Celebrating 28 Years of Us

(I'm a little slow getting this posted, but our November is always crazy busy.) 

Our 28th wedding anniversary fell on a weekend this year. We were in the mood to just "kick back and relax" -instead of checking off bucket list items- so we splurged on a suite at Hyatt Regency at the Arcade in Cleveland. With the intention of sleeping in, catching up on some reading, and such like.  

So this historic hotel is in the heart of downtown. Valet parking only (to the tune of $30+ per day). So I did some homework and discovered a parking garage a block away for a cool $8/day on weekends. But it was one of those bewildering situations where GPS is saying "you have arrived at your destination" and you are swiveling around going "huh?" Thankfully I was not the one behind the wheel and my better half circled the block and spotted the poorly marked entrance to the underground parking garage around the corner from our "you have arrived" location. Underneath this park. That's the Fountain of Eternal Life statue -minus the water, due to the season.

 I'm sure it's more dramatic with the fountain running, but I'll take any monument to LIFE, considering the hand we were dealt back in May. 

    

Street view of the hotel front

We had decided not to spend the extra on an Arcade view room. Prior to our arrival we got a notification from the front desk that The Arcade was rented out both nights of our stay and would potentially be loud until 11pm; if that is a problem we can either invest in ear plugs or ask to be relocated to a different part of the hotel. We were doubly glad we hadn't spent extra for one of those historic rooms. Only to have the front desk clerk cheerfully announce that he was giving us a free upgrade to an Arcade-view room when we checked in Friday evening!  

The jury is still out whether it was actually an upgrade or not. A wedding reception was just beginning when we arrived and it was interesting to observe, but the dance music did indeed rock on till the stroke of 11 -and being up on the top floor where the noise reverberated off that glass ceiling made us unwilling attendees of the party. The 2nd night was also a wedding and the dance music was even louder than the first night- sleep was impossible till they shut 'er down. It is a beautiful venue though.     

This is what "The Arcade" is all about. One of the first indoor malls. The first floor is still shops, but the remaining floors have been remodeled into hotel rooms.

There was a $50 bottle of wine on ice waiting in our room -which we did not open, and these chocolate covered strawberries -which we did enjoy.

We didn't venture beyond walking distance from the hotel but there was plenty of food choices within minutes. There was a Guys pizza shop around the corner with this amazing Chicken Bianco pizza. 

And a delightful little cupcake shop, Colossal Cupcakes, 4 minutes away... 

with w-a-y too many flavors to choose from!

They don't come cheap, but they are generous in size -too big to take a bite, like normal cupcakes- which is why they come with a fork, we discovered.  

And then there was the lovely Marengo Spa, in the Arcade, 4 stories below our room. Couples massage time! A first for him, not for me.  

By the time we checked out on Sunday, we were rested up and ready to do some exploring. I can't go this close to a lighthouse and not go see it, so we headed over to Whiskey Island, a little over a mile away. There she is- Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead lighthouse on Lake Erie.

 I got my photo and was satisfied, but someone wanted to climb to the top of a knoll... where we met a stranger walking his dog who tipped us off that if we're feeling adventurous today that a certain building is unlocked... which is how we ended up inside [undisclosed] building.
Richard climbed the metal stairs the whole way up into the lookout tower. I like to think I'm  adventurous but I also have a fear of heights. Which is worsening with age. (Or maybe common sense is taking over??) I went maybe a 1/3 of the way up before I started feeling whoozy. In warm weather I would have taken a firm grip of the handrail and soldiered my way onward, but that freezing cold railing was not favorable to bare hands. Since it might have been a little dicey to explain our presence there if I were to fall from above, I decided to skedaddle back down to terra firma. 

 We also looked up Brandywine Falls. If you know me at all, you know I have a thing for lighthouses AND waterfalls. I may or may not be particularly adept at dragging my loved ones to waterfalls in the wintertime. There wasn't any snow in Cleveland or anywhere else, but there was a good 4" of snow on the boardwalk to this falls. It was quite slick climbing down to the bottom of the falls. But oh-so-gorgeous!

It's been 6 months since we had our near "till death do us part" experience. That made celebrating another year together so much more special this year. So thankful we get to keep doing life together for awhile longer. So far, so good. 🤭