Cleveland/Kirtland Trip- Days 1 & 2

Towards the end of the August we finally took a long weekend to go see Kirtland and Cleveland. Kirtland is a historic site for our church. It is roughly a 5 hour drive. Eleanor started off awesome. Lots of treats and toys, I think I packed two solid bags worth to help her along the way. We were really counting on her taking a nap.

Which she did. 10 minutes from the hotel.
But come on. Can you even stand those cheeks? Those lips?
Those eyelashes?
Her sweet hold of her lamb? She's killing me. This, sadly, would be our most successful
family portrait in about a year.
Go us.

We stayed at a sweet Radisson right across the street from Progressive Park, where the Cleveland, um... Browns? Orioles? Hold on (googling) INDIANS. I remember now, where the Cleveland Indians play. We had tickets to a game that night. At least I remember that they were playing the Mariners, like a good Washington girl would know.
Eleanor LOVED the hotel room. She thought it was all kinds of fun.

Elmo has insomnia.

This little dude in the lobby was soooo interesting.

Eleanor had a lot to tell him.

E learned a new trick.

But soon became discouraged when the door latch above kept
her from getting out.

And by "discouraged", I mean threw a tantrum. Oh, she throws those now. Throws them like a pro. Arched back, crocodile tears and everything.

We enjoyed a nice afternoon at our hotel, then walked to the game.

Eehhh, why do I look like a jack-o-lantern here? We'll blame bad makeup day.

Eleanor loved the game. Or should I say, had no interest whatsoever in staying in her seat. We took turns keeping her amused. Here she is on Clayton's shoulders at the top of the world.

After the 7th inning stretch I walked her back to the hotel. We had to cross this giant pavilion to get to there and she stopped to talk about these balloons for quite a while. I finally asked a nearby cop if we could steal one. He said he was just seconds away from getting her one himself, so together we stole that red star balloon. She was in heaven. I love cops.

The next day our plan was to hit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum. We woke up and decided "eh." It wasn't worth the $50 it would've cost. We would rather go to a real concert with that money instead. So we drove by on our way out of Cleveland and took a picture. Who knew there was NASA right next store?
Aside from the Boardmans.
(Their boy is obsessed with all things space. Hi Bauer!)We crossed a cool bridge.Very LOTR's, yeah?Saw Cleveland from the other side of the river. This is near the restaurant "Lolita's". It's Iron Chef Michael Symon's second restaurant in Cleveland. We had plans to eat there but it doesn't open until 5 on Saturday. Oh well. We decided to head off earlier to Kirtland instead.Stay tuned for the exciting follow up to our awesome three day tour!