If you enjoy beer (and good food) the Tremont Tap House is quite good. The house from thjt movie "A Christmas Story" is there somewhere, now a museum.

I'll make a note of the Tremont Tap House, thanks, SeaF.

It's turning out to be a great weekend -- baseball on Friday night (fingers crossed for good weather), R&R Hall of Fame on Saturday, Lola on Saturday night, and on Sunday afternoon we're going to a swing dance (yes, we do) in the Atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art!

Good weekend!

((y))

Lola has the best fries!

If you get a chance try the Mexican restaurant we enjoyed - Momocho

Have fun!

I've got it underlined in my notes, Elizabeth -- it's a definite possibility!

Well, I'm back and, in large part thanks to you guys, here's how the weekend stacked up.

We drove from Toronto to Cleveland on Friday, in beautiful weather and with the top down all the way. We used the Whirlpool Nexus-only bridge for the first time and got across in two minutes instead of the 30 to 60 minute wait at the Rainbow Bridge (same coming home). We checked into the Marriott Downtown Key Centre and were given a lovely room on the 23rd floor, facing the lake (and the football stadium and the RnR Hall of Fame). There were lots of weddings at the hotel on the weekend so we had some fun having a drink in the bar and watching the fashion parade of bridesmaids' dresses.

OK, here's what we did:
Friday -- we walked down to 4th Street for dinner, checked out a few places and ended up at the place on the corner called, I think, the 4th Street Bar and Grill. It was just a quick bite before the ballgame but the food was decent. It was a good think we walked down there though, because that's where we found Lola! Anyway, after dinner we saw a great ballgame. It was the first time I'd seen a call reversed and it changed the outcome of the game. It was a beautiful summer night, the crowd was lively (mostly because everyone was celebrating LeBron's return to Cleveland) and we stayed for the fireworks after the game. Had the best soft ice cream ever!

Saturday -- we took the free trolley down to the RnR Hall of Fame, though we could easily have walked (we did walk back). The exhibits were great and we spent hours walking around, we saw a fabulous concert (on DVD), had lunch in the cafe, did a little shopping in the gift shop and then went back to the hotel for a bit of a break. That's when we had a drink in the bar and the fashion show.

That night we had a lovely dinner at Lola. The food was excellent and if I had one teeny complaint it would be that it was uncomfortably warm in there. But otherwise, everything was perfect. I was very interested in the party we were sitting next to -- one man and five women all, I would guess in their late twenties. They were all very casually dressed (shorts, tank tops) so I could see that he was very heavily tattooed, several piercings, shaved head. He didn't look like someone you'd want to meet in a dark alley. The girls had a couple of piercings but looked more 'average'. Here's the thing -- when their food was served, they didn't touch it till they held hands and said (either silently or very quietly) grace. When they left, I noticed that the man was very caring of the women, making sure they all went ahead of him and hanging back for the one that was lagging a bit behind. Just goes to show you can't tell anything by looks!

Anyway, after dinner we went for a stroll through the Horseshoe Casino, watched people win and lose for a while and then we strolled back to the hotel.

Sunday -- on Sunday we went to a swing dance which was held at the Cleveland Museum of Art, an absolutely gorgeous building in an absolutely gorgeous area of town. It was lots of fun. Everyone was very friendly and nice and we enjoyed dancing and then had a very nice drink in the atrium. We'd planned to walk around the museum a bit but the dance was held outside and it was pretty warm and sitting down and having a tall cool drink won out over seeing art.

Sunday night we went to Momocho which was in quite a different area than I expected. It's really a little neighbourhood restaurant in a very pretty area of cottage-like houses. We started off with pineapple guacamole which I liked so much I'm going to make it this weekend for company. I also had a mango-hot pepper margarhita which was fabulous! We had our drinks and guac in the back patio where we chatted with the other guests waiting for their tables and then we had our dinner on the little patio and there were FIREFLIES!!! It was magical!

After dinner we walked on the main street (can't remember the name) where the West Side Market is and the charming little Market Street and we stopped for ice cream at Mitchell's which was so interesting. We were sorry we hadn't explored the market area in the daytime but we'll do it for sure next time.

There's really a lot in Cleveland that I'd go back for. The downtown is quite beautiful -- lots of gorgeous architecture, both old and new, very clean streets and something I wish we had more of in my city -- lots of nice green spaces for people to stop and rest or have their lunch it. We always seem to be building concrete parks or tree museums here.

We'll definitely go back for a third visit. It's a nice drive (5 hours), lots to do there, and everyone we met was pleasant and helpful.

Thanks again, fodorites, for all the great suggestions. I wish we'd gotten to do all of them but the ones we did we're super and, well, we have to save something for next time, right?

gtg

It sounds like a great trip and you really make Cleveland sound inviting.

It really is nice, starrs. If you've never been, it's worth putting on your list.

On a future trip, another fun and educational activity is to take one of the free (donation) heritage walking tours. We took the Sunday morning Canal Basin Park in the Flats Tour. There is much more to Cleveland than meets the eye!

http://www.clevelandgatewaydistrict....itage-tourism/

I'm going to put that in my Cleveland file, Hershey, thanks!

That sounds like fun gtg! A girl in my Pilates class is from Cleveland, I'll tell her how much you liked her city.

Thanks for reporting back gtg and so glad you had a good time!

Thanks for the follow up! Glad it was a good trip!

Glad you enjoyed your trip. Thanks for reporting back!
We certainly appreciate Cleveland's offerings, too.

Hoping to make a trip to Toronto soon.

I'd forgotten about the pineapple guac - it was delicious! Glad you enjoyed your weekend. The Momocho area is interesting, isn't it?

Momocho is in, or on the fringe of, the Ohio City neighborhood, which has lots of good places to explore.

Glad you enjoyed CLE! It's gotten a bad rap for many years, but hopefully that's behind us know with all the positive changes happening in the city. I do wish, however, that our waterfront is as developed as yours in Toronto. We have so much potential for that to happen!

Just a small point of clarification ... the name of the cemetery mentioned by Daniel is Lakeview, not Lakewood. Lakewood is actually a western suburb of CLE.

Can't say enough good things about the Art Museum's Atrium, which is simply stunning.

Thanks for the clarification Debs :). I'm not surprised I made the error; I should make sure to check what I write before I send it.

Goddesstogo-- Thanks for reporting back. Sounds like you had as much fun in Cleveland as I did! Next time, do go into the art museum to see some art after swing dancing; the museum is one of my favorites in the US. :)

The atrium was very beautiful and I've already planned my wedding there! ;)

It reminded me very much of the gorgeous atrium in the British Museum. Anyone know offhand if it's the same architect?