Cleveland (Home of the Fam ) and Chicago (Home of the Cubs and Clubs)

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Now I’m sure many of you are saying to yourselves right now “Wow, Matt and Kati sure have been having a great trip going through cities like Miami, New Orleans, New York City. I wonder why they want to spoil the whole thing by going to Cleveland?” A very fair question and I have a perfectly legitimate answer. I haven’t seen my mother’s side of the family in over 10 years. The last time I saw my uncles and cousins I was probably 10 and now the only things we know about each other is through facebook and I haven’t seen my grandparents since I graduated High School. I also really wanted this side of the family to meet Kati since my grandparents had only met her through the video phone and once again my cousins only knew her through facebook. We arrived into Cleveland where we were going to stay with my grandparents who have lived in the same apartment for like 15 years. It was great to go back and see them at their home. The apartment looked and smelled exactly the same as I had remembered it. Now one quick fact about my grandparents is that they have been deaf for most of their lives. My grandpa was 7 when he fell down a flight of stairs and hit the back of his head. My grandma as a young girl had scarlet fever, which caused her to lose her hearing. And for a second quick fact, they met at a bowling alley. Who said you couldn’t find true love in the alley? We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and they were there to greet Kati and I with smiles and hugs. This was Kati’s first time meeting them and they both loved her. How could you not right? (Nice this is going to totally score me points when Kati reads this.) They set us up in their guest room and we sat down for a bit, talked and looked at some old pictures from the last time I had visited Cleveland. I was maybe the cutest child ever. Why was I not in a commercial or something? A few hours after we had arrived my cousins Tim and Julia met with us at our grandparents and we all headed over to Pizza Hut for a family reunion. Here we met with my uncles Bob and Bill, and my cousins Adam, Tim, Julia, Stephanie, and Erica. We had a great time catching up with what’s been going on in our lives and I forgot how much I liked Pizza Hut. The breadsticks are amazing. We were there for two or so hours and it was such a fun time catching up with my family. We all split up for the night, but the funny thing was we would see all of the same people the next day only in smaller groups. We came back home with my grandparents and called it a night.
Now, across from my grandparents apartment is an indoor pool and workout facility provided by the apartment complex. We hadn’t worked out in a couple days and Kati was really itching to get on the treadmill and for a dip in the pool. We put on our workout clothes and headed over to the gym. Now I remembered the workout area being just like one you would see at a hotel. A few treadmills, a stair stepper, elliptical and weight machines. Well, they for sure had not replaced any of the equipment since I had been there last. All but 1 treadmill were broken, the machines were rusted through, the weight machines hadn’t been oiled since they were shipped out 20 years ago. So needless to say, Kati got a pretty ok workout, but I was in no mood to get my lift on. (I’m trying to make excuses for not working out when really I am just lazy as hell.) We finished up, and really didn’t swim at all. I was looking forward to going out and visiting with my fam again for the day. We washed up back at my grandparents where they were there watching the price is right and the news on two separate TV’s one on top of the other. We headed out, ate some delicious Chipotle which I hadn’t had yet on the trip and drove about 15 minutes to my Uncle Bob’s apartment. There we hung out and got to see his bachelor set up. He showed us the widescreen TV, his new motorcycle, his massive computer, and picutres hanging on the wall from way back in the day. His son Adam who is my age came over and we all hung out and caught up with everything that we had been doing. We stayed for a few hours and left with a parting 12 pack of coca cola from Adam. It had been great to see my Uncle Bob and my cousin Adam again, but I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see my Uncle Bob’s two daughters and his new granddaughter. Hopefully when they all come out to visit us in Colorado (hint). We drove back to my grandparents to meet up with my Uncle Bill, his two daughters, and my Aunt Chris who wasn’t able to meet with us the night before. We talked for a bit, and unfortunately weren’t able to talk for long as Kati and I were headed out to meet with my cousins Tim and Julia, my Aunt Byong, and her new husband Jack who had a beautiful piece of property about 30 minutes outside of Cleveland. Tim is a year younger than I am and is about to graduate from Case Reserve University (nerd ☺) and my cousin Julia is my sister Amy’s age and is going to a community college close to home. Kati and I had an amazing time here. Byong and Julia both work in a Japanese restaurant, so they made us homemade sushi and Korean beef. It was sooooooooo delicious. It was really nice to have a homemade meal. Jack showed us around the property and made a few manhattans to enjoy during dinner. We had great conversation during our meal and it was awesome to be able to share our stories from the trip. We then enjoyed what was described to me as a Japanese delicacy desert known as “Jello.” Tim got me on that one. It was a good joke. Hilarious. We finished up and it was getting late, time to head back for the night. Before we left they sent us with a parting gift for our trip, a $25 gift card for gas. It had been such an amazing night and it couldn’t have ended any better. I was so glad to have Kati meet my family and have all of them get to know her…in person and not on facebook. The next day we packed up, watched some Price is Right, talked with my grandparents a bit more and said our goodbyes. It was very sad as my grandma is having troubles getting around and had some pretty terrible arthritis. They sent us off with a parting gift of $25 (I’m going to come here more often I just realized) and we were off after a few hugs and tears. The trip to Cleveland couldn’t have been better and we were excited to get moving to Chicago. The windy city!
