What HAVEN'T we been up to?!?

So it's been about a month since my last post so I'll catch you up on what the hell we've been up to...

Orchid Mania at the Cleveland Botanical Garden - Gina and I love the Botanical Garden! We also love Groupons and when we got one to Orchid Mania, we decided to grab it quickly and go. Orchids are beautiful but are also super weird looking. Some have pouch leaves. Some look like the Atlanta Hawks old swooping hawk logo. You can dye the petals to make them turn beautiful colors. They really do hold their own as the focus flower of this wonderful event and you can't beat the Botanical Garden as a venue.

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Happy Birthday! - One day I will get to eat the roasted pigs head at the Greenhouse Tavern but unfortunately this birthday wasn't that day...because no one could come to my birthday party. See Gina is good at inviting people and getting together a group for an outing and I still think all my friends are single and childless. F#cking adults... That didn't stop us from dwindling our reservations down from 10 to 2 and going for my favorite dinner that can only be described as a marathon of garlic >> Crispy Chicken Wings Confit! Oh and of course I get them with animal style frites. The wings are citrus, spicy, and super garlicky but they fall off the bone as you try to dig them out of a bowl filled with garlic cloves. This is not a "date" meal. This is a "she's accidentally left a turd in the toilet and I saw it" meal. You'll sweat garlic for days. Your breath will be awesomely garlicky. Your "stuff" may just take on the taste...think along the lines of pineapple. With all that being said...it's totally worth it. One day I will try something else on the menu because I've heard the guy's a good cook or something (winky face) but for my birthday, this was my gift to me.

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Postsecret the Show at Playhouse Square - Before I went to this show I had no idea what Postsecret was. The name does not lend itself to what it's about like say "The Vagina Monologues". Gina knew all about it and so she bought the tickets. I was just happy to go to Playhouse Square. I'm a simple idiot. I won't give it all away because I think it was very powerful to go in with a blank slate but what I will say is that you will cry your god-damned eyes out and then...without warning you burst into laughter...shortly after that you sink deep into thought. This thing is an emotional roller coaster and not like crappy movies when they say they are and then you get a sorry breakup/reconcile story that no one cares about. This is the real deal and the crazy thing is...none of it is fake. These are real secrets that people wrote down and sent into their website. It's sad to hear people's inner thoughts when they are battling depression or loss or envy or fear...but on the other hand it is kinda refreshing to hear someone confess something that you've been holding inside and have been to afraid to face. This in my opinion is a must experience for everyone. You won't leave the same person you were when you walked in.

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This was me for a few days...Ahem...I mean "Thisa waza me fora few dayz!"

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St. Patrick's Day - So since Gina is Irish and my sister Emily wants to be Irish we all got together and celebrated St. Patrick's Day! In true Irish fashion Gina yelled at the wait staff at the Flat Iron Cafe because they wouldn't serve her Irish Car Bombs at 6:30 am because "this city is stupid and laws are for assholes". My sister took a picture of a woman with the biggest boobs on the planet. I didn't get as hammered as I wanted to but did get to go to Moriarty's on East 6th for a shot of Jameson's. Then the parade happened! It was a lot of fun and I didn't take a lot of pics this year because...well it's a parade and those things don't change too much so if you want to see pics go back a year and look at that post. So anywho, Emily left after awhile and Gina and I took a nap before we did something else and went to bed...Oh we ate corned beef!...and then went to bed. Man we're old!

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Castaway Bay - We went to Castaway Bay because Gina is a 12 year old girl at heart...plus Emily and my nephew Jeremy were there to celebrate his good grades or negative drug test or a promotion or whatever kids do well now a days. I admit that I wasn't expecting to have a lot of fun being a 240 lbs 36 year old. I thought it was going to be full of trashy parents in inappropriate and revealing swimwear drinking and not at all watching their kids who are all stuck by their ankles up-side-down in a rope net somewhere being slowly dripped on Chinese water torture style....oh and the water is like 82% pee. I was surprised though because I did have fun! Lots of fun actually. The rest of that stuff was true too but it was all part of the experience so I was good to go. We played in the arcade. We chilled in the indoor/outdoor hot tub. We climbed the jungle gym of water. We rode a water propelled roller coaster! It was a damn good time and I'm glad Em and J invited us.

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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Private Tour - Thanks to Eli and Alexa Kazimir for inviting us to tag along on their private tour of the Rock Hall! Our tour guide (who's name escapes me at the moment) was super entertaining and informative. We got to see a lot of behind the scenes areas, offices, and got some great background info on even some of the most overlooked exhibits! If you have an opportunity to take a tour, even if you've recently went to the Rock Hall on your own, I highly recommend you go! It was quite an experience and gives you a whole new appreciation of rock. Plus there's going to be a new restaurant out on the pier soon so you can make it a nice and easy, walkable, date night! Get back to your rock roots and head bang your blues away.

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Well that's it for now. I think we're all caught up except for Dyngus Day but I'll save that for another post. The Avenue at Tower City was sold to Dan Gilbert. Will he listen to me and add residential to Tower City finally??? We'll have to wait and see. Summer is coming urban explorers and that means festivals are just around the corner! A city is there for all to enjoy.

