Travel Day Good News and Bad News

 

Robbie

Martin

Pickle ball at 7 am again.  We were a little late this morning.  George and Robbie had gotten started.  Once we got there Robbie and I challenged George and Nathan.  Martin came a little later.  He and George against Robbie and Nathan seemed to be the best arrangement.  I relaxed and watched.

Check out time was 10 am so we had to head back and get organized.  Every one was out of their cabins and we checked out at 10:02 am!! Not bad for 4 cabins and 12 people and a dog.  Everyone headed to their various homes except for us, we hung out at the lodge for about an hour before heading out.  We were meeting Ben, Erin, Sean, Robbie, and Davy at the Creekside Restaurant in Brecksville (a suburb of Cleveland) at 12:30 pm.  Google said 50 minutes so we allowed an hour.  

We barely made it because it started pouring, a real downpour. It stopped by the time that we got to the restaurant.

Erin, Davy, Ben, Sean, Robbie,Nathan, and George

I had a delicious egg sandwich

There is the creek

George, me, Sean, Ben, Robbie, Davy, Erin, and Nathan.

We had a few hours to kill so we decided to take a Goodtime harbor tour.  We were not sure what the weather would be but we decided that it would be good rain or shine. The tour was 3- 5 pm.

In the women's restroom they had the fixtures that soap was under the left side, water in the middle and blowing air on the right.  All touchless.

Great weather 

Refreshing sangria

Lighthouse.

Apparently, there are currently 6 of these in the city.  This is the Foundry Sign in the Flats.  We did not realize that it was iconic when we took our picture at the airport at one of the signs.  The idea came about in 2016.

We went up the Cuyahoga Rivere.  It has 20 bridges, all of them are supposed to be free to boats which need them to raise or open. 

There was a lot of information about the buildings, history, and restaurants.  Then we went out into Lake Erie and there it was mostly pretty.  

When we turned we had a good view of the skyline of Cleveland 

Cleveland Burke Lakefront airport.  It is a small airport that can have fairly large planes. Primarily serving corporate, private, and charter aviation, it is highly valued by business travelers and sports teams for its quick, traffic-free access to the city center. 

Once we got off the boat, we headed over to the North Coast Harbor Cleveland Sign with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the background. It looked like a storm was brewing.  

We got back to the car and headed to the airport.  We dropped off the car and got to the airport about 6 pm.  We found a place to sit before going through security to eat some of the pizza we had saved.  You know how hard it is for me to throw out food.  We also had the bag of the boxed wine we had been using.  It wasn't quite gone yet.  So that was our dinner.  We threw out the bag of wine and what we couldn't finish with the pizza.  We went through security.  I was reminded again that I do not like the Cleveland airport!! It is very disorganized.  I remember complaining about this last year.  We got down to our gate.  

So, all of that was the good news.  Now the bad.  Our flight out of Cleveland was delayed due to weather somewhere.  It was delayed enough that we would not be able to make the connection in Chicago.  Back to the drawing board.  We went to the ticket people right away. They booked us out of Cleveland at 5 am tomorrow.  Flying through Denver and arriving in Portland at 9:30 am.  Next step was finding an airport hotel with a shuttle. We booked 2 rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn Airport.  Whew.  Then arranged our shuttle to the hotel.  All while dragging our luggage and trying to avoid the traffic.  Luckily, we all had carry-on so we did still have our luggage.

There were a few things that we had to cancel or change on our Monday schedules but hopefully it will all work out.  I will pack a little differently so that going through security will be a little smoother tomorrow.  No TSA pre-check available at the Cleveland airport.  This all affects Nathan the most because he was scheduled to work tomorrow.  Actually, it is all good news.  We were able to rebook and we could find a hotel and we could change a few things we needed to change for tomorrow.  So all in all it was a good day.  But tomorrow morning will be coming too soon.

Happy July 4th

 We have a mouse, a cute little thing. It was very fast. There must be a skunk that lives  close.  We smell it every once in a while.  I haven't seen it.  I also haven't seen any deer.  

Morning pickleball. 

George with Apollo

Nathan making guacamole for our July 4th lunch. Rob arrived around 11 am.  Several people who had planned to come could not make it.  Ed went to go pick up his sister, Margaret,  from a close assisted living place. 

We had quite a feast.  I cooked the corn.  Dorothy did the hamburgers, turkey burgers, and veggie burgers.  We also had potato salad, regular salad and a variety of chips. I ate too much.

Dorothy, George, and Rob.

 Margaret

At 3pm we headed over to the nature center for rock painting and tie dying. I would have tie dyed a shirt but they had a big Punderson State Park design, which I did not want.  

George S, and me 

Nathan painted a rock.

George, Dorothy, Rob 

Margaret, and Ed.

Ed had to take Margaret back her place and Rob headed back to Columbus.

Turkey buzzard posed for me.

Our usual boardwalk stroll

Apollo on the beach watching another dog.

Setting up leftovers for dinner.  We had to try to clear some things out, since we are leaving tomorrow.  It is hard to believe.  The time has gone by so quickly.

Another nice evening stroll

Cousins: Martin, Nathan, Robbie, and George S.

Sunset

We went back to play another card game.

We could see the fireworks through the trees.  That was fun.  I guess Apollo did not like the fireworks, but the fireflies seem to like them. They were going crazy.