Lakefront Tour

Last week, a friend of mine, who is a native Clevelander, took me on a tour of the city along Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River. One of my daughters and another friend also went along. It's sort of ridiculous that I've lived here since 1988 and have not been to any of these spots, but I guess that's often the case. Most of us travel elsewhere to sightsee!

It was a typical Cleveland day (though ridiculous even for this town in August): overcast and dreary. This blog post will not be making any CLE travel websites, but all of us had a good time despite the grey skies. Here are some photos of the day:

Our first stop was Lakewood Park. Lakewood is a walkable town on the edge of the city, with tons of restaurants. It attracts young professionals, hipsters, etc. You are likely to find a pricey wine bar next to a tattoo shop next to an art gallery next to a bike shop here. This walk along the lakeshore was just beautiful.

At the far east end of the sidewalk, you can see the city.

We walked to the top of the solstice steps, which is a popular spot at sunset.

Not my photo, but I wanted to show you what the steps look like from the lake, at sunset. You can see the circle in the sidewalk in both photos. Many activities take place here, such as concerts, yoga, and drum circles.

Next, we drove along the shore to see all the unique million dollar homes. Everyone who visits has to stop at one of the ubiquitous Cleveland script signs to take a photo. Actually, I think there are only 3, but you'd guess otherwise by the number of photos I see on social media.

This is the beach at Edgewater Park. As the song goes, "There's no surf in Cleveland." The place is packed on the weekends, but it was empty for us on a cold, Thursday morning.

The Beach House was recently built to accommodate beach goers. The bottom sells ice cream and fast food. The top sells craft beers from local breweries and has a fireplace and nice seating areas.

We stopped at a pier. My daughter and friends decided to walk out to the end of it. I'm not a fan of heights over water on windy days, so I stayed behind in the car.

For lunch, we went to Cleveland's most famous Irish pub, The Harp. I had a non-Irish summer shandy with a crabcake salad. Very good food and a nice view of the lake. Across the street is another popular food landmark, The Cleveland Bagel Company. Unfortunately, they close at noon, so we missed taking some bagels home.

We headed down to the "flats" which is the area along the Cuyahoga River. We watched this bridge getting raised so that a massive freighter could get through. One of my friends was quite fascinated with the whole thing and was able to look up the Buffalo online and see its real time updates as we watched it live. It looked to be carrying some sort of conveyer built, but none of us are that 'heavy equipment knowledgeable.'

It was impossible to capture its 634 feet length, but was interesting to watch it maneuver the 'crooked river.'

Our last stop was in Tremont, which has undergone a revitalization in the last decade. Here, that means foodie places and factories turned into expensive apartments. But, there's still the gritty side of the city that will never go away.