The Pop Shop Gallery (www.popshopgallery.com) in Lakewood is having an opening reception from 6-9 on Saturday, Sept. 4 for its upcoming group show, “Let’s Go”. This will be my first time exhibiting (with seven pieces) at this really cool, hip gallery and I’m excited! Dress for the reception is casual, expect a crowd and the party continues two doors down at Mullen’s. Hope to see you there!
I love when I see a jigsaw puzzle in progress when I go to someone’s house who has children. I think it’s such a great way to spend “quality time” together. Even if you don’t talk, you’re still working together toward a common goal and you can share a sense of satisfaction when you’re done. My oldest daughter and I just finished the 300-piece puzzle today that she and my husband had started on Sunday (note who started the puzzle and who finished it). 300 (big) piece puzzles are my limit, though. There’s a line between fun (100-300 big pieces) and torture (1000+ teeny tiny pieces).
When we began making frequent trips on the turnpike from Akron to Vermilion a couple weeks ago, we started spotting out-of-state license plates and writing them down, which I haven’t done since I was a kid! Granted, some times you have to speed up or slow down to get a better look at a plate, while trying not to crash, but that’s besides the point. The point is, in 22 days we have spotted close to 40 states (I don’t have the list in front of me). We saw Alaska today, getting off at the Pleasant Valley exit in Independence, and Utah a little further south on 77. Washington state was in the parking lot of the Akron Zoo last week. Vermont was recently exiting Portage Trail in Cuyahoga Falls. My husband says Hawaii is a long shot, but you never know …
Is this a pasttime reserved exclusively for old(er) people? When my mom was well, about my age, and a divorcee in the mid-1980s, she and her friends would hang out at the Watermark in Cleveland’s Flats, spending a Saturday or Sunday afternoon enjoying a couple drinks and watching the boats go up and down the Cuyahoga River. To me that seemed a really boring way to spend the day. Well, yesterday I was in Vermilion and saw a bunch of old(er) people camped out on benches, watching boats go up and down the Vermilion River. The scary thing was it looked like something I really wanted to do too. How relaxing that would be, I thought to myself. Does this mean what I think it means??
I’ve been having to travel to Vermilion a lot lately (family matter). To make the 1+ hour (one way) trip easier on the kids, the other day I took them to the Main Street Beach. It’s a small beach, but not crowded (no lifeguard, low waves and lots of algae in the water, or as all kids like to call it, “seaweed”). I took them back to the beach yesterday, but one day I’d like to really explore this “harbour town”. There’s a hoppin’ Quaker Steak and Lube right on the river, a boat (“Memphis Belle”) for river tours, lots of benches to watch the passing boats, cute shops and a maritime museum. There’s also a park called Mill Hollow-Bacon Woods Memorial Park that I’d like to check out. So many places I want to explore, so little time …
Another place to add to my growing list of places to go back and spend more time: Youngstown’s 4,400-acre Mill Creek Park. My husband and I, driving back from Pittsburgh last Saturday, stopped here for a very short time, though enough time for some inline skating and pedal boating. There are three lakes, boat rentals, fishing, 14 hiking trails, waterfalls, a formal garden, playgrounds with spray pools, a golf course, a working farm – it goes on and on. What a magnificent state we live in!
I saw the trailer for this movie a long time ago and thought, “Uh, no.” Then I kept hearing what a great movie it was. Well, the other day it was rainy and the movie was at the $1.50 movie in Canton, so the five of us went to see it (the 2D version). Guess what? You can’t always judge a movie by its trailer. How to Train Your Dragon was a great movie (98% approval on the Rotten Tomatometer). Although it was too suspenseful for me (not the kids), I loved the underlying message. The animation was pretty astounding, too. It’s so refreshing to see a movie that’s well done and entertaining for both adults and children.
East of Cleveland you have two options for “the beach” — Mentor Headlands and its next -door neighbor Fairport Harbor. Fairport Harbor is great for families with young kids. The waves are little, the water’s shallow, rocks are minimals, there are two playgrounds and you can park right next to the beach ($3 for out-of-county residents, $2 for Lake County residents). Mentor Headlands, as I recall though I haven’t been there in about 10 years, has bigger waves and is a bigger, longer beach, but you have to walk forever to get from the parking lot to the water, and you have to walk over a bunch of big rocks when you first enter the water before you get to a sandy bottom. In both cases, the water is clean and there are lifeguards and snack spots. Since we don’t live close to a coast, this way the kids can at least have a small taste of a beach, waves, and water you can’t see the end of. Best of all, there is no worries of jellyfish, sharks and hurricanes. Though if those awful Asian carp start showing up — eeek!!!
Canal Fulton is a bit off the beaten path, but a fun place to spend the day. Why?
1. The Towpath — nice, flat and mostly shady — perfect for biking. The canal’s on one side of you and the Tuscarawas River on the other.
2. The St. Helena Canal Boat, pulled by horses, which goes out everyday but Monday in the summer at 1 and 2:30 Two years ago our family went ($7 adults/$5 kids) and it was pretty interesting.
3. The Cherry Street Creamery (ice cream) and all kind of little shops, restaurants and such.
4. Canoeing and kayaking, through Canal Fulton Canoe Livery. They have pedal and paddle packages, bike rentals, etc.
Canal Fulton is definitely a place that has worked hard to develop its own identity, and done so successfully. Worth a visit if you haven’t been there.
Today the kids and I had our first chance to visit Preston’s H.O.P.E., a mega-playground in Beachwood. It was built to be totally accessible to children with disabilities of all kinds; almost $3 million was raised over 7 years to make it a reality. We were only there an hour and I didn’t get the chance to really give it a thorough once-over, but it does appear to be a wonderland for kids. My only real concern was that it is so big you can’t keep an eye on your kids unless you’re right on their heels, which is impossible with three kids running in different directions. Another problem was that it was scorching hot and no benches in the sun. And currently there is construction on South Woodland so it was a pain to get to. But on the plus side — and this was a big plus — there’s a Mitchell Brothers ice cream about 5 minutes away. http://www.prestonshope.com/