Dietz Summer Road Trip

What’s round on the end and high in the middle? What’s the place were the Drew Carey Show took place? What’s the state that basically decides every presidential election, ever?

We headed north into Ohio to head to Cleveland for the next couple days! This isn’t the first time we have been to good old Cleveland, but there were a few new things we wanted to do, and some old favorites we wanted to check out again!

Plus it’s (almost) Danielle’s Birthday. Plus we are meeting up with the first guest stars of the summer, Bob and Lisa Vinglish! What could of been a 10 hour drive was only 5 since we stopped in WV, and after a 4 hour drive on their end we met up at the Holiday Inn in Independence, Ohio. I neglected to snap a picture of the hotel, but if I did it would have showed 4 weddings, 3 family reunions, 2 conventions, and a broken luggage cart! (Exaggeration, yes. But the luggage cart bit was 100% true).

Anyway we checked in, and headed out for dinner just in time for it to start raining again. Guess that is going to be the theme for the next few days! But there is pasta on the horizon so the forecast is bright!

Cleveland has a Little Italy part of town, so naturally we went there in hopes of delicious garlic laden pasta and cannoli. We weren’t disappointed! Out of the plethora of Italian restaurants (really it was hard to choose), we settled on Maxi’s for dinner. Not only did it promise Chicken Piccata, Ravioli, and Steak, it was also right beside where we wanted to head for dessert.

Still enough room for dessert so we headed next door to Presti’s bakery. Who could turn down cannoli from a hectic deli-like bakery that has been in business since 1903?

We have a full day for tomorrow so we headed back to the hotel. Due to all of the various happenings, we somehow ended up on the 5th floor with key card access to the “club room” which made it a comfortable spot to hang out on some couches and watch various re-runs of Pawn Stars and whatever else the History channel airs these days!

Bright and early the next morning we headed out to the Rock and Roll hall of fame museum. We have all been there at least once, but it’s been awhile! So we wanted to go back, check out what might be new. While most of it stayed the same they did have some more current stuff, took out some other exhibits on the upper floors and had some more focus on the inductions that joined each year. You could also vote for who you’d like to see inducted next.

It’s lunchtime and we wanted to walk around and check out the west side market. It’s old, it’s full of fresh food, local vendors, and some interesting decor.

Did you know that Cleveland is also home to THE house. That’s right. THE house that was used to film the 1983 classic “A Christmas Story”. Today, you can take a tour of the house (which is super interactive and staged to look just like it did in the movie), a museum, and a sweet gift shop that makes you want to run home and watch 24 hours of the movie. The house is in an area that is actually pretty run down today, so they ask that you round up your purchase to help donate towards revitalization efforts to bring the Bumpus’ and other neighbors houses back to life!

I dare you to look at this pictures and NOT quote the movie. If you somehow have managed to make it this far in life and haven’t seen it yet, well I guess you can stop what your doing right now. Stream it on Amazon Prime. And then come back here in 2 hours to finish reading.

the tour of the house didn’t last too long but you really had free reign. About 90% of the movie was filmed right there, but the props were all reproductions. It was super cheesy, and literally a childhood dream come true! Growing up watching that movie each Christmas (and even earlier than that. If it was snowing, we were watching that movie!) made this house pretty cool!

Across the street they take you into a museum with a ton of actual props, outfits, and materials from the original movie.

Next time any of us watch the movie we will be seeing it a whole new way. Hurry up with that 24 hour marathon TBS!

We had a few hours to kill before our next adventure so we headed back to the hotel, again somehow I managed to not take any pictures there. The evening plan was to take a 2 hour ride on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad! It goes through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and this evening it was a special event called “Grape Escape”. Ticket included a 5 course light appetizer sampler and 5 different wines from around the world. All served and enjoyed with riding from one end of the railroad (Independence) to the other (Akron).

Everyone that was working this event was super friendly, and really tried to go out of their way to make it a nice time for everyone. Edward was our… cabin director? I think that was the title he gave himself. Anyway here is a picture of the back of his head as he made his way to each seating section to introduce himself and offer to take a picture. Turns out it’s a good thing to know the other 3 people you are sitting with because otherwise you’ll be touching knees with a stranger for 2 hours! Also everyone that was serving drinks and food were all volunteers! You really wouldn’t of been able to tell since they seemed to be having just as much fun as the passengers!

As we reached Akron we were getting ready to head back. While we were stopped for a little bit, old Edward came on the loud speaker and sang happy birthday to anyone that volunteered that information! He also celebrated anniversaries, divorces, good test results, retirements, you name it. I really think he just wanted an excuse to require us all to sing!

They served the last few wines and dessert as we made our way back. The ride was awesome, great scenery through the National Park, really fun, and overall a great experience! They do similar ones but different themes through the year, worth checking out again!

While the weekend was short and sweet we packed in quite a few adventures before we leave our guest stars and head to Virginia the next day!! Drew Carey proclaimed “Cleveland Rocks” and while their football team set new records (record lows that it), it really is a pretty cool place! I’m sure we’ll be back!