Cleveland ROCKS......

We are FINALLY home from our long and busy trip to Cleveland. YAY!! Now onto packing and getting things organized for our move.

Stew and I left Wednesday, June 9th. We flew with Continental (which is an AWFUL airline, but they had good prices when we were planning our trip). The ticket agent was super rude, the crew on all 4 flights weren't very friendly, their "meals" were NASTY! We had a little bit of a situation like on "Meet The Parents"... We were waiting to board our first flight and the lady wouldn't let us get on the plane until first class got on and then the OnePass Elite (or whatever it is called). Then the ticket agent said that rows 25 and up could board (we were row 22 and there were only 25 rows on the whole plane!!) We finally got to board and got ready for our flight. Anyway...... Our first flight from Calgary to Houston was long... 4 hours and some odd minutes. We were running late and so we had to sprint to our connecting flight to Cleveland. Thank goodness we were in the same terminal! We barely made it! Our next flight from Houston to Cleveland was about two and a half hours long. We got into Cleveland around 11pm...... We had such a LONG day.

One thing we were looking forward to about the hotel we stayed at was a free continental breakfast...... WHAT BREAKFAST!?! We got down to the lobby at 8am... and pretty much everything was gone! It didn't even end until 10am. Not a good way to start our first morning there. We had a few appointments on Thursday and the first one was at 9:45am and it was in a BEAUTIFUL area, but the condo was pretty small and it was a little dated. The lady was going to drop the rent down to $770, but because of the lack of space, we just couldn't do it. We went to about 10 places the first day. One of the places, Dover Farms, was AWESOME! It was an awesome floor plan, but the price was a bit much. We were also worried about how steep some of the roads were in the apartment complex and if they would be bad to drive on in the winter. Some of the places were nice, but not in great areas of town. We decided to go with Big Creek apartments. We were able to apply for a 1245 sq.ft. 2bed/2bath place for $850. We are 15 minutes from OCPM and there is an elementary school about a block and a half from the apartment. We are hoping for the call tomorrow saying that we got the apartment. If we don't get it, then we have no idea what we are going to do. We decided to go to Melt for lunch. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!! This place specializes in making like 30 different grilled cheese sandwiches. I got the WESTSIDE MONTI CRISTO. It had honey ham, smoked turkey, swiss and american cheeses. Then it was beer battered and served with a mixed berry preserve, sweet slaw, and fries. Stew got the PARMAGEDDON. It had 2 potato and cheese pirogies, fresh napa vodka kraut, grilled onions, and sharp cheddar. This was also served with sweet slaw and fries. Stew and I both got our fries ULTIMATE: 3 cheeses, veggie chili, grilled peppers and onions, and sour cream. YUMMY!!! We each probably had about 4,000 calories for this one meal. For supper we ended up sharing something at the mall because we weren't that hungry from lunch.

Friday, we did the application for the apartment. We went over to a Kia dealership and after almost 2 hours finally just left. Excuse my language... but they were pricks. We told them that we just wanted some numbers so we could do a budget. Instead we had them telling us that they could do $380 and that was final. When we told them that we had to think about it, they changed the price to $350 and we could leave that day with the car. We told them that we didn't even live there yet and that we were FLYING back to Canada in a few days. Then they said $299 and they could hold the vehicle there until we moved and the lease wouldn't have to start until the 21st of July. We told them that we needed to talk about it, so they both walked away...... We grabbed our paper work and walked out the door. The manager followed us out, yelling at us, telling us that we could get it for $250 if we wanted, and then when we told them that we didn't even know if we wanted a Kia, that we still were looking around, the manager said to us "Well why didn't you tell me that?"...... We had been saying that from the beginning!!!!!!! Once we finally left, I started bawling. I have never felt so scared in my whole life. We will definitely not get our vehicle ever at Spitzer Kia. We needed a little bit of a "pick-me-up" so we went to Lucky's Cafe for lunch. We had an AWESOME waitress! She was a ray of sunshine (that is what Stew told her)...... Stew got the Lucky Reuben: Corned beef, sauerkraut, rye bread and Thousand Island dressing all house made, served with Swiss cheese, chips and a pickle. This sandwich was AMAZING!!! I got the Biscuits and Gravy: Cheddar scallion biscuits topped with soft scrambled eggs and sausage gravy. Served with hash brown potatoes and grapes. This was the best biscuits and gravy I have ever had!!! We topped off lunch with some dessert: a Vanilla Bean with Mixed Berry Butter Cream and a Vanilla Crumb Brownie!!!! YUMMY!!!!!! We walked around another mall, got our new cell phones and then had supper at Momocho. We had some guacamole. It was guac with pineapple, jicama, chile habanero, and mint. It was served with warm tortilla chips and salsa verde. It was good and I don't even like guacamole. Stew and I both got different entrees. I got the Carnita Taquitos. It had adobo braised pork, grilled peppers and onions. It was served with honey-chipotle mojo, salsa verde, and corn tortillas. Stew got the Concho Taquitos. It had adobo braised wild boar, grilled peppers and onions. It was served with pickled jalapeno mustard crema, salsa verde and corn tortillas. This place was good, but over priced.

Saturday was a chill day. We went and walked around an Art Festival at Crocker Park Center (this outdoor mall reminds me of San Tan Village Mall). We had some ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and then went and saw "The A-Team"... AWESOME movie. We went back to one of the malls to return some stuff I had bought that I decided I didn't want, got Ethan an AWESOME hat for his birthday (a few weeks early, but now we don't have to worry about getting him something right before we move). We got back to the hotel, checked into our flight and then went back to our room to pack up our stuff. We went to bed around 9:30 or so, but because of the rude people in the rooms around us, we didn't fall asleep until 11:30ish and then we woke up at 3:00am. After another long day of flying we finally got home to Grandma and our cute kiddos!!!

Anyway... It is nice to be home and now we need to start packing and organizing our stuff. So... until next time......