Cleveland!

The first leg of the trip was a small adventure, albeit a somewhat planned one. When travelling in & out of BWI, we usually park at the Amtrak garage ($9/day) and hop the somewhat frequent shuttle to the terminal. This time, we tried staying at the bloody huge new daily parking garage adjacent to the terminal itself. It charges $10/day but the buses seemed more frequent so we thought it would be worth a try.

So far, so good. Like the hourly parking garage, there are displays indicating how many spaces are available on each level, how many on each row and green & red indicators above each space to guide us to available spots. I'm not sure what the overall capacity of the garage actually is, but the top four levels of nine each showed more than 1,000 spaces available...

Checkin was painless and security screening was as unobtrusive as possible given the theatrics of the TSA. Alas, weather was delaying our flight by 20 minutes and BWI wants to charge us for wireless internet access --insert my usual rant about charging for wireless internet-- but outside of that, it was a relatively painless run through the place.

Alas, cuyahogarvr's youngest daughter couldn't make it from South Carolina because foul weather grounded a number of flights. Still, we're making the best of the day.

Cleveland!

The first leg of the trip was a small adventure, albeit a somewhat planned one. When travelling in & out of BWI, we usually park at the Amtrak garage ($9/day) and hop the somewhat frequent shuttle to the terminal. This time, we tried staying at the bloody huge new daily parking garage adjacent to the terminal itself. It charges $10/day but the buses seemed more frequent so we thought it would be worth a try.

So far, so good. Like the hourly parking garage, there are displays indicating how many spaces are available on each level, how many on each row and green & red indicators above each space to guide us to available spots. I'm not sure what the overall capacity of the garage actually is, but the top four levels of nine each showed more than 1,000 spaces available...

Checkin was painless and security screening was as unobtrusive as possible given the theatrics of the TSA. Alas, weather was delaying our flight by 20 minutes and BWI wants to charge us for wireless internet access --insert my usual rant about charging for wireless internet-- but outside of that, it was a relatively painless run through the place.

Alas, cuyahogarvr's youngest daughter couldn't make it from South Carolina because foul weather grounded a number of flights. Still, we're making the best of the day.

Happy birthday, cuyahogarvr!

Happy birthday, number *mumble mumble*! :-)

Happy birthday, cuyahogarvr!

Happy birthday, number *mumble mumble*! :-)

Cleveland, Day 1

We slept fairly comfortably last night, thanks to the wonders of modern air conditioning. Indeed, frost bite and hypothermia were nearly a factor but I was able to snuggle up to a warmer body to ward off the worst.

The cat, Cassie, seems to be warming up to us. Instead of avoiding us or politely hissing from the corner, she's actually brushing up against our legs and looking for attention. I think she actually is just looking for more spaces upon which she hasn't shed. Ah, well...

	Cassie Cleveland, OH 2007-08-24
	Cassie Cleveland, OH 2007-08-24

We headed down to the Western Market for some shopping, mostly cheese, vegetables and fruit. We did attempt to take the public transit downtown but were stopped cold: the dear station attendant sneered we needed exact change ($1.75/ride or $3.50 for a day pass). We're taking bets on whether he couldn't make change or couldn't be bothered to make change.

We opted instead to drive into the downtown and spent three hours scoping out the restaurants, neighbourhood and Marriott Renaissance Hotel, the host facility of the 2008 IAGSDC convention next May. The facilities and area look pretty good; besides all of that, I was ecstatic to spend so much time in air conditioned space.

Returning back to the apartment, we all napped 1-2 hours under the AC. After a quick change into dressier clothing, we headed to a local Indian restaurant for dinner; we left quite stuffed. From there, we drove downtown to Playhouse Square to see The Lion King.

cuyahogarvr had been holding tickets for the show for some time; recently, he also met a member of the cast so we were able to have a backstage tour after the show.

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Cleveland, Day 1

We slept fairly comfortably last night, thanks to the wonders of modern air conditioning. Indeed, frost bite and hypothermia were nearly a factor but I was able to snuggle up to a warmer body to ward off the worst.

The cat, Cassie, seems to be warming up to us. Instead of avoiding us or politely hissing from the corner, she's actually brushing up against our legs and looking for attention. I think she actually is just looking for more spaces upon which she hasn't shed. Ah, well...

	Cassie Cleveland, OH 2007-08-24
	Cassie Cleveland, OH 2007-08-24

We headed down to the Western Market for some shopping, mostly cheese, vegetables and fruit. We did attempt to take the public transit downtown but were stopped cold: the dear station attendant sneered we needed exact change ($1.75/ride or $3.50 for a day pass). We're taking bets on whether he couldn't make change or couldn't be bothered to make change.

We opted instead to drive into the downtown and spent three hours scoping out the restaurants, neighbourhood and Marriott Renaissance Hotel, the host facility of the 2008 IAGSDC convention next May. The facilities and area look pretty good; besides all of that, I was ecstatic to spend so much time in air conditioned space.

Returning back to the apartment, we all napped 1-2 hours under the AC. After a quick change into dressier clothing, we headed to a local Indian restaurant for dinner; we left quite stuffed. From there, we drove downtown to Playhouse Square to see The Lion King.

cuyahogarvr had been holding tickets for the show for some time; recently, he also met a member of the cast so we were able to have a backstage tour after the show.

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