Welcome to Cleveland

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No one really wants to go to Cleveland in November. I don’t even think the people of Cleveland want to be in Cleveland in November. I’m pretty sure that is why retired residents of the midwest get in their cars and decamp to sunnier localities. Unfortunately for me, in 2002, I was not going to sunnier pastures. Instead, we were going to Cleveland. Lebron James was still playing his rookie season with the Cavaliers. This trip was unusual for all the trips we took, mostly because we actually flew by instead of driving. The downside is that we were stuck with the provided rental car for our stay, and it only had two doors, and we couldn’t use it regularly. We tended to stick to our little apartment. 

I don’t think I saw the sun the whole time we were there. Every day, I would walk across our long stay hotel parking lot to go to the gym. The atmosphere always seemed drear. The clouds hang in the sky and don’t even seem to move. I will say that there’s not too much to this story. Nothing too crazy happened (until the end), and because it was during the school year, most of my time was occupied with study and exercise. However, that did leave us time for some fun. 

I was impressed by much of the architecture in Cleveland. Millionaire’s row is quite stately, and even the smaller middle-class homes had Georgian flair. Cleveland is not immune from its own brand of bland suburban sprawl, but the city core does look nice. Cleveland was part of the “city beautiful” movement in the early 20th century. The influence of that shows in the streets. Through the bulging sidewalks, large trees, and stately homes, you could see that thought was put into beauty even if that beauty had faded by 2002. Even back then, the rust belt had seen better days. Cleveland was in the middle of the transformation that has taken hold in recent years. Cleveland was coming off a heady decade in the early Aughts, but people were slowly leaving the city. The city dipped below 500,000 residents. Like the rest of the rust belt, Ohio had been hit hard by the pullback of American steel manufacturing and the preference for far cheaper Chinese imports. 

Christmas lights and local arts

Cleveland does a great Christmas show. The sparkly lights around downtown and well into neighborhoods have the whole city a festive air. It was certainly more festive than anything Denver had at the time. I was impressed with the sheer amount of local culture and art within Cleveland. There were so many choirs, arts groups, and culture that was all over the city. This tradition had been inspired by establishing the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Orchestra in the 1910s. When we were there, culture thrived even though the city was in decline. 

Amish country in Ohio and Pennsylvania

One feature of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania is Amish country. This cloistered community, which still basically lives like its 1850 due to its rejection of electricity, modern clothing, and other modern conveniences, lives primarily in this region of the country. You’ll see signs along non-highway roads advising you to keep an eye out for horse and buggy vehicles. They come complete with a big warning triangle on the back. An open carriage symbolizes someone who is unmarried, but a close carriage indicates a married couple. Deeply religious, the Amish are well-known for their excellent home-cooked recipes and their excellent (if expensive) furniture. We had the chance to eat at an excellent restaurant while we were there. I would recommend it, but I couldn’t find it online, so it may have closed; it has been 17 years since this trip!

Walking down to the lake

Cleveland sits right on the shore of Lake Superior. In November, the cold winter winds blow off the lake and create lake-effect snows and chilly temperatures. We walked down to the lake to see it, and we lasted 15 minutes at most bundled in our warmest clothes. Denver has a dry cold, but the East has a wet cold that will pierce right into your bones. It’s a chill that seems to take hours to finally lose. Lake Superior is certainly beautiful, but I would rather see it in the summer with the air isn’t trying to actively freeze my lungs to solid blocks. 

Flying home 

You know that city that you can’t wait to leave but can’t seem to get out of. This was emblematic of our multi-hour attempt to leave Cleveland. I have described United Airlines as the airline frequent travelers love to hate in other posts. It’s convenient because they fly pretty everywhere, but you’re still flying on United. In this case, this was not necessarily the fault of United as such. The clouds, who had not really done anything of note the entire time we had been there, decided that snow would be a good idea right before our flight. Confident that the snow would be subsiding, we boarded our flight. However, the snow did not stop, and we sat at the gate for about 2 hours waiting for the weather to clear up and for de-icing. This would have been not very nice except for the fact we had gotten bumped up to First Class before boarding. We might have had to wait, but we had blankets, snacks, and free drinks while we waited to finally get sprayed with the special chemicals and be allowed to leave. We did manage to get out of Cleveland for the 3-hour flight to Denver. The funniest part was when I fell asleep on my Mom’s shoulder. I vaguely heard her say that I didn’t need a pillow.