Northeast Ohio can be a fickle bitch and this year’s start to the summer season proved it by way of crummy weather.
Since, we are seasoned Ohioans this came as no surprise when the week I took off from my day job turned out to be raining and cold. What did we do…? Enjoyed our fantastic city anyway! Sure there was no trip to the beach (or the pool) as planned but we still had a great time on Staycation 2013!
Our Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is free on Mondays, but it was a downpour so off to the Cleveland Children’s Museum for some wholesome indoor fun. This was the first time that baby girl was there (that she remembers) and she was over the moon! Her favorite was the grocery store and she had no problems playing cashier and taking money. In fact, she is really good at taking the money…
The exhibit right now is Centuries of Childhood: An American Story and both kids enjoyed exploring how kids from the past lived. But, I would have to say that baby spent the most of her time in the Big Red Barn while her older brother had the run of the joint.
Next on our to-do list was the zoo. Well, my to-do list. The kids had more fun at the parks that are at the zoo then the actual animals but the animals were not a complete bust since the elephants and giraffes were very active. Their activity may have had something to do with the day being on the cooler side and sporadic showers. Nothing to send us home or even for cover and I would say it was actually nice to walk in the rain and enjoy the animals.
This was also the first time that I have seen the The RainForest. Usually by the end of our zoo tour we are all too exhausted to see it but now that the kids are older we had no problem ending our day in there and it was a big success.
My son is a weather buff and was in awe of the Tropical Rain Storm that goes off every 12 minutes. Yep, a tropical rainstorm occurs, complete with lightning, wind, thunder and rain in the exhibit featuring Asian porcupines. I was fascinated by the porcupines and did not know that there would be rain but my son did because he was listening to the “chatter” on the radio that plays in the exhibit. A couple of actors talk about the weather conditions and the impeding storm. He loved it!
We rounded out our week on Friday with seeing Man of Steel at the Valley View Theater in real 3D. Another first for me was seeing something at theater in real 3D because I have never been able to sit through 3D before. I can never really see it and it gave me incredible headaches and all I can say is – boy has technology advanced. Sure I am last to know this but it was very cool and glad to see Superman this way!
Before the movie we hit up Denny’s for breakfast and then walked the Ohio & Erie Towpath. For as long as it has been up the Husband and I have talked about walking but this was the first time we did it and it was very neat. Yes, it is in the middle of industry but to have something made of steel, surrounded by nature in the middle of an industrial main street is pretty inspiring. We can have progress without compromising all of the beauty that was originally there, or something like that.
We also had some fun taking random photos of the kids because that is what you do while on vacation, even if it is a staycation. Now, the original plan was to spend little to no money this week but since it rained we ended up spending money but it was worth it. Cleveland has some wonderful treasures and none of it broke the bank.
