Tuesday July 13, 2021.
Temp: 79 /69, Humidity: 74/97%, Top Wind: SW17 mph, Precip: RAIN!, Miles Traveled: 46 miles + maybe 3 miles on foot
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The weather was kind of uncertain for today. As near as I could tell, it should be good. But I really have to pay attention to the direction that the wind and waves are coming from as we tootle along this southern shore of Lake Erie. So even though the wind looked like it might actually be more than yesterday, the waves looked less due to their direction. Fingers crossed as we untied our lines and set out for the morning. We got up early schmirly and were the second boat out of the marina at 6:00.
And the water was beauteous! It was nice and calm, with a little big of wind blowing in the port side window, which was the southerly breeze. Ahh! I love it when things work out right! Although, that ‘red sky in morning… sailors take warning” was on my mind. 😬. Does this qualify as a red sky in morning?
There were some very large homes along the lake shore. It was hard to get good pictures since we were a couple of miles out, and it was such a gloomy gray morning.
We spied Cleveland and were closing in. We didn’t try to run fast today, so just our normal 9mph trawler speed. The water was getting a little bit choppier now, but wasn’t bothersome at all! Although the wind had picked up some more, so that was making us a little nervous about docking.
Cleveland has a long jetty that separates the shipping channel from the city shoreline. The yellow line was our approach from the northeast.
Check this out! There’s the Cleveland Browns NFL stadium right there!
We got all docked up, rested a bit, had a bite to eat, then took a little tour around. We HAD to pose for this picture. Ken’s stepdad’s last name was Cleveland, and Kenny was raised with and went by the Cleveland last name until after high school. You can barely see her, but Island Girl is off on the left edge of the picture.
Here is the Oasis marina, which is 100% used for transients in the city. Front and center is Hallelujah! The big odd building on the left is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the NFL stadium off to the right.
Ah-ha! And here is the front of the “Long Live Rock” building. We’re planning to visit here tomorrow.
But for today, we took a stroll around town to see what we could see. Lo and behold, there is a giant FREE stamp right next to the City Hall building. It is the world’s largest rubber stamp, and it has an interesting history!
In 1985, Standard Oil of Ohio, aka “Sohio,” opened up the 45-floor Sohio Building in downtown Cleveland. At the height of 659 feet, the mundane corporate headquarters needed some color and distinctiveness to brighten it up, and Sohio CEO Alton Whitehouse had just the plan. Whitehouse commissioned husband and wife sculptors Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen to design the world’s largest rubber stamp. The pair worked together for weeks to create a giant, 49-foot red stamp with the word “free” printed on the bottom. The word “free” was chosen because the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument of Cleveland was located directly across the street from the Sohio Building, which honors soldiers from the Civil War and freedom from slavery. Unfortunately for the sculptors, a short time after the stamp sculpture was commissioned, Sohio was taken over by British Petroleum (BP). Robert Horton, the CEO of BP, refused to give the project his stamp of approval. The giant stamp was held in a warehouse in Indiana for the next six years until 1991, when the stamp was finally released to the public and placed in Willard Park, next to City Hall.
Here was the front of City Hall, with the Seal of the City in the sidewalk.
“FirstEnergy” NFL Stadium for the Browns.
We found some statues around town. This one kind of looked superimposed, just sticking up among the buildings, like it belonged on a Universal Studios backlot. We’ll explore that in a minute.
But first, we were at The Fountain of Eternal Life statue which was dedicated in 1964. It honors and includes the names of over 4500 Clevelanders who served, died or were declared missing in various war conflicts since WWII and is situated in Veterans’ Memorial Plaza. The centerpiece is a 35-foot bronze figure representing man escaping from the flames of war and reaching skyward to his God for eternal peace. The fountain waters and lights were not on, but I bet it really looks amazing at night.
This building sat back on another block facing this corner, and it didn’t look real.
Then we found the tall memorial and statues and learned that it is the Soldiers and Sailors monument for the Civil War.
On each of the four sides was a depiction of a battle configuration for the Navy, Artillery, Infantry and Cavalry. This one was the Advance Guard. The monument was built in 1894!
Just across the street was “The Old Stone Church” – First Presbyterian. The original building was built of gray sandstone as was dedicated in 1834.
As we walked through town, we also found the St John Cathedral, the first cornerstone laid in 1848. It was a HUGE building!
Just down the street from there was our ultimate destination for the evening…. Masthead Brewing Co.
This was a big place, and I picked it because they had five different stout beers, and seven IPAs, plus a couple of others. But anybody that has that many stouts on the menu, especially in the summer! deserves our attention. We got there about 3:00, and we invited Steve and Ann from Hallelujah! to come join us. Then they invited others from the Looper gang at the marina, so we had a bunch of people coming!
Kenny started with a flight of four stout beers. They were all pretty tasty!
And I really liked one that they called Baseball Bat. The beer taste was softened by a peanut butter, and then left a raspberry lingering. It was really good, so he let me have most of it. It was an Imperial which meant it had 10.8% alcohol. 🍺. Then he went in a completely different direction. He started with dessert, and now he was headed for the salad. He had a flight of IPAs, and wow were they in your face! I don’t like them, Sam I Am! But the beer drinker did, so that’s what mattered.
We had the crews from seven Looper boats come and join the party! It was so fun, and we all had a good time and enjoyed some good food. The kitchen here had a large list of pizzas to choose from, so we had pizza and beer for dinner. I actually ordered a whole Baseball Bat beer for my own self, and I drank the whole thing! 🤫. What is this world coming to?! Here are peeps from The Journey, Hallelujah!, Alegria, CJ’s, Adventure Awaits, Island Girl, and Irish Hurricane.
We finally broke up the party and headed back to the marina around 8:00. Somebody said it was going to rain, and that we should get going. We saw this sign along the way – I suppose if the snow is more than 2” deep, the plows will be coming through.
We didn’t have snow, but boy did we ever have rain! It rained, and it rained HARD! There wasn’t anything we could do about it but walk along and laugh and take a big ol’ shower. At least the water wasn’t cold, but we got so soaked! Our clothes were literally dripping a trail of water into the boat and we stripped down to our skivvies right at the galley sink! Oh my goodness we were wet! I tried to find places to hang things to dry, but I’m thinking everything especially shoes will still be wet tomorrow. The air in the boat can only absorb so much moisture, right? We’ll always remember the Cleveland downpour!
About an hour later, the rain was starting to clear up and we were having kind of a nice sunset!
Tomorrow will be a sleep in day for us. 😴 YAY! It will be nice to stop moving every day. We are looking forward to a ‘down’ day, and we always had planned to stay two nights here, so that we can go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Most other boats are staying a second night as well. Steve and Ann changed their plans and are going to move tomorrow since the weather has changed its mind a bit, and tomorrow looks better than the next day for being out on the water. That’s kind of how this boating life works, and we’ll play it by ear. Maybe we won’t leave on Thursday, but we’re definitely staying until then.