Four Cities, Two Years: week 1

August 23rd we arrived in Cleveland. We were exhausted after 10 hours of travelling from Park City with a seriously petrified Zeus. Poor thing peed himself on the plane. Little did he know I could empathize with his embarrassment.

Thankfully we stayed in Embassy Suites for the first few days. They certainly relieved some of our stress directing us around the city with great food recommendations. And you know me: as long as I have good food in my belly, I can ALWAYS be happy. By Sunday, we were ready to move into our new place. However, we still did not have any of our stuff from the movers. 

The following are shots of those first few days. I have quite a few of a particular restaurant called Sokolowski's. It was my first experience with Polish food and boy was is amazing. It was in a really awesome area of the city with tones of Orthodox churches.

love the old character of this city

View of Cleveland from Sokolowski's

Since the root of my name is so similar, I found we share the same family crest!

I can certainly say that by the end of the night. I was so proud to be Polish. Guarantee this isn't the last time I eat there. We found out this place had lines that go around the block in the winter!

Veteran's Monument

Lincoln Monument. It has his speech on the base of it.

These guitars are all around Cleveland. It's kind of like the Seattle pigs and the Park City Moose. 

Since then, our week has been plenty productive. Trent hasn't had work so it's been a great opportunity for us to be tourists. We have eaten out A LOT, mostly because we have no other choice since we have nothing to cook with. But the Mormon church ward that we are in here is awesome! We have already been invited to dinner by three different families as well as have been given food by a fourth! Needless to say, I think Cleveland will work just fine for now. This Wednesday, our friend Mike and Lauren drove through Cleveland to DC for a wedding and we were able to see them! Here are a few more pictures having lunch with them and other recent exploring:

Don't forget to look at the sandwiches!!!

We ate at a place called The Melt. It was crazy and AWESOME. Notice the Velveeta cheese box in the back?

At Brandy Wine falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Beautiful forest. As we drove through Trent kept saying, "I'm pleasantly surprised with Cleveland." It was hilarious.

Not a very great picture of Little Italy. I'll be sure to take more pictures soon.

So...we STILL don't have our stuff. And actually, it's STILL in Salt Lake City. I seriously cannot believe it. The movers don't expect to have it to us until the Sept 11th. It's their problem at this point since they give us money for everyday they go over their expected delivery date (which was August 31st). So, at least you can see a picture of the outside of our apartment.

Trent and Zeus sleeping on the inflatable mattress. I'm typing this blog on a lawn chair in our kitchen. We're LITERALLY camping in this place!

I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye. goodBYEEEEEEE!

The last weeks in Utah were wonderful. I spent most of them finishing up my internship with the Sundance Resort. Trent finally defended and passed his thesis and is an official Manufacturing Engineering Masters Graduate!

 

Here he is practicing and waiting the morning of. He doesn't even look nervous!

And of course we celebrated with food. These noodles can be found at Shabu Shabu house. HIGHLY recommended.

One of the last weeks I surprised Trent with a play day. We exhausted ourselves horseback riding and pottery making at the Sundance Resort. I had actually received vouchers for the activities due to my successful internship and was so excited to finally experience the resort from a guest's perspective :)

Surprised Trent!

Watching the professional glassblowers and relearning how to use a pottery wheel. Did you know both Trent and I used to make pottery? And Trent used to blow glass!

Super proud of my creations 

 By my last week in Utah, I was starting to get sentimental and, of course, this meant I started visiting my favorite restaurants haha. Here are just a couple of the places I visited:

La Dolce Vita

Tarahumara

Trent and I took one last walk through BYU and found the place where we met. I <3 libraries="libraries" p="p">

Our last week, we were surprised with the unexpected death of Trent's Nana, Melva Sorenson. We then attended her funeral which was very lovely. She was a wonderful lady who loved lace, porcelain dolls, her family, and the Gospel. I was so grateful we were still in Utah and able to attend the service as well as be with family.

Finally, our last couple nights, we had a goodbye concert with my band at Kiwanis park (just across from our place), and said farewell to our close friends. I'll sure miss them all!

Miss this bestie already

So we did it. We left everything we are familiar with and moved to start, well, LIFE. I literally cannot believe school is over and Trent and I are facing this grayed, unknown, suspenseful chapter. Sometimes I feel like I just want to close the book and read someone else's to get some sort of direction for my future. But like the great shrink from No Reservations once said, 

"It's the recipes you create

yourself that are the best."

There you have it. BRING IT ON!