The Hotel Life

Along with our unique job situation comes a unique living situation. As many of you know, we recently moved from our beloved New York City to travel with Matt's new client for a year. In May we were in Cleveland, Ohio, for a few weeks while Matt's client was getting a check up at The Cleveland Clinic. We were back in New York for a month when we suddenly learned that we had to come back to Cleveland. We have been here for almost a month and we're getting used to living in a hotel. That's right, until we leave again, we are temporarily housed at the Intercontinental in Cleveland. Here is a glimpse of our hotel world.

Summertime Rolls

We have been keeping ourselves busy here in Cleveland. Here are some highlights...

Seriously, the best bike ride we have ever taken. ~13 miles along the Erie Canal.













Cleveland Indians vs. Tampa Bay Rays. Dogs, beer, fireworks, and the Indians won!






Looking for the beach along Lake Erie. Ode to Cleveland.





"Wade Oval Wednesdays": Free music by the art museum. Grateful Dead covers and picnic a la Whole Foods.




We love summertime!

Cleveland Calling

So, a lot has happened since the last post. Sorry it has taken so long to post on the blog, but we've been trying to find our bearings since landing back in the Mid-West.
It all started almost two weeks ago when Matt called during his lunch break and said his client had to go to the hospital that night in CLEVELAND, Ohio. He came home and packed during lunch while Teri tried not to panic about what she was going to do about cleaning up, packing up and moving everything to Ohio by herself that weekend. It seems that Teri whined sufficiently because Matt took the pains to fly back after work on Saturday, helped her pack up the apt sublet in New York, rented a car and drove back together across the oh-so-lovely I-80 on Sunday to be back at work in Cleveland on Monday morning. The plan worked but we were a little tired and very sad to leave New York again so abruptly. We really loved being back in New York, and our friends helped us ease back in- it was very easy, because it is so great compared to living in other cities. We love that a car is not needed, and the world is at your doorstep. It was wonderful to pick up our old routine of running around the reservoir in central park and enjoying long June evenings just walking around the town. Although it can be tiring slogging around the city (and hiking up 5 flights because our sublet's elevator was undergoing repairs) it was really nice to have so many fun people around and fun things to do. It would be great to live there, but we havent figured out how to make it work financially...any advice?
We feel oddly connected to Cleveland now that we have been here a total of about five weeks (three weeks in May and two weeks in June/July). Teri is taking Pilates at a local studio here and she and Matt have been exploring more of this curious little city.
On the 4th of July we tried to get out to see the fireworks downtown, but found that we were locked in the hospital parking garage (it seems everyone wanted to get downtown). By the time the hospital police got there to let us out it was a race against time to see the fireworks. We caught them bursting above the buildings as we were driving. It was still fun to feel like we were part of something, celebrating America's independence with new appreciation after experiencing how tough it can be in other parts of the world. We arrived downtown just as the finale fizzled out, and we were caught driving upstream against a flood of leaving Clevelanders. Teri had a hankering for fish n chips with a cold pint of beer. It was a bad time to be lost and hungry. Especially for Matt. We finally found the right bridge to take us to Cleveland's "west side", where we found ourselves beneath several bridges and old lakefront industrial relics. It had a faint flavor of New Yorks "DUMBO" area in Brooklyn and the brew pub we had sighted from the east side of the river was now in range. We could almost taste the malt vinegar soaked chips.... Teri's "hangry-ness" was almost placated, but bled into a full melt down once the waitress informed us that the kitchen had closed 6 minutes ago! Other fish and chip options were supposedly nearby, but we only found "SILK, a gentelmen's club". We settled for an order of fries at another spacious yet empty lounge apparently catering largely to African Americans. The band played a jazzy cover of Norwegian Wood. Hangry-ness satiated.
As we stick around Cleveland longer, we have found some things that we like. We found 3 beaches good for swimming, we're going to see "Jersey Boys" tonight. On Wednesday we're going to "WOW" which stands for Wade Oval Wednesdays, an outdoor theatre with a local music performance within walking distance. On Saturday, we have tickets for a Cleveland Indians game (vs the Tampa Devil Rays.oooh scary) The Museum of Art is now open, hopefully we will visit there as well. Next we need to find out how to commandeer a boat. We also found a delicious fish-n- chips place for our next fried food craving.

Any Given Sunday

This is why we love this city--on any given Sunday you can wander into Central Park and find a little bit of everything...

We had bagels and coffee under a tree with hundreds of other sunbathers and families in Sheep's Meadow

We walked over to The Boat House and rented a boat. We rowed around The Lake while passing gondolas and listening to someone play music at Bethesda Fountain.

