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!