University of Michigan

We had 1.5 days to get Brooke completely settled into her new apartment in Ann Arbor before Jim and I needed to catch our flight back to Fresno. It was a busy time of unpacking, running to Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and Target, and assembling furniture. We also managed to squeeze in a tour of the athletic facilities Brooke is going to get to enjoy during her upcoming year on the U of M track team.

Getting Brooke's room all set.

Already making herself at home in the new apartment.

The lobby of the South Performance Center

The weight room

The nutrition center where athletes can grab snacks for free whenever they want.

The indoor track facility

The pole vault pits

Where team meetings are held.

The women's track team's locker room

Brooke standing in front of her locker.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park & The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Due to our quest to visit all 63 US National Parks, we of course had to stop at Cuyahoga Valley National Park while visiting Ohio. Our first stop of the day was Beaver Marsh. To get to the marsh from the parking lot, you follow along the old Erie Canal towpath (where the mules were tied to the barges and pulled them through the canal) to a boardwalk area over the marsh. Interestingly, this marsh was once a junkyard littered with abandoned cars and rusted farm equipment, but through conservation efforts, the area was cleaned up. The local beaver population did the rest of the work by building dams that led to the creation of a marshland. Today it’s a beautiful spot teeming with wildlife. We saw turtles, a black snake, a great blue heron - but no beavers. While at the marsh, a park ranger recommended that we stop at Szalay’s Farm Market a few miles up the road for some grilled corn. We took her advice and were glad we did - it was delicious!

Beaver Marsh

Everett Covered Bridge

Jim enjoying his grilled corn

After our snack, it was time to hike The Ledges Trail. This is a very unique 2.6 mile loop trail through massive walls of moss-covered sandstone. Jim and I agreed that it looked like a perfect setting for a Hunger Games movie.

On our way out of the park, we took the short walk down to the overlook next to Brandywine Falls and then made a quick stop at the Erie Canal Exploration Center where Jim was excited to see one of the old locks from the Erie Canal.

Brandywine Falls

Jim inspecting the lock

We had about 1.5 hours until the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland closed for the day, so we made a beeline for the museum after leaving Cuyahoga Valley NP. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum is huge - it’s over 55,000 square feet and seven levels of exhibits, so in our 1 hour there, we barely scratched the surface. We did enjoy seeing tons of rock and roll memorabilia and watching quite a few of the short video clips contained within some exhibits that highlighted the careers of many famous singers.

One of Cher's dresses

The Cleveland skyline from the front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

With the museum closing, it was time to hit the road for the 2.5 hour drive to Detroit to pick Brooke up from the airport. Tomorrow we will begin moving her into her apartment in Ann Arbor.

Cleveland, Ohio

After yesterday’s long day of driving from Estes Park, Colorado to South Bend, Indiana, today’s drive into Cleveland seemed relatively short. The first thing on our “must do” list was a visit to The Christmas Story House. Watching The Christmas Story movie has been a holiday tradition in our house since our kids were little and Jim has always been a huge fan, so he was really excited about this stop.

The Christmas Story house

The rooms look just like they do in the movie

The cupboard where Randy hides

Jim with the leg lamp

It was such fun to tour the house where many of the movie scenes were filmed and then go through the museum across the street containing lots of movie memorabilia.

Our next stop of the day took us to Burton, a rural community east of Cleveland, to visit my college sorority sister/roommate, Brenda. We had a wonderful visit with Brenda, her husband, and her 2 teenage sons at their house, before driving over to tour their dairy farm - Hastings Dairy. The tour also included The Rowdy Cow Creamery which is Brenda’s latest endeavor in which she creates delicious cheeses and flavored milks. It was so fun to catch up with Brenda and have a little peek into her life in Ohio. 

Brenda explaining the cheese making process

Brenda gave us a couple of her cheeses to try. They were delicious!

The sunset view from Hastings Dairy

After dinner with Brenda, we drove back into Cleveland so that we would be closer to tomorrow’s adventure - Cuyahoga Valley National Park.