One of the things that really sucks about driving back east is all of the tolls that we have had to pay. We have easily spent $120 on tolls. Anyways, we arrived in Chicago Thursday night and stayed with a girl (Abi) that my mom had met in the airport a few weeks earlier (long story.) She set us up in her bedroom and let us know to come and go as we wanted. Abi was off to a fashion show that night with her friend, so Kati and I got dressed and headed to the train to check out a part of the city. I knew that Chicago was a big city, but I didn’t know that it was this big. It is absolutely huge. The weird thing about these cities is that you could spend a few days in all of these different parts and not even begin to see everything. It’s not like Denver where you can spend a day or two and get a good idea of what it’s all about. That night we went to find a place to eat and check out some of the local boutiques. We walked around and the clothes in the boutiques were really unique and fun, but also extremely expensive. I still have issues trying to justify $150 t-shirts. We finally found a place to eat after looking around for an hour or so. It was a trendy spot that was busy and seemed like a fun place to go. So we bought a bottle of wine, a baked bread and goat cheese appetizer and some amazing entrees. We stayed here for a couple of hours and really enjoyed ourselves. We finished the evening off with a new high tech ice cream place called “I Cream” that made the ice cream right there on the spot in front of you. It was ok. I’ll stick to the classic style for a while. We called it a night, it had been a long driving day and we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow!
We woke up the next morning early, around 9 and got ready. I guess I havn’t told you yet what we were doing today. We bought bleacher seat tickets to the cubs game at 1:30 and needed to get there early. I’m sure many of you are unsure about how this works, I was too so I’ll quickly explain it. The outfield stands (the bleachers) are one of the best seats in baseball. The bleachers are like a college party. Everyone gets drunk and yells profanities the whole time. It’s a hoot. However, in order to get good seats you need to be there right as the gates open. So we arrived 2 hours early to get seats in left field where most of the home runs are hit. We arrived right 2 hours before and stood in line to get in and ended up in the 2nd row of left center field. These were tremendous seats. The people next to us were a old couple that were life long cubs people, like weird cubs people. (I’ll attach video of the end of the game when everyone sings the cubs winning song.) Then a bunch of drunkards all around. We ate and drank and chit chatted a little with the locals before the game started. The couple next to us throughout the game told us a bunch of little facts about Wrigley Field and the traditions that came along with the field. Like the seat that no one sits in because the last 5 people to have sat there died shortly after. So that seat was off limits. And then for all of you sports buffs, if you remember the guy who reached over the wall to catch a foul ball a few years ago and the Cubs went on to lose, Steve Bartman was his name, that seat is vacant as well. It was a great game and Cubs hit a home run in the 8th inning to take the lead and win the game. Afterwards the whole crowd stayed at least 10 minutes afterwards and sang the Go Cubs Go song (again I’ll have video attached.) We had a tremendous time at the game and it was a great way to spend the day in the beautiful Chicago sun. We took the bus back to Abi’s and had a short nap. We woke up a few hours later, showered and got dressed for a night on the town. Chicago is known for the nightlife and the house music here. So we were really stoked to go to a fun club and get our dance on. We took the train downtown to a place known for their burgers (I think it was called the Hop Haus or something like that.) They were unbelievably delicious. We have tried a few burger places in different cities throughout the trip and these ones were probably the best we had. After a few beers and our tummies happy we headed towards a popular nightlife area that reminded us a lot of LoDo in Denver. There were a lot of bars and some really cool looking clubs. We hung out for a bit at the Excalibur (there were kind of a lot of older people there) and then moved on to the club of the evening “Crobar.” This is a well known club franchise throughout the country and they are known for their great parties and awesome music. The problem with going to these clubs in big cities is the prices to get in and then the price of drinks once you’re there. It’s a pretty expensive night. It was way worth it though as the music was loud, the lights were blinding, and drinks were nice and cold. We had a great time dancing and were easily the best looking people there (we are the best looking people everywhere we go…ok now I’m sounding conceited.) ((but just a side note…we have noticed and decided that Denver has the best looking people in the country. Everyone is fit, active, and happy. They want to be there.)) By the time we left and got back to the train it was 3AM. Now, I’m sure you all know, but weird things happen when it’s that late and on a weekend night. We saw a guy drunk in the train trying to give everyone high fives. We saw another guy in the station yelling at the guy playing the bongo and telling him “you suck! A five year old plays better than you!” Then proceeding to hit the pay phone against the wall as hard as he could. That was hilarious and freaky. After a long trip on the train we finally got home and were ready to get some sleep. Unfortunately we were not able to see our host Abi the whole trip as our schedules just did not coincide. We were extremely grateful for here graciousness to let us stay at her place. It would have been impossible to do all this if we had to stay in our car. There would be nowhere to park! We went to bed early that morning and were off to Kentucky the next day. We wish we could have stayed longer, but once again needed to keep moving. We’re headed back south and are really looking forward to seeing Kentucky. We are in the last stretch of the trip and starting to realize that our time is running short. Still lots to see and until next time “see ya’ll down souf!”

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Photos

The Fam and I
Pizza Hut Party!

Homemade Sushi Dinner
Tim, Julia, Byung, Jack, Kati and myself. We had a tremendous dinner.

My Grandparents
As you can see we dressed for the occasion

More Fam!
My Uncle Bill, Aunt Chris, and cousins Steph and Erica

Bleacher Seats
Where the people party like college kids.... this was for us!

Cubs Win, Cubs Win!
It was a great game to watch and a beautiful day!

Our Seats
We were in the 2nd row, and I was getting my tan on.

Gettin' Our Dance On
We were the best looking in the club... but when aren't we I guess? :)