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The Cleveland Botanical Gardens

Before I start this one, I'd be stupid not to point out that I've lived in Cleveland now for 365 days...you know, like the title of this blog. The past year has been wonderful and has really blown past everything I expected out of this little adventure. I'd like to thank everyone who's read any of my posts, Gina, and anyone who's came to visit us. I've rented my house in Lakewood again so we'll be doing another round of 365 days in Cleveland! This upcoming year has some real promise. I have a feeling we'll tie up all our loose ends before the season finale...and maybe we won't...stay tuned! Now on to the show:

4-26-15 - Well after talking about it for what seemed like forever, good old Gina got us a online coupon for half off admission to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens! Now we haven't spent much time in University Circle so far but that is changing this year. There's just too much to do over there to ignore it any longer...plus now it has a Happy Dog location in the old Euclid Tavern! A good hot dog place can entice me anywhere.

Once we parked we took a stroll around Wade Lagoon and everything was in bloom. It really is a beautiful park and when combined with Rockefeller Park and the cultural Gardens it kind of reminds me of Central Park in New York...except most of the north end is surrounded by dangerous gang controlled areas. Not by Case though! The Case area is pretty awesome with the 3 major hospitals, all but 1 of Cleveland's Museums, Case Western Reserve, Severance Hall...just so much good stuff packed into that area! I'd like to see some thick old looking stone high rises go up on either side of the park to give it kind of a Central Park West look and feel. There's a lot that needs to happen before that can however...

Next we headed over to the Botanical Gardens. This is truly a wonderful experience for everyone and if you have kids, this is a must do! From what we found they have 2 indoor greenhouse garden areas. One has a desert motif and the other a rain forest. They have a nice kids area, a cafe, lounge, and gift shop. I'm sure there's more but that's all we saw without looking on a map or asking for directions. There are birds, insects, lizards, along with plants and trees of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Most things are right out in the open so you are able to interact (to an extent...you can't ride the turtles) with your surrounding. There's very little glass separating you from everything there so you can take great pictures (like I did) and immerse yourself into it all. I think our favorite part were the butterflies in the rain forest area. They everywhere and there are so many different ones. They're like little fluttering bits of colorful magic...ya I said it, shut up. Once we were done with the indoor areas we made a quick stop at the gift shop and headed out...

Now when I say we headed out, I mean we headed out because we thought we saw everything. Then we walked around Wade Oval a bit and witnessed the biggest "uh duh" moment of our lives. There were gardens outside! No kidding right?!? I almost hesitated to tell you that. Then I thought I'd blame it on Gina but the truth is we had no idea what to expect until we saw it. Just rows and rows of spring flowers and green grass behind a beautifully decorative locked gate and fence. Needless to say we ran back in to find the way to get into this blooming Garden of Eden...and eventually we did.

There is way more to the outside gardens than you'd originally expect at first glance. They go on and on and wrap around and go over a bridge...It's a great little slice of nature here in the city. There's a large kid's section (not a section for large kids but the section is large) with a jungle gym and project stations and multiple landscaped gardens with different themes. My favorite was the Asian themed garden.

I really really liked this little adventure. The Botanical Gardens are very nice, clean, and well kept. There are tons of things to see and do here and with the 50% coupon, the price was right...not that it wouldn't have been right without the coupon but I'm cheap so it's like a second cherry on the sundae. I'd highly recommend it to anyone especially if you have kids and am proud to live in a city that has such a great place. Oh and don't forget to bring your camera!

After we were done with the gardens, I walked over to the Peter B. Lewis building on Case's campus to take some shots of this amazing piece of architecture. The bending metal front, the curving brick walls, the shadows from a distance that trick your mind... it really is Cleveland's weirdest and boldest building. Thank God for liberal colleges that take chances like this.

Once I was done taking some snapshots we headed to Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern. They have 2 locations now people and I really can't find a valid excuse for you not to go! The place has got a great stage in the front of the building and the same pick-your-toppings menu. It couldn't be in a better strip of building being at the end of Uptown and there's a metered lot across the street just for there. We ate delicious dog and tots and watched the Cavs sweep the Celtics! New location but no change in quality. I love this place and love the food. 

As if this all wasn't enough -- we went home, took a nap, woke up, and went to see Langhorne Slim and the Law at the Beechland. I think I may have made Gina a believer in the awesomeness of Langhorne. He played an amazing set! He was fun and charismatic even though there were a few drunk a$$holes in the crowd that he had to shut down a couple of times. It's just embarrassing sometimes when people can't shut up and enjoy some damn fine music. Anyways, as always, Langhorne killed it and if you've never heard him, go check him out on any of your favorite music places to hear music in places.

...God what else...Oh I'm meeting with people and businesses and city councilmen and making speeches and campaigning for this Tremont West Board of Trustees seat! It's really moving along and next week will be filled with block club meetings to speak at. So far I haven't really seen any of the other candidates but 2. I'm told there are a lot and I'm sure I'll see them over the next couple of weeks but I seemed to have got a head start. Still more to come on this one...

Sometimes Urban Pioneers you have to be a tourist in your own city in order to truly see it as it was meant to be seen! Until next time my friends.

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