We arrived in Cleveland at 2 in the morning and were greeted by a childhood friend of mine, Jessica. It had been way too long since we had chatted and the one hour of catch up was not enough, but would have to do. After a tour of her new home (beautifully decorated as always), we headed to the guest room for a short night's sleep. With it's rainy, gloomy sky, the morning greeting was not as nice as Jessica's had been. However, off to Cleveland we went. I realized I hadn't ever really taken any pictures of Cleveland despite living their for four years and so we started with a few skyline pictures before looking for parking. This was not the easiest task and we ended up just paying for a garage.
The tour of my college memories started on northside with the CIM (cleveland institute of music) building and north campus dorms. This was followed by a quick glance at the new dorms before heading towards the Mather quad where the non-engineering buildings are. We also saw the beautiful Harkness chapel where many a music major got sweaty palms. Next up was the student center (Thwing) and the library (KSL). Kat took some time to browse the bookstore as we have so many times this trip. The library actually had a pretty neat exhibit filled with old and new pictures of the campus that I really enjoyed. We finished up this section with a stop by the lagoon (where Kat walked among the geese) and Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra (where I ran up a bunch of stairs).
We crossed Euclid avenue and come to the Allen Memorial Medical Library which holds a number of medical research books and a medical museum. Kat enjoyed the strange stories of the many birth control exhibits and I reminisced in some big comfy study chairs. By this point Kat was getting sick of my many college stories and so we moved quickly through the main quad and southside dorms and headed straight for the food. The walk to Coventry (food and shops) was longer than I remembered. Hm, maybe I'm no longer in as good shape as I was back then? I suppose seven weeks in the car might do that. We finally got there and spent a good while in a crazy toy store before heading into Tommy's for a sandwhich and some milkshakes. We split the sandwhich and it still kicked my butt. Boy were the milkshakes good though. They were also cold. And outside was cold. And getting colder. Brrrrrrr.
All that was left was a walk through Lakeview cemetery before heading back to the car and we walked rather briskly as the temperature seemed to be dropping rapidly. What happened to the warm California and Texas temperatures???? The cemetery is a beautiful place most of the time. Today, however, the rain and cold made it rather spooky. Not the most pleasant, but certainly made for interesting pictures. We admired the Garfield Monument from afar (fyi, it doesn't open until April), took a walk past the base of the dam and then around the ponds. The Chapel was also not open and so it was more brisk walking. We got back to the car, blasted the heat and began our journey to Toledo. Almost there and the sun comes back out. Oh well, day 47 to a close.
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