We traversed the park over to the boat pond by the Alice and Wonderland statue and "Dog Hill" (as Mom G affectionately remembers it)

Then we were suddenly caught in a traffic jam of Israeli flags and festive music--the 60th Birthday parade for Israel was crossing before us on 5th Ave. We were crammed in so tightly that a Jewish woman even joked, "Let my people go!" while we were all waiting to cross the street!

After a jaunt up Madison Ave, we went to church on 68th Street at Hunter College where we reconnected with friends we haven't seen in months.

After church, we headed west back across the park. We passed the "roller skating crowd" who is there, rain or shine, skate-dancing to their favorite disco beats like it's 1973. The Swirling Center of the Universe.

We watched the sun go down behind Columbus Circle and the magnificent buildings on Central Park West while we walked barefooted through the cool, squishy grass in Sheep's Meadow. Ah, back home and just in time for soup dumplings at China Fun on Columbus Ave.... We love New York!

Little known facts about Central Park:
- first place Matt held Teri's hand
- first place Matt and Teri had a "date" picnic
- Matt and Teri have been running the same loop around the reservoir in the park for three years
- Matt proposed to Teri in Central Park on April Fool's Day 2006

Half-way Around the World in 100 Days

Whooo! What a whirlwind it has been indeed! Well, for those of you who were wondering where we have been (cough cough Brian and Emma cough cough), we have been a little bit of everywhere. After our 5 weeks in India and our short time with Matt's parents in Greece, Matt officially started his new job in Athens and Teri flew back to California to spend some time with her family in Bakersfield. We are so fortunate to have our good friends Mike and Misha in the city who have been babysitting us and our mail while we're in transit. Teri landed for a quick 10 hours or so in New York before she headed off to California in late April-- Chez Cohen put her up and kept her entertained during her severely jet lagged pit stop in NYC. Two tours of sublets, 1 sushi dinner and one star sighting later (more to come about that), Teri was soon on another plane in crowded coach, scrounging for change to buy potato chips on her way to sunny CA. MEANWHILE, back in Athens, Matt boarded a slightly nicer ride, complete with couch and lobster dinner, and took an easy trip to the Land of Cleve in sweetest Ohio.

Finally we were "back in 'Merica!" Teri met Matt in Cleveland where they enjoyed the simplicity of the Mid-West. One weekend in early May, we went to visit Teri's brother, Sam, in Chicago. We were glad to be back in 'Merica, land of the freeway, truck stops and Garrison Keillor, but we didn't realize it would take almost 7 hours to drive to our hotel in downtown Chicago! Sam met us at our hotel around 11pm and we left to eat up the wonderfully rich Chicago food we had only heard about. We finally wound up at a burger joint known for pairing beers with burgers. We headed home in the drizzling rain, looking forward to a full morning of exploring Chicago. Unbeknownst to us, we had decided to come to Chicago during the start of a large summer storm. It was too cold and rainy to walk around the city, so we picked up Sam and his friend Mike and did a quick drive around Chicago in our little rental car. We were able to see a bit of Millennium Park and the famous reflective "bean". We tried, unsuccessfully, to go to the top of the Sears Tower, but it was closed due to high winds. So, we called our moms to wish them happy Mother's Day, and then went to Giordano's for a dense Chicago style pizza. It was really good to meet up with Sam, even if it was for a short time.

We spent another week or so in Cleveland and then headed back to New York City! Matt flew with his patient, while Teri drove I-80 all the way into the City (hold your applause please). We had sushi with an old friend and then headed out to Long Island where we slept for about 3.5 hours before Matt had to get on the train and join the commute into the city for work. Teri stayed behind and tidied up for the renters, drove the car back into the city, and transferred the luggage to a friend's apt. who had generously lent it to us while we looked for a summer sublet (now you may applaud).

Thank God, we found a sublet by the end of the week. The best part is that the apt is on 72nd and Columbus--just one block north of our old apt! Hooray for the UWS! We love our city and we love our park and we LOVE reconnecting with our friends here. It's hard to substitute "community," even with a trip around the world.

So, there ya go. Half way around the world, and back, in 100 days or so. We're in the city until July and then we head off for another adventure.

*Notable celebrity sightings:
Misha and I were standing in line at a NYC sushi restaurant and the girl behind us looked really familiar...
Misha: You look familiar, are you from California?
Norah Jones: No.
Misha: Oh, ok, I guess that's it then, you're not from California.
HA!

Matt and I were sitting in the hotel restaurant in Cleveland and they seated us about 10 ft. away from Oprah! She didn't have any makeup on and was in gray sweats, but it was definitely Oprah. We asked the waitress and she said she was not allowed to disclose any information.

Matt and I were sitting in the sun in front of St. Bartholomew's in NYC and MATT spotted Christian from Project Runway walking by! He looked exactly the same in real life as he did on t.v. He still had that one piece of hair sticking up and match-stick pants--Fierce!