Cleveland Rocks! Part 2

Need to catch up?  Here's Part 1.

When last we blogged (this is a group effort, truly), Chris and I, along with Mom, Jim, Leigh, Uncle Jim, and Aunt Kim, were back at the VRBO we'd rented in Cleveland, sleeping off cheese soup and good brews from Great Lakes, after getting our rental car towed (oops!).  Per my normal, I woke up horribly early the next morning, a Friday, but when I emerged from our room, both UJ and Leigh were already awake.  We visited for a short while, and after a bit, I woke up Chris so we could head for a run around the city.

Our VRBO was just a mile from downtown proper (in an area you'd call an "up and coming warehouse district" - I'm sure within six months, there will be at least 15 breweries there), and we set out at a brisk pace for the commercial center of the area.  It was chilly outside - in the mid-50s - but once we got going, the cool temperatures felt great, and we enjoyed sightseeing our way through the city.

We found a West Marine for Dad,

just a few blocks away from our VRBO!

The Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist - 

a really pretty church.

One of the downtown street corners.

As we headed southeast on 9th Street, we also passed right next to Progressive Field, where the Indians play, although by this time, they'd been eliminated from World Series contention; the banners outside the park still reflected the recent events, however.

Looking back toward downtown.

You can see the spire of Jack's Casino here;

keep this in mind, as it'll be important

in the final blog in this series.

Our next turn was a right on Carnegie Avenue, which led us across the Cuyahoga River via the Hope Memorial Bridge (named after Bob Hope's father, a local to the area), formerly known as the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge.  This bridge is super cool; it was completed in the 1930s, and it features the "Guardians of Transportation" - four double-sided, gigantic Art Deco-style pillars carved from sandstone focusing on different modes of transportation.  Up close, they are HUGE, and they are super impressive.

In this one, you can kind of see the cars

on the left of the shot for scale.

Click on the pictures above to make them bigger.

The detail is really incredible.

Standing on the bridge also gave us fantastic views of downtown over the river, and we grabbed some shots:

In the pano on the bottom here,

you can see Quicken Loans arena near the right of the shot.

That's where the Cavaliers play.

And - in the top shot, you can see the famous

"LeBron wingspan" mural on the side of the building

just to the left of the train tracks.

After spending a few more moments admiring the quiet beauty all around us, we headed back to the VRBO, logging right around 3.5 miles round-trip.  As we headed back, though, we had to stop and grab a shot of this:

This.is.horrifying.

Once back at the VRBO, we found everyone awake, and we started the shower/breakfast rotation, cleaning up and making breakfast burritos.

AK dices onions while I brown sausage

Chris tries to decipher the frozen hash brown bag

The Jim's, chilling out

After breakfast, Jim graciously drove us to the eastern side of the city to retrieve our rental car, having spent a chilly and I'm sure, frightening, night in the tow yard (the car, not Jim, at least as far as I know).

Sibling selfie!

Can we bill Hertz for this?

Yeah, no.

Since our first real destination for the day was also on the eastern side of town, Chris and I headed there and waited for Jim to go back to the VRBO and pick up the rest of the crew, meeting us at:

AWWWWW YISSSSSSS!

That's right, Little Orphan Annie mega-fans, the house where the seminal holiday movie, A Christmas Story, was filmed resides in Cleveland, and after being purchased by one of our number (another mega-fan, not someone with us.  That would be cool, though) several years ago and renovated appropriately, it's now completely open for tours.  The standard price for adults is $11, and while that seemed steep at first, it's a total freaking bargain; you have a tour guide who tells you all sorts of facts about the movie and the filming, you get the full run of the house, which has been recreated down to the tiniest detail from the movie, and it includes admission to the museum across the street, which has stills, props, and other associated bits and bops from the movie.  It's seriously outstanding.

While we waited for the rest of the crew, Chris and I wandered around the gift shop, which had almost everything you could ever want.  For reals.

"Listen little boy - GET GOING!"

I bought a magnet and a pair of sweater

leggings bearing the famed leg lamp.

Look for those in upcoming Ragnar blogs.

Chris on the director's (Bob Clark's) cameo bench - 

when the neighbor comes to stand next to the Old Man

and admire the leg lamp,

that's Bob Clark himself making a cameo.

Eventually, the rest of our party arrived, and we paid our admission and geared up for our tour.  Into the house we went!

Here we go!

Remember when I said this place was decked out?  It totally is.  Everything in the house is a replica, so you can touch all you want, sit on stuff, duck into cubbies, pose for pictures, etc.  As you can see, our group took full advantage of this:

"...the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window."

"You'll shoot your eye out!"

"A crummy commercial?  Son of a bitch."

"Show mommy how the piggies eat."

We couldn't remember the exact right script

offhand, but this is close enough.

"Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie!"

As you can imagine, there was a lot of,

"ooh, take a picture of me discovering the rifle!"

"Ooh, take a picture of me climbing

under the cabinet!"

Etc.  It was outstanding.

Mom's talking to Mrs. Schwartz here.

"WHAT!  WHAT!  WHAAAAAAT!"

The Major Award

"Don't anybody move! Hold it right there!  The fuse is out."

We even went into the backyard,

where AK found herself a buckeye!

A family shot in front of the tree.

After the house, it was on to the museum!

Part of the movie's script - 

from the director's cameo scene

Melinda Dillon's wardrobe.

Fun fact - the director of the movie, Bob Clark,

loved Melinda Dillon's work in Close Encounters

as a young mother, and wanted her to play the same

type of role in A Christmas Story.

She didn't actually have written lines

for most of the movie, so her performances

are almost 100% improv.

Outstanding, non?

After the museum, we wandered around for just a bit longer, and then it was on to lunch!  In our next installment, we head to lunch at a Cleveland James Beard Award winning landmark and wander the West Side Market area.

Later!

Amy