Cleveland Road Trip

CLEVELAND, OHIO – Here is a recap of a late summer 2015 road trip (Aug. 28 to 30) from Toronto, Ontario to Cleveland, Ohio by former TORONTO 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games Organizing Committee employees Sam COREA (CAN) and Brian McANDREW (CAN).

Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field

By the Numbers:

One Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland

One Cleveland casino

Two Great Lakes (Ontario and Erie)

 

Two countries (Canada and USA)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Two baseball games (Cleveland Indians and Buffalo Bisons)



Two post-game fireworks displays

Three days

Three Great Lakes cities: Buffalo, Erie and Cleveland

Downtown Buffalo

Three States: New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio

A pub in Erie



Four Interstate Highways: I-90, I-190, I-290 and I-79
 

Four post-secondary institutions: Cleveland State University, Case Western University, Canisius College, University of Buffalo

Four sports stadiums: Progressive Field, Q Arena and FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland; Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo


Five $1-ball park hot dogs

The Terminal Tower in Cleveland

Six micro-brewery samplings

 

20 original Anchor Bar Buffalo chicken wings


60 hours


1,000 kilometres

GNS sc/bm

(Written in the Games News Service style)

 

A weekend of monuments, memorials and museums in Washington, DC

The first week of May took me on a spring trip to Washington, DC.  My flight was delayed for 24 hours because of fog in Toronto, so I had to pack in as much as I could during my reduced time in Washington. With so much to see in a such a short period, I think I managed to pack in a good sample of monuments, museums and memorials. 

Korean War Memorial

Air and Space Museum

Along the National Mall, one can experience various Smithsonian Museums --19 of them, and they're all free!  I managed to have a look at four museums.





For the monuments and memorials, in my view, the main points of interest in the Constitutional Gardens are the Lincoln Memorial and memorials for World War II, Vietnam Veterans and the Korean War.


Lincoln Memorial

I spent five hours over two days in the Newseum with five floors and 15 theatres and 15 galleries that champion the freedom of the press.  My favourite quote:  "Journalism is the first rough draft of history."  As a washed-up, has-been radio reporter, I could spend even more time in Newseum to fully appreciate all the galleries, videos and interactive displays.
 

911 display at Newseum: damaged antenna

 

Library of Congress, Jefferson Building

Touring the Capitol building

A tour of the U.S. Capitol is a must in Washington to fully appreciate how "issues facing the nation are considered, debated and written into law."





I wrapped up my Washington visit by taking the Metro across the Potomac River to the Arlington National Cemetery. 

After  two full days in DC, I was left with positive thoughts of the promise and hope of U.S.A., in spite of its problems.