Where We Went

Cleveland Zoo. I thought we were going to be at the zoo for a couple of hours in the morning, but we were there for five hours. Us and many, many school children on field trips. (We regretted not making match t-shirts for ourselves after we saw so many last year in DC.) 

There are 7 areas throughout the zoo itself: Primate, Cat, and Aquatics; Australian Adventure; Waterfowl Lake; African Elephant Crossing; African Savanna; Wilderness Trek; and the RainForest. 

Some of our favorite animals to see were the elephants, giraffes, gorillas, and rhino. The day before we went, one of the gorillas celebrated its 50th birthday, and I saw on the zoo’s Instagram they had a birthday party.

Unfortunately, a few of the animals we saw (one of the bears and a leopard) looked stressed, like doing repetitive motions in their exhibits. From my googling, it can be an old tick, like from their previous zoo/environment; I’m not sure how long those animals have been with the Cleveland Zoo, but I’m hoping they’re getting good care.

Josh talked me into taking a swan paddleboat ride, which was actually fun. It was right near the zoo’s Dino Cove exhibit, so it felt like we were in Jurassic Park—without the threat of actual live dinosaurs roaming around. We rode the paddleboat for 15-20 minutes before returning it; docking the swan felt like docking a yacht in Below Deck.

16-Bit Bar + Arcade. We had to go back for our last night in Cleveland. Unlike when we were there on Saturday night, there seemed to be a lot more kids there Thursday night. We tried our best to steer clear of them and try to get to our ultimate goal of playing hookie again. We each won a game again as well as played some arcade games.

And I got a fun drink! It was called the Holk Hogan and was blueberry vodka, lemonade, and a Bomb popsicle.

What We Ate + Drank

Breakfast: made at the Airbnb. Our last day of our breakfasts at the Airbnb. Deciding to make breakfast there for three days made it easier to get out the door earlier and one of the reasons why we wanted to go the Airbnb route instead of a hotel: access to a kitchen.

Dinner: Pioneer. Another Google Maps find that was a 10-minute walk from our Airbnb. I described it as “hipster camping” to Josh, which fits, but it looked like a fun place to go.

We each got a beer and split fried pickles; for our meals, I got pulled pork mac and cheese (they make the meat right there in the kitchen) and Josh got a burger. What I got was really good, and Josh agreed when he tried it.

Mitchell’s Ice Cream. Our last thing we did in Cleveland! We got the same exact ice cream flavors we got on Saturday, and it was definitely worth going back one last time.