We were off to Cleveland.  Ma had a conference to attend, and I had some cousins to visit.  I’ll talk about the cousin fun in the next post.  This one is all about our time in Northeast Ohio.

We landed, got our car, and headed The Greenhouse Tavern.  The weather was perfect, so we sat out on the patio.  Ma and Pa enjoyed some cocktails and I got to try some watermelon gazpacho.  I kept trying it, and some more, and some more.  Next thing I know Pa is yelling at me because I ate all of his soup!!!  What can I say? It was yummy.

After the plane ride and lunch, I needed to run so we set out to explore.  We found the library where there was a great area for people to read outside.  They also had some fun objects to climb on.  My favorite was the giant monopoly characters.  I had some fun with statues.  After horsing around for a while, we hopped back in the car and headed out to Aurora to go meet up with the cousins.

The next morning it was time to explore some of the small towns around Northeast Ohio.  We started with breakfast in Chagrin Falls.  We went for a walk around town.  It was a quaint place with a cool waterfall right in the middle.  We sat by the river for a while watching the ducks.  Ma stood close by with the phone ready in case there was a moment of “When animals attack.”  She thinks she is so funny!

That afternoon we were off to our yearly traditional Ohio event: apple picking.  We headed to Patterson Fruit Farm.  I hopped in a wagon and off we went to the apple orchard to pick my very own apples.  I had not been this excited since, well, when we got on the plane to come here.  The trees were just the right height.  Pa was able to hold me up so I could fill up my bucket.  Of course, I had to taste the apples to make sure they were at the correct stage of ripeness.  I ain’t pickin’ no bad apples.  We got as many as I could carry, loaded up the wagon and headed back into the market to get some more supplies.

After apple picking, we headed over to the pumpkin patch where they had hundreds of pumpkins for you to choose.  I roamed around for a while looking for the perfect pumpkin.  I was unsuccessful, plus, Ma had promised a real pumpkin patch where I could pick one off the vine.  So, I gave up on the pumpkins and headed to the playground where there was a tractor for me to play on.  It was the perfect way to end the day.

The next day Ma had to go to work.  We had breakfast with her, dropped her off, and then Pa and I were off on an adventure.  We headed to the F.A Seiberling Nature Realm, man that is a mouthful.  Let’s try this again. We headed to a neat park where I could run free.

Pa and I walked around this place for hours.  He was checking out the flowers, trees, and plants.  I was watching the birds and chasing the squirrels.  There were a couple ponds where the water was so still it looked like a mirror.

This was the best time a year to visit Northeast Ohio.  The weather was perfect to spend time outside.  Apple season is always great.  It was a ton of fun.  Now on to spend time with my cousins.