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Sunday, August 29, 2010

A TOURIST VIEW


(note: all text in bold caps is a link..having technical problems changing the link colors)


Have you ever taken a tour of your own city?
I did, and it was a blast!
With my daughter Jamie and my Sister Deb
We love our hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
It's a beautiful city, with a great history and full of things to do and see. Including of course the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lakes Science Center as well as great restaurants and shops.
Click on the links I provided, to learn more about some fun things in CLEVELAND!

Jamie, who recently started a new job in downtown Cleveland, and also became a volunteer for "Positively Cleveland" suggested going downtown and do the "tourist thing" It was so much fun!



With a nice early start, our first stop... Taking a
Rapid ride Downtown!..... believe it or not, it was my first Rapid ride... Jamie's too! The Rapid station was..... eh.... interesting. But the ride was really fun! In about 20 minutes we were at Tower City. Tower City, is the Major landmark of Downtown Cleveland. Originally referred to as The Terminal Tower, it was re-vamped and turned into a beautiful shopping mall complete with food court, dancing waters and of course the Rapid terminal. After a few quick pics of the gorgeous lobby and ornate ceiling We were on Public square. It was a gorgeous morning and perfect for touring. After a few pics on the Square,


we headed to 4th street,
4th. Street for coffee and a cab.
along with so many areas of downtown, was recently renovated, and it's gorgeous! Featuring cool little Bistro's, Pickwick n Frolic restaurant, House of Blues and Lola, owned by our own Iron Chef, Michael Symon.



We called for a cab, and by the time we got to the corner he was there! now that's service!

He was the friendliest cab driver ever.

He greeted us with a great big smile and "good morning ladies!"... put out a step stool and assisted each of us into the cab!


It was a short ride, down to Settler's landing, to begin our guided walking tour of the river, Where Cleveland's history begins. It was fun and interesting. they even had actors portraying historical characters. I was surprised how much I didn't know about the beginnings of Cleveland.

The 1 1/2 hour tour ended at Settler's landing, at the (replica) of Lorenzo Carter's log cabin. Carter was the first settler in the area. Our awesome tour guide dressed in period clothing, gave us a good idea of what life was like in those days.



We stopped for lunch in the historic Flat Iron Cafe and the food was awesome!

We decided to walk off our lunch, and headed up to the West 6th. street fair.
Great music from the steel drum band at one end of the street, and the Jazz music at the other end.

We called for another cab, and headed down to the Flats once again, to catch Lolly the Trolley for an hour long ride through Downtown. It was awesome too!
There were "real" tourists on the Trolley, but I think we were the ones acting like it and taking so many pictures! Our tour guide was great, he even

dropped everyone off at their desired locations, instead of the Flats, which saved us the cost of another cab!

We headed back to Tower City, to catch the Rapid back home. We got on and asked someone if this train went to 150th...... they said yep! Why is it you assume everyone else knows where they're going?..... well... each person that got on after us... asked the same thing lol..

We got home, worn out but happy!
It was a great day with my daughter and sister.

We want to do it again soon, next time we'll take the longer Lolly tour, and hopefully, the gorgeous, newly renovated Terminal observation deck will be open.

So enjoy this little cyber tour of my city, Cleveland, Ohio.
(the pics somehow got out of order.. but still fun!)

Take a tour of your city too!