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)

 

Chicago – home of the skyscraper

I found this descriptive quote in a brochure that sums up my view of Chicago – “the city of broad shoulders and vertical dreams.”

View from 360 Chicago, top of the John Hancock Tower

 

Most of my spring 2015 trip to this Great Lakes, mid-west city (I was taken to task by a native of Chicago when I called it a city in the east) was focused on discovering the volume of tall buildings.

Willis (Sears) Tower in the centre

So, why does this “second city” ("second" to New York, "second" built in the same site) have so many skyscrapers or cloud busters?  After the great fire of 1871 wiped out the Chicago, the landscape was a blank canvas. It became the centre for innovative architects with towering ambitions who participated in many contests to build recognizable landmarks.

The construction continued through the 20^th Century with modern office towers, company headquarters, mail-order distribution centres and eventually condominiums (Marina City – the first urban residential city within a city in 1963) stretching the skyline along Lake Michigan. 

The theme – taller was better. For a quarter century, the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) was the tallest in the world. 

Trump Tower on the Chicago River

 

Marina City

 And in this century, the building hasn’t stopped with the latest triumph – the 98-storey Trump Tower. However, I was told by my local tour guide that the large TRUMP letters gleaming onto the Chicago River are a source of controversy for the locals.

 I took two walking tours, an architectural river cruise and a trip to one of the observation decks in the sky – great ways to see, explore and learn more about Chicago’s vertical masterpieces.

Speaking of masterpieces, the Art Institute of Chicago is filled with famous paintings and works from around the world.

 

 For a Canadian, one of the best Americana experiences is a baseball game on a sunny afternoon. The 101-year-old Wrigley Field is the iconic place to do that.

 

 Chicago is no slouch when it comes to live theatre with plenty of choices. I took in two plays – a comedy/drama and a musical.

 As the song says – Chicago is my kind of town.