Why We Live in Cleveland - Part II

The Real Story - Part II

When we arrived in Cleveland, we didn't have a home to move into yet.  My grandma graciously vacated her condo so we'd have temporary housing until we found a house.  Her place is great and she loves it very much.  All of her neighbors are about 80 years old and up, so it's a perfect place to move a family of five.  I am not making any of this up. One day we were outside with my grandma and a hearse drove by and Jack asked what's that car.  An elderly lady had passed away just a few condos away from us and the hearse was picking her up.  My grandma told Jack someone died and told us that was a regular occurrence around there with old people. The kids had a blast in her condo though.  They loved it.  Alex found a bird feeder with a silver pole positioned directly outside a retired man's window to slide down like a fire pole.  He's quite girthy so the feeder would sway giving to his weight.  The man came out and wrapped caution tape all around it like there had been an accident, and only grunted or shuffled away when we tried to talk to him. Everyone was pretty friendly but it was clear we didn't fit with this crowd, and we weren't making many friends.

There was also a lot of fishing done by the boys in the nearby pond.

Growing up during the depression makes my grandma a very thrifty lady, nothing goes to waste including her garage.  For my home office, she set up a bunch of old furniture in her garage where I could shut the doors and have complete privacy.  That's right when in town, I was working out of a garage.  Big things start out of garages and I embraced my garage office except when the lawn service would come through mid-conference call and I'd have to run into the laundry room to hide from the noise of the leaf blower.  Otherwise it was a great office!

Nick at Great Lakes Science Center

On the weekends we didn't know what to do with ourselves so we gravitated toward the city.  We'd go to
Tremont and play in the play lots outside Cleveland City Schools, and that lovely Lincoln Park.  We went to the Aquarium, the Great Lakes Science Center, and the Natural History Museum.  We've been to the Q quite often, and the friendliness of their staff is wonderful, and it makes for such a nice experience!  We're only a short drive away from Cedar Point, and frankly going there with Jack is the most fun I've ever had, ever!  Kiddie Park is adorable. Ah, and Lake Erie is close by and it's quite beautiful!

Jack at Huntington Beach

Alex at Kiddie Park

The West Side Market is amazing!  It's an awesome gem.  The food scene is well developed, and delicious, everything from comfort food, to ethnic foods made by people who really care about good food.  Falafal is a regular part of our diet now.  We don't get out as much as we'd like but when we do there's just about everything you'd ever want.  Momocho, Chez Francois, Lola, Fahrenheit,  and Strip (keep it clean it's a restaurant) are palate pleasers.  Touch Super Club, Hodge's, Flying Fig and some others are on our list once we're able to make it out again.  We also haven't been to the amazing Theater District, and the Art Museum.

We really found that Cleveland is an amazing city that has so much to offer, and rather than dwell on what can be improved we should be proud of what's here.  It is really, really nice!!

Clevelanders are some of the nicest people, but interestingly we organize ourselves by Westsiders and Eastsiders.  For a fleeting moment we considered looking for a house on the East side, but having grown up on the West Side it's completely foreign territory.  If we did that, we might as well move to Europe because we know nothing about navigating the East side.  When it snows here, the East Side also receives at least +1000 inches of snow compared to the West Side. Even Dr. Dre points out in his song California Love, "Let's show these fools how we do this on the west side Cause you and I know it's tha best side".  How can you argue with Dr. Dre?   So we're West Side residents.

With all the high points, there have been some low points.  When we first moved here, Nicholas had an extreme onset of severe asthma.  He took many trips by ambulance down to Rainbow Babies due to breathing issues.  It was a really bad and scary time, and we couldn't figure out why this was happening when he had been fine in Chicago with the exception of when he was born and stayed in the NICU for breathing for 17 days.  In our new house, we found that he was severely allergic and asthmatic due to a specific kind of dog.This meant we had to rip out every shred of carpet, and spent thousands putting hardwood floors in.  We also put in a black light system and humidifier in our HVAC system just to ensure his breathing stays on the up and up.  We can't really go to other people's houses if they have pets.  One exposure, and Nicholas spends weeks recovering.  So we really stay in our little bubble as much as we can.  Slowly we're overcoming this obstacle as well.

The best part about Cleveland has been reconnecting with all of our friends and spending great, quality time with our family!  This is a great city that has so much to offer and we can't wait to keep exploring all its great treasures!

The Cherrstroms

Nick at the Children's Museum

Nick at the fishing pond

Alex at the fishing pond.