Ohio Bike Trail | Cleveland, OH (Plus a Video!)

While visiting Cleveland, OH, we stayed about 20 miles south-east of the city. One morning, we took a bicycle ride on the Ohio Metroparks' Bike & Hike Trail. This was our first real bike ride on this trip, and we were excited to clock some miles on Theodore and Shelby (we went 12 miles that day). The 33.5 mile trail is one of the first "rails to trails" conversions in the country. We've had some previous experience with converted railroad trails - part of our Portland, ME to Portsmouth, NH trek was along such a trail in southern Maine, and Boston has its own Minuteman Bikeway.

The ride was just great! It's exactly what our bodies needed after all the highway miles in the car the week before. The trail wasn't crowded at all, the weather and scenery were beautiful, and wildlife accompanied us the entire way - we saw a ton of birds and one wild bunny.

At the end of our ride we decided to go another mile to cool down, and it's a good thing we did!  We found a very pleasant surprise: the 65-foot Brandywine Falls. Coming from Niagara a few days earlier, there was no direct comparison, but the Brandywine falls were awfully cute and had a great trail around them, allowing visitors to get pretty close to the waterfall.

-Taras

PS: Here's a looks at the waterfall in action.  This was before we learned to flip the iPhone for filming!

Cleveland, OH

We had no preconceived notions about Cleveland, OH, except maybe some humorous ideas from the tourist-guide video our friend Stephen sent us.

We began by exploring the Tremont neighborhood. There happened to be an art walk that day, so we wondered around to some cool galleries, photography exhibits, and boutiques. The area was perfect for the art walk! The whole neighborhood feels very cozy, with mostly single family homes where people sit on their porches enjoying the warm weather (Amanda said the whole atmosphere, combined with the weather, made her imagine what an evening in Richmond, VA would be like). After grabbing some tasty bites at Michael Simon's Lolita (which was pretty cool! We love the concept of offering $5 bites at the bar during happy hour), we grabbed a beer at one of the local bars and were happy to find the Cleveland Indians playing the Red Sox on TV! This was a cool experience of cheering for our home team in the rival's city (and the Sox won!). We even made some friends after dinner, who upon seeing us walk around the neighborhood that evening called us "Hey, Boston!"

In the early 20th century, many eastern European immigrants settled in Tremont while working in the area's steel mills. Because of this, there are many beautiful churches surrounding the area, most notably the St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

We were very happy to see many people riding bikes and even some type of an organized ride with 30-some participants. Unfortunately, when we tried to go ride around downtown, we discovered the first flat tire of the trip on my bike, so we stayed afoot.

As far as downtown goes - we did see some great architecture, namely the library and the courthouse. We took to a touristy elevator ride up to the Terminal Tower Observation Deck, only to be somewhat disappointed by the views from above. The deck is all enclosed in glass and pretty small - just not what we expected.

-Taras

Amanda's Birthday

Sunday was my birthday. Yep, on Mother's Day! I turned 29 - now I'm officially in the last year of my 20s (and technically a cradle robber for the next two weeks). I think this little road trip of ours is the perfect way to celebrate the end of a decade, for the both of us.

We didn't do too much to celebrate, but we did enjoy a few cocktails around Cleveland, OH and I got to catch up on Gossip Girl and eat the best guacamole I've ever had - they put goat cheese in it!  I didn't get a cupcake (shame on you, husband!) and my official birthday dinner was at a chain restaurant in Toledo, OH because nothing birthday appropriate exists here, or so it seems. But, oh well!  This is shaping up to be my best year to date, so no complaints here!

-Amanda

My first birthday drink: a delicious Manhattan at The Velvet Tango Room. This place had great quality throw-back cocktails and housemade bitters.

Happy birthday to me!

Photos originally from my instagram (@amandabouzakine).