Cleveland, OH

We left pretty early Friday afternoon to catch our flight at Hartford. We actually got stuck for awhile on the highway due to an accident - it was pretty severe since we saw smoke coming towards us and we weren't moving at all. We ended up following everyone and back track via a on ramp and found a different way to go, and lucky for us, we arrived the airport with plenty of time to spare.

When we arrived in Cleveland, we decided to look up CiCi's Pizza for dinner - we kept seeing the commercial on TV, asking people to contact them if interested in franchise, and we wanted to check out what is up with all the buzz. We did see on TV that it is "All you can eat for under $5!" and on the website it advertise that it has all sort of pizza, salad bar, pasta and dessert. We found one not too far away from the airport, and off we went.

The place was MOBBED! There were so many people in there it wasn't even funny! Although the lines do go pretty fast. We paid our part and I went to grab a seat, while David went to get some pizza and salad. I survey the place around, it is quite a family place/kids hang out - it has a mini arcade in the back. The floors are not the cleanest, but I've seen worse. David came back with a nice plate of salad and few small slices of pizza - cheese and meatball ones. When I went up, I got some jalapeños pepperoni, white pizza with mushroom and chicken (almost like cream of mushroom soup), meatball and some garlic bread. They were actually pretty good, but very bread-y. Then I went up again for some taco pizza - it was actually really good! The dessert was pretty awesome too - cinnamon rolls, brownies, and apple crumble pizza. Dessert was definitely my favorite part of the whole meal :). Overall, out of five stars, I give it a 2 and half stars for cleanliness, 5 stars for value, and 3 and 1/2 stars for tastiness.

After we stuffed ourselves, we went to look for our hotel. As I said before, we think we robbed them on the price. $70/night is just wrong, but I wasn't complaining :) The breakfast was great, with an omelette station, fresh fruit, hot oatmeal, muffins, breads, coffee, tea, hot chocolate - you name it, they got it. The reception was pretty awesome too - free drinks! I got two white russian and brought them back to the room and watch the Red Sox vs. Indians game in our room, with the nice Flat Screen HDTV. We even went grocery shopping and got us some chili and bread for dinner.

Atrium outside our windows

Jumping back a little, we decided to go to the Cleveland Zoo. David and I like to go to zoos, museums (mostly science), that type of things when we go to a city. We enjoy doing stuff like that, plus most of the time, it is free for us to go because we are members of Boston Museum of Science and most of the science museums are reciprocal of each other. The zoo was really REALLY big - we were really surprised and it took us ALL DAY to go through every single exhibit!! Just to name a few animals that we've seen - snow leopard, tigers, wolfs, reindeer, flamingo, ostrich, hippo, rhino, elephant, bald eagle, exotic birds, giraffs, etc. You name it, they got it! Unfortunately, I ran out of battery shortly after the snow leopards, so I am waiting for all the pictures to be developed.

Kangaroo!!!

We went to Fine Points for some yarn shopping (you didn't really think that I'm going to a city I've never been to and not going to a yarn store, did ya?). It is a nice shop in a two story used to be house. Lots and lots of yarn everywhere! There were a lot of knitted garments for sale as well, although way too expensive - one shirt was priced at $460!!!! Although I think the entire garment was knitted in one of the exotic Habu Textile fiber, but still!!! All their yarns were priced either higher or about the same at shops around here, and with higher tax rate, I didn't end up getting any yarn!!! But I did came home with these:

Maple Leaves ceramic buttons

They were really pretty and I couldn't resist! At $3.50 each, I thought it wasn't too bad for ceramic buttons. I'm planning using those for Pidge style scarf. 3Fe's cost way too much money so I am gonna create my own version of it. Although, I am afraid that the buttons might be too small for it... We'll see. So overall out of 5 stars, the Fine Points gets a 3 and a half stars from me - lots of varieties/brands, friendly staffs, but way too expensive.

We slept in on Sunday (due to the late Red Sox vs. Indians game), checked out the hotel after a nice breakfast, and set out to find the science museum. What do you know, the Browns vs. Dolphins were to start at the stadium NEXT to the museum! Luckily, we didn't get stuck too much in traffic and we got to park at the fire line right outside of the museum because they were using the parking garage for the game.

It is a small museum compare to the ones we've been to, some of the interactive machines were broken, but we still had fun.

us in various monitors!


Thermal camera - like the CSI!


Tornado effects


David and the bridge

We then went to the Botanical Garden - just in time to catch the butterfly release.

Some of the butterflies coming out of the soft case

While we were there, we found some flowers/plants that we thought might be good for our houses - easy to plant, hard to kill varieties :) And we actually found out the name of the roses we have in our other house!!! The invincible rose bush as I call it - it flowers all four seasons!!!

David under Dortmund - the roses we have in the house

After the garden, David and I went to outback to get some quality dinner (mmm... Victoria filet with horseraddish crust!!!) and I was on my way home.

David is still there for training until Wednesday - actually, he is at the Red Sox vs. Indians game right now...

So Cleveland is now off our map. It is an interesting city, but I guess I wouldn't go visit if it weren't for David going to training there.

Off to sit in front the tube for the game and some knitting... Happy Monday y'all!