. Everything was yummy. This was a nice sized Whole Food, probably like the one they want to build in Little Rock. After eating I caught up on my blogging and Michelle worked on her portfolio that she will show the people at the Cleveland Art Institute on Monday.