Cleveland rocks!

  Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Friday, August 3, 2007

Downtown Cleveland

We slept in a little Friday morning, but we were out the door by 10:00 and on our way to Cleveland to go to Brew at the Zoo.  The drive up was nice, and we took some back roads to get to Amber's parent's house.  I was really hoping to see some Amish, but I was disappointed.  I guess it was too hot to be Amish that day.  We did pass though a little town that had weird car board cut-outs of kids on the front yards of some of the houses.  Seriously weird and very creepy!  We didn't know what to think about it!  (The day after I got back home I read an article on Yahoo.com about how some small towns in Ohio are putting out cardboard cut-outs of kids to slow down traffic.  We drove by the house that was featured in the article! What a coincidence! But I digress....)  We had a lovely lunch courtesy of Amber's mom and then made our way to Cleveland. 

We arrived in downtown Cleveland early in the afternoon, and after alot of one-way streets,

Hangin' on the Mathers

construction, and road rage, we arrived at our hotel- The Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.  We got a package for Brew at the Zoo that included the hotel, and damn, it was a fancy-schmancy place!  Whoo hoo! No Motel 6 for us tonight! So we had a few hours to kill before Brew at the Zoo started, so we thought we'd go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  We got there and found out it was $20 to get in, and they closed in an hour.  Uh, no.  So we went next door and toured the big steamship, Mathers, instead.  I'm not much of a history buff, but it was cool to get to explore all over this huge ship.  They have restored almost all of it, and you could check out the engine room, captain's quarters, and even the bridge.  Not bad for only $6.  

Zoo crew

So now it was finally time for Brew at the Zoo.  Brew at the Zoo was brilliant.  You pay $50 (it's a fund raiser for the zoo) and you get all you can drink beer and wine (5 different kinds of Sam Adams) and all you can eat food from different buffets.  They also have 14 bands scattered around the zoo for your listening pleasure.  The best thing about it is that it is 21+, There's no riff-raff, and everyone is there to just have a good time so there are no assholes and no fights.  Needless to say, I drank more than I ate (just like at the block party during my San Diego trip) and got pretty trashed.  After the zoo closed at 12:00, we took the trolley back to the hotel and we to a bar in downtown Cleveland.  I don't remember much after that....