The Cleve

Greg and I stole a couple days over Labor Day weekend to attend our good friends' American wedding reception in Cleveland. Saettel finally got married! We could not wait to meet his lovely bride, Dima. They were married in Jordan a week after Lila was born. We were so disappointed not to be able to attend the ceremony so we made sure we came to their American reception in Ohio. We'd never been to The Cleve before, and I'd never left Lila overnight. I have to say, if I was going to leave my baby for a couple nights I wanted to at least be somewhere with palm trees or desert winds. The Cleve didn't seem too appealing. Luckily, we had a lot of help back at home. Greg's mom took Lucas and my mother flew in to visit so she stayed at our house with Lila. We took off for a whirlwind tour of, as Saettel called it, "The Mistake on the Lake." Ahhh, not true! Although there are no palm trees or desert winds in The Cleve, we happened to love the city. The weather was nice, the Blue Angels were doing fly-overs between the city's tallest buildings, and there were lots of great micro-brew houses. Without kids, diaper bags, and strollers we felt free enough to walk miles all over the city. We found so many interesting neighborhoods and ate our way through the best Cleveland has to offer: Polish food, fresh-baked Italian treats, and lots of delicious beer. Here are some photos...

The wedding reception was a lot of fun. I came in swearing I'd party "to the end." The end for me was about midnight! Hey, that's pretty good for a mom with babies at home. I even participated in the flip-cup drinking game college-style before admitting that my bed sounded more appealing than another round of beer. I'm sure other parents can relate: I had a hotel bed with no "infant alarm clock" so I took advantage of my zzzzs.