What's that smell? It's Cleveland!

I had never been to Cleveland, had never considered visiting Cleveland, and didn't imagine I would have feelings about Cleveland at all. So I was shocked to discover that I loved Cleveland. Like, I immediately began looking up internship sites in the area so we could move there next year.

Here is why:

Cleveland looks like a city following a zombiepocalypse. Although we were walking around during rush hour, there was practically no one on the streets (and not because the streets are Philadelphia-scary either!) The city is clean. I didn't get yelled at by homeless people. There was little traffic. For a misanthrope like myself, this seems like the perfect place for me.

Cleveland has some really cool public art and it's everywhere. I discovered so many things to look at-- on sidewalks, on buildings, on the huge lawn down the street from our hotel. I loved it.

Cleveland has the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, which, though it was fun to visit, I doubt I'll ever plan to go again. But it is amazing, and Portland doesn't have anything nearly as cool.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but we did take several outside:

It looks a little like the Louvre, which prompted Josh to make many Louvre-related jokes.

Josh was excited for the "W" from Weezer's concert shows

And one covert (and, frankly, unflattering) shot inside a listening booth:

We were listening to our favorite one-hit wonders, which included MC Hammer, Four Non Blondes, and Eiffel 65. And we may have been dancing. A lot.

Cleveland also has one of the best restaurants in the whole-wide-world (and I'm only being slightly hyperbolic), Melt Bar & Grilled. Josh insisted we go there as it was featured on both Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Man vs. Food.

They serve different types of grilled cheese sandwiches, where I ate the summer chicken (havarti cheese and garlic!) and my first-ever fried Twinkie (not as good as I had imagined):

We also went on an impulsive, last-minute trip to find Lilly Pulitzer, which my new favorite clothing store, because there aren't any stores near Portland and I wanted to try on some dresses. It involved driving top-speed to the suburbs, running through a mall only to discover we were in the wrong place, driving to a different mall (across the street), and rushing into the store 10 minutes before it closed. They were really nice about it, even though it was a completely jerky thing for me to do. (I hurried, I promise!)

For the rest of the trip, I mourned the loss of Cleveland. It turns out that I am still a midwest girl at heart.

One last picture:

The Soldiers and Sailors monument downtown

We then went on to Detroit, which I liked a lot less than Cleveland, but will write a blog post about soon anyway.