Adventures of David and Paul

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Fun Times in Cleveland Today!

In May we took a short trip to Ohio to visit Cedar Point for Paul to get his roller coaster fix. We made a three day weekend out of it and spent some time in Cleveland and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park before heading over to Sandusky.

Cleveland has a pretty bad wrap, but is actually a pretty nice place. There are bad spots, but also a number of nice neighborhoods with fun restaurants, nice parks and pretty views of Lake Erie. We've been before for a wedding in March about 8 years ago, which was much less pleasant weather-wise, but going in late spring treated us with cool weather, lots of flowers and more people out and about.

It's Cleveland!

Jack Frost Donuts. Fuel for our trip to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Always have to stop at the entrance signs!

Boardwalk to Brandywine Falls.

Brandywine Falls. There used to be a small town here that used the falls to power a mill.

A popular spot in the National Park is the Ledges. A long series of sedimentary deposits within a forest.

Millions of years of history laid bare.

Beautiful forest in the National Park near the Ledges.

Nature has grown all up and around the cliffs with some remarkable trees and roots.

Part of the Ohio-Erie Canal.

Boardwalk across a beaver marsh. There were lots of critters here. We saw some herons and turtles.

The southern portion of the National Park has a large marsh. Reclaimed and flooded by beavers in the 1980s.

Post National Park shao long bao and noodles at LJ Shanghai near downtown.

These are really cute and similar to drawings we saw in Korea.

Delicious and spicy chongqing noodles.

Dessert at Mason's Creamery west of downtown.

West Side Market - like Atlanta's Curb Market but better.

The ceiling is pretty epic.

After visiting the national park and hanging out in Cleveland for a couple hours, we decided to start the drive over to Sandusky. On the drive, we took the slow route along the lake and stopped at some small towns and parks along the way to enjoy the beautiful cool day.

Paul booked our stay on Cedar Point property at the Breakers Hotel. Staying here includes early entry into the park, making it a no-brainer. Paul was so excited to go try the new roller coaster, Steel Vengeance, that he went ahead and entered the park that evening as well. Paul enjoyed a couple of rides on Steel Vengeance, Maverick, and Millennium Force while David watched the Atlanta United game back in the hotel.

The next morning we lined up bright and early to enter the park before the crowds, and went right to Steel Vengeance so David could try it out and Paul could get some more time on this coaster, his new #1 favorite steel coaster! As soon as they opened the gate it was a mad dash of coaster-fanatics heading to the new ride, before the line got long. It was a little less than a half mile, which we covered with a quick jog (thanks Orange Theory Fitness). We ended up on the second train, and the line behind us quickly reached 2 hours. We spent the next 5 hours bouncing around to all Paul's favorite rides before calling it a day and heading back towards Cleveland to catch our flight home.

Several little lighthouses and parks along the drive.

Paul's new #1 steel coaster!

Model Steel Vengeance at the Cedar Point Museum inside the park.

Paul wrapping up a ride on Gatekeeper!

Life goal: be skinny like the mayor of Boneville.

Cedar Point from Sandusky. Not a great pic, but you get the idea. It's basically a peninsula of fun!

Lunch after leaving Cedar Point. This place had Sweetwater beer on tap! Random.

Strawberry custard on the way back to the Cleve! The Midwest has tons of cute ice cream/custard places like this.

Downtown Elyria.

Gotta love the cavalier attitude of this business owner!

That's all for this trip to Ohio! Overall, Cleveland is a bit underrated. The downtown has a few nice streets and there are lots of really great neighborhoods all around the city paralleling the lake. Maybe it's not the most touristic place we've visited, but it's easy to see why people like living here...in the summer! I'm sure we'll be back the next time they open a new roller coaster, and we'll be sure to explore some more of what this city has to offer.

Sunday, May 27, 2018

Arizona & Las Vegas Wedding

In late April we took a trip to Arizona and Nevada. David had a work trip to Phoenix, and that weekend our cousin Josh was getting married in Las Vegas, so it was a good opportunity to make a week out of it and drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas via the Grand Canyon. Paul's been to Arizona before, but this was David's first real trip to all but a tiny corner of the state.

The first couple days of the trip David was in Phoenix for his meeting. Paul joined on Tuesday afternoon and together we visited the Arizona capitol building and then drove north to Sedona and on to Flagstaff.

Old church in downtown Phoenix.

Downtown Phoenix is small, but pretty walkable with a new rail line connecting it to the airport.

The Arizona capitol building, just west of downtown.

More like the "ok seal of the state of arizona"

Nice rotunda in the capitol building.

Paul's always giving legislators the side-eye!

David, on the other hand, is going for a more authoritarian state of Arizona!

Leaving Phoenix, it's amazing how fast the landscape changes. It was unseasonably hot in Phoenix while we were visiting, with highs around 100*F. Driving north you quickly start to gain elevation and the desert is replaced by a forest of saguaro cacti. Further north this abruptly changes to grasslands and eventually forests above 7,000 feet. The diversity in landscape is one of the more endearing characteristics of this state, which makes up for the somewhat underwhelming city of Phoenix.

Our first stop was in Sedona. This city is known for its red rock outcrops and canyons. The contrast between the cliffs and the grasslands is beautiful. We took a hike on the Cathedral Rock Trail to a vista near sunset to get a view of the area. There are lots of vacation houses and rentals and a small touristy downtown area with shops and restaurants.

Red rocks in Sedona

Sedona vista

Paul nearly at the top of the Cathedral Rock Trail in Sedona.

Chapel of the Holy Cross blends into the scenery at Sedona.

From Sedona we drove a short distance north to Flagstaff, another climb of a couple thousand of feet in elevation. Flagstaff is a pretty town, with a cute downtown and a university nestled in a pine forest at the base of Humphrey's Peak (Arizona's highest point). The city is very livable with bike facilities, a good bus system and lots of shops and restaurants. The elevation gives the city a cool climate in the summer and snow and cold in the winter. Overall, it was delightful. We rented an AirBnB near downtown for two nights.

Flagstaff is a great base to explore northern Arizona. Numerous sights are located within about a 1-2 hour drive including: Meteor Crater Natural Landmark, Walnut Canyon National Monument, the Grand Canyon, the Lowell Observatory, and lots of other natural and native american cultural sights - some of which are national monuments. We used a full day to explore a couple nearby sights.

Biff's Bagels in Flagstaff. People put up pictures as memorials to their dead pets. It's a little morbid, but they have good bagels.....so, here we are.

East of Flagstaff is a giant meteor crater! There's a science center attached.

Near meteor crater is the town of Winslow, Arizona, famous for the corner from the song .

We crossed Route 66 lots of times driving around Arizona. It still has some touristic charm for mostly retired RV folks.

Just east of Flagstaff is Walnut Canyon National Monument. People lived here in cliff-side dwellings.

Example cliff-side dwelling from 1100 - 1250 CE. Eventually the climate dried and people left the canyon.

You can see how closely the buildings were packed under the cliffs.

Lots of stuff in Arizona is trying really hard to poke you. Be warned!

Due to its altitude, spring had just arrived in Flagstaff.

Lunch and beer at Lumberyard Brewing Company.

Flagstaff also is a local brewery hotspot. Paul was pretty happy with two days of brewpubs. This one is at Dark Sky Brewing, which was Paul's favorite of the trip.

Lowell Observatory just outside of Flagstaff.

This is part of the Lowell Observatory. They discovered Pluto in the building behind David.

Flagstaff has lots of nice local parks, including Buffalo Park which has jogging trails and mountain views.

After a two nights in Flagstaff it was time to head to the Grand Canyon and then on to Las Vegas. We got up around 3:30AM to make the drive to the eastern most entrance point of the south rim to arrive ahead of sunrise. Sunrise at the Grand Canyon is spectacular. Seeing the light move down the canyon walls illuminating new shades of color is a bucket list must-do. After watching sunrise, we drove along the south rim towards the visitor center, stopping occasionally to check out the views and do a little hiking. After around 5 hours in the park we started our drive to Las Vegas to meet up with my family at an AirBnB for three nights surrounding Josh and Yami's wedding.

The first bit of morning light over the canyon, at 5:30AM.

The sunlight hitting the far canyon walls, about 8 miles away.

Paul enjoying dawn at the Grand Canyon.

David didn't get as close to the edge as Paul.

There were a lot of cool shadows as the sun continued to rise.

Remains of a kiva at Tusayan ruins.

View of Bright Angel Canyon later in the day.

Another benefit of going early is avoiding this situation in the afternoon. It gets crowded!

Goodbye Grand Canyon National Park!

Driving to Vegas we stopped for Tex-Mex on Route 66 in Williams.

Finally, we had 2 and a half days in Las Vegas to hang out with family. We rented an AirBnB with David's parents, sister, brother-in-law and two cute nephews. Unfortunately, David's mom threw out her back and wasn't able to go out much, so we ended up spending a lot of time hanging out at the AirBnB or with our Las Vegas family. The wedding was great, and it was wonderful to catch up with family.