Ohio was very, very good to us! A dip in the pool last night, waffles in the morning at the free breakfast bar, and then a 1pm check out so we could eat said waffles and then go right back to bed!
Then a quick drive into Cleveland - Well, not entirely quick, since there was an accident on the highway, and we waited a long time in traffic, and although it was pretty easy to figure out routes, you then seemed to always have a detour or two... it seemed like all of Cleveland was under construction!
We were able to find the "A Christmas Story" house - it was in the middle of a neighborhood that was really trying to clean itself up - on the other side of the freeway, the area was really rough, but the street where this house was sort of reminded me of the street we lived on in Vancouver... some sad puppy houses, some beautifully maintained, and a little bit of renovation/new construction.
They were charging admission to go into the house, so I just decided to take pictures of the outside. You can see the leg lamp in the window... that was my main memory of the inside of the house, anyway!
Then we headed downtown to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum - which was awesome! I happened to go into one of the theatre rooms just as they were playing a clip of Aretha Franklin singing a duet of "Chain of Fools" with Annie Lennox! It doesn't get much better than that... exept maybe the "super group" of Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Bono, etc, etc, etc singing "Let it Be" at McCartney's inauguration. 
So this is one of those "street pianos" - And it's been sculpted to look as though someone smashed a guitar into it. It sounded pretty "honkytonk-y" (that is to say, "out of tune") but it sure looked cool! |
| Janis Joplin's car - I want it! |
Crazy piece of art related to the germination of the project that became "The Wall"
It took us a little while to figure out how to get out of downtown, which was ok, because there were a lot of really awesome buildings and monuments to take pictures of!
It's a two-stage falls. The first part is on one side of Main Street, and it has a dam and bridge across it.
The second stage, which is larger, comes out under the bridge and the river continues on into the woods.
But let's be honest. The Falls are not why we came to Chagrin Falls. THIS is why we came.
Calvin was born in Chagrin Falls.
Because Bill Watterson lived in Chagrin Falls.
Refer to this drawing, and compare to these photos. It's awesome!
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| Under Calvin's left leg |
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| The shop in Calvin's hand |
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| The bentwood gazebo in the park |
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| The clocktower at the bottom |
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| The street along the left side |
This town has been the part of the trip so far that has made us grin and giggle the most. You really expected to see Calvin and Hobbes at any moment. And the best part is that since Watterson never licensed any of the Calvin and Hobbes world, you don't see Calvin or Hobbes in every store window. Just at the bookstore, and in your imagination. It was great.
When we left Chagrin Falls, we went on our way to Erie, PA (where Adam's stepmother, Judith, grew up). It was a pretty manageable drive, and we found our way easily to a large hotel strip just outside of town. We went into the first hotel that looked nice, but there were no rooms available. There was another hotel just down a hill from the first one, so we just left the car and ran down the hill. There was one room left, but it was pretty pricey (for us). It did, however, have a king-sized bed and a jacuzzi tub and hot breakfast included. When the desk clerk offered us $20 off the room, we took it!
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