I'm back from my weekend trip to Ohio. Ryan picked me up and we drove the nine hours from Milwaukee to Akron, OH. He had managed to find a toll-free route for us to take. It took an extra hour but it was worth it. He had made reservations for us to stay two nights at the Hawthorn Suites. We didn't do any touristy stuff on Friday night -- we were both tired from the long drive and just wanted to sleep.

In the morning we met Ryan's parents in town for breakfast at Country Diner. The food is great, but what I was most pleased with was a particular waitress named Carla, she was very polite, friendly, and consistent. I would definitely return to the diner and hope she was my waitress again. Ryan said good-bye to his parents and we were off again.

Then we drove to Cuyahoga Park. I don't think many people in the United States know about Cuyahoga Valley National Park. In fact, I'd never even heard of it until Ryan told me about it. But this National Park is the 8th most visited National Park in the US within the ranks of Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and Rocky Mountain. I'm sure it helps that Cuyahoga Valley National Park is likely the most metropolitan in our Park system. But still I find it amazing that this:



The Park is located between Akron and Cleveland. I could so live here. The most desirable of communities lie on the northwest confines of this National Park. It feels as if you are in a rustic New England community and with Cleveland/Akron just a 20 minute drive in either direction, who wouldn't want to live here?

Here is a picture of Ryan standing beside the Cuyahoga Park sign:



We spent a couple hours at the park then headed back to the motel for a shower and change of clothes. Ryan's father had given us tickets to the MAPS Air Museum exhibit which he thought we might like to see. We walked around for an hour admiring some of the planes in the exhibit. My favorites were the Raptures:



And this black and white checkered plane:



Saturday night we drove to downtown Cleveland (55 min drive) to watch The Cleveland Indians play against Texas at Progressive Field. That is a cool name for a baseball stadium. Ryan explained to me that it used to be known as Jacob's Field but that a few years ago the license on the name expired, and the new name was born. Ryan's a huge baseball fan. I'm not, but I still had a great time. I ate two Cleveland style hot dogs "with mustard" -- Ryan wouldn't let me put ketchup on it. Is that some sort of Ohio thing? lol. The Indians won 5-2!

That's it for now. I'll write Part II tomorrow -- that will cover Sunday a.m. and a few odd's and ends I forgot to mention in Part 1.

P.S. Ryan's a great travel companion -- he's knowledgeable, easy going, and has an awesome sense of humor. We got along great. He's also a really nice guy.

Anyway, I hope you all had a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend!