Sometimes technology screws up. On Friday, our friends’ band, Bethesda, was playing at the Cleveland Museum of Art on the east side of Cleveland, in the University Circle area. I forgot to get the address, so I used the GPS in the car to find “Points of Interest,” and it found the museum. Off we went. After a long while, Mer questioned why we were so far along a highway going west, and we seemed to be due south of downtown Cleveland. I’m ever the optimist, so I said the GPS must be taking us some novel, but still efficient, way.

We got off the highway and were confronted with a detour. That took the better part of fifteen minutes to navigate, and the GPS led us into “The Flats.” On the west side of Cleveland. Nowhere near the Cleveland Museum of Art. But, it did bring us to two strip clubs. I guess some programmers have a different idea of art.

I used the “Points of Interest” feature on the GPS again to find Severance Hall, near the museum. This time, the GPS steered us correctly, and after parking in the well-kept secret of the Botanical Gardens parking garage, we made it to the museum with about ten minutes to spare.

This was happy, indeed. Bethesda put on a great two-hour show; they sounded really full and well-balanced – a good testimony to the sound guys, since the band was playing in an echo-filled cavern of a space. The band poured out a ton of energy and effort, which I thought was commendable, since more than half the upper-crust crowd seemed more interested in schmoozing and drinking than listening to music. To their credit, the movers and shakers were not rude or disruptive; they just did not offer back too much energy. There was a good crowd of folks near the stage who were really into the music, and a bunch of people were listening respectfully from the second-floor walkways.

The space was fun for me – it was in the new covered courtyard of the museum, which is a huge space, covered in glass and showcasing the old stone front of the museum. Mer and I had been there last fall with a friend, and the courtyard was still under construction, so it was really great to see the final product.

After the excellent concert, the GPS directed us toward home along a path that took us past the Legacy Village area. We successfully drove past the Cheesecake Factory, but I succumbed to Mitchell’s, an ice cream parlor. That worked out for social purposes, though – Mer has a current CVCA student who works there, and she was on shift, so we got to say hello. The excellent ice cream did not hurt, either.

Thursday was the Fourth of July, so I had the day off. I started the day with a 10.5-mile run with Nate, down on the Towpath Trail; it was a very hot and humid, difficult run. After getting home and showering and eating breakfast, I took a nap.

The day was saved from being a total do-nothing day by a hike. The weather was calling for storms in the evening, so I wanted a shorter hike, so we headed off to see Blue Hen Falls, which is down in the Valley, near Boston Store.

Blue Hen Falls is very easy to walk to, on a well-maintained trail. It only took us ten or fifteen minutes to get there, and the falls are pretty. The are quite a bit smaller than Brandywine Falls, but it was a worthwhile hike. My hiking guide mentioned there was another set of falls called Buttermilk Falls further along the stream. It made the hike sound fairly easy, but warned we would have to ford the stream three times. That did not seem like a big deal since the stream is only a few inches deep. I wanted to go see it, and the guidebook said it would only take an hour total.

My first clue should have been the “End of Trail” sign at Blue Hen Falls. There was clearly a muddy trail past the sign, so we tromped on. The trail is not maintained at all – there were fallen trees across the trail, and there were muddy areas pretty often. Mer kept up her good humor, even through fording the stream twice. The only time she got cranky with me was when the trail split and we had two choices – a narrow and steep path overlooking the stream with a fall of several feet onto rock, or a steep muddy embankment that had no real fall. I choose the muddy embankment, and Mer did snap at me halfway up it when she was having trouble getting her footing. On the way back, we took the other path, and it was much easier – the roots provided good footholds.

Mer did recover her composure to the point where, when we crossed the last ford, she merely commented, “Oh, that’s my foot getting wet.” Happily, the falls were just beyond the last ford, and they were worth the hike. The were not particularly big, and they rode down a gentle rock face in a frothy white tumult. What was cool for me about Buttermilk Falls was how they kept changing depending on how close you were to them. They looked pretty steep and flowing hard when we stood a little ways back, but they became gentle and mesmerizing up close. They emptied into a pretty little pool, and the stream ran off over rock formations that were quite scenic. I really liked the area. Sadly, we did not stay so long as we might have liked, because it was raining lightly and I thought it might get quite heavy (it did not).

One odd thing, in the middle of the hike, in the middle of the woods – there were concrete supports on the bank of the stream, almost as if a bridge had once gone through there, but I saw no evidence of a road. Oh, and Mer got her other foot wet on the first ford on the way back, so there was symmetry at least.

I had to work on Friday, so we skipped the local fireworks, which all were around 9:30 or 10:00. Mer watched some from our front lawn, but I was driven off by some aggressive mosquitoes. I got ready for bed, and Mer joined me after the fireworks ended.

Mer and I have known our pastor and his family for a long time (me since about 1993 and Mer since the 80s). We are very fond of them, and Ken and Janet honored us by inviting us to the thirtieth birthday celebration of their daughter Christa. It was a surprise, and was being held at Texas Roadhouse in Allaince, about an hour from our house. Last Monday was the big day, so we headed back to our old stomping grounds (we lived in the next town over for six years).

Mer and I got there first, and we were followed by Joel and Lindsay, a couple from church. Christa and her family showed up soon after, and Christa was quite surprised. There were Ken and Janet, their three daughters, a son-in-law, one grandson, Joel and Lindsay, and Mer and I. That is a big enough party that we could not all interact; Mer and I were seated in talking distance from Ken, Christa and her husband, and Valerie and her baby. Valerie is quite young (around twenty-five), and she has four small ones at home. I have not had a ton of chances to interact with her, and she impressed me with her wit and levelheaded ways. Mer and I and Val talked a lot over the evening. Ken and Christa and her husband joined in some, and it was a festive evening. We were invited to go over to Joel and Lindsay’s place for games and ice cream, but it was 7:00, and we had an hour drive home. Mind you, that did not stop me from swinging by the Alliance Handel’s for ice cream on the way home (our opinion – the ice cream was good, but not as rich as that at “our” Handel’s here in Cuyahoga Falls).

Last weekend was a time of celebration, with Mer’s and my going to four parties in three days. We started on Friday with the first graduation party I had been to in over four weeks (because of the Italy vacation we took). It was a joint party, meaning there were two graduates at the same party – Ben and Josh. Ben is the younger brother of Tom and Laura, both of whom were members of my improv group, the Royal Fools, so I knew the family fairly well, and Ben well enough to say hi to him in the hallways of CVCA. Josh was a member of the Fools this year, and he was in my Connections group at school as well; he is a funny guy, and I was very pleased to be able to make his party. We ate too much good food (burritos), and we spent most of the party talking to the Lyons family (the father works at CVCA in the science department).

On Saturday, we started the afternoon with a grad party of a girl that was in Mer’s class, but I did not know her well. It was a pleasant party, and the backyard of her house was envy-inducing in size and trees.

The big event of the weekend was the wedding of a colleague – a teacher in the English Department, in fact. Matt got married to his fiancee, Elizabeth, late Saturday afternoon, and the reception went on for some time. The wedding was officiated by two pastors – Elizabeth’s pastor was the host pastor, and Matt’s father officiated. The ceremony was very much focused on Biblical principles for a husband and wife, and it was personable, since Matt’s dad knew both the bride and the groom pretty well. Matt is a talented musician, and he knows several good musicians, so the pre-ceremony music was excellent.

The reception was at a golf course clubhouse, and it was pretty packed. Mer and I got to sit at a table with two other CVCA couples and a couple we did not know from Matt’s church. We were also next to a table of CVCA staff members, so we had a good time visiting. The dinner was buffet-style and was quite good, and then the music started. Slightly oddly, the twenty-somethings did not hit the dance floor for some time; it was mostly the above-thirty set, including me and Mer. After about an hour, the DJ played some line dances, and that got the young folks out on the floor, where they stayed for the rest of the evening that we saw, when we left at 10:00. I’m looking forward to getting to know Matt and Elizabeth as a couple.

On Sunday, we went to the party of a girl whom both Mer and I know quite well. Audrey was in Ceili Club for two years until it shut down, and then she joined Fools, so I have known her for four years. She took Mer’s Honors English and AP English, so Mer had her in class for two full years. Audrey is a wonderful girl – funny and upbeat. Her party reflected some of that, as hers was the first grad party I had ever been to with a dunking booth, and Audrey even was the target for awhile. Mer and I are pretty close to many of Audrey’s friends, so we had a good time interacting with them as well. We stayed for about two hours, and then I felt we had to go, because I wanted to swing by the house of Matt and Lis (another Matt and Lis – not the newlyweds).

I am extremely fond of Matt and Lis. They both taught Latin at CVCA at separate times, and they are intelligent and funny people. We got to their house around 8:00, just as Matt and the kids were going out for a walk with the dog. I joined Matt, and Mer went in the house to visit with Lis. Matt is a towering intellect, and I admire him for that. We chatted about church history, as one does, before joining Mer and Lis back at the house. We visited with them until Mer reminded me of the time, at about 10:00. Time always flies with them!

It was a social weekend, and I had a rather good time.

Thursday was wonderful. Last January, for my birthday, Mer had given me tickets to go see Guys and Dolls with her at Playhouse Square, at the Hannah Theater. Guys and Dolls is my favorite musical comedy, and certainly in my top three musicals of any genre (it has a hard time unseating Man of La Mancha). Thursday was the day when we finally got to go see the play. We got dressed up and headed up to Cleveland.

They did an amazing job. The thing that jumped out at me was the choreography – there were long and elaborate and entertaining dance numbers throughout the play. The set was incredible, going from downtown New York to the inside of a club to a resort in Havana, all with good backdrops and set pieces. The buildings in the background of New York even had windows that lit up and blinking neon signs.

The acting and singing were superb. The leading man (Sky Masterson) had what may be the smoothest “musical” voice I have ever heard, AND he was a stunningly good-looking man to boot, not that I think Meredith noticed. The lead female role sang really well, and the supporting cast was much fun. I have seen Guys and Dolls done at a local theater, and they pulled it off well, but Playhouse Square knocked it out of the park. It’s a shame it closed on Sunday – I could have happily seen it again.

Tuesday was a fun and exciting midweek date day, initiated by Mer; she even got all dressed up. We started the evening by going over to Cardinal Village to have supper with Dale and Carlene. They asked what the event was, but all Mer would tell them was that it was a date night. After supper, she got me going in a specific direction, and I jokingly asked if we were going to Porthouse Theater. She surprised me by saying yes, and did I remember exactly how to get there? I did, and so that is where we ended up.

Porthouse Theater is the summer theater of Kent State University, located on the grounds of Blossom, the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra. Porthouse typically puts on three productions per summer, with at least two musicals. We were there to see the musical South Pacific, which I had never seen and Mer had not seen in a long time.

The musical was very well performed, with especially strong leads. I was surprised by how much music I knew, from “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” to “Some Enchanted Evening.” Songs I did not know were not usually too politically correct, but were really funny (“There Ain’t Nothing Like a Dame” comes to mind). The set was very good, with two levels and lots of island-themed props, like bamboo.

A rather large storm front moved in right at intermission, and poured. While it did not affect the production because the venue has a roof, Mer and I moved from our front row seats to several rows back because we were under a leak in the roof. Other than that, it was a fine evening.

Until I got back to the car. The road noise had been loud on the way to see Dale and Carlene, so I told Mer to remind me to check the air pressure in the tires. When we got back to the car after the play, and just as the rain was starting to fall again, I saw we had a totally flat right rear tire. I was going to change it out with the spare, but when the rains started falling harder and the lightning came back, I decided to ruin the tire and drive the six or so miles home on the flat; it was not worth saving eighty dollars to change a tire in a lightning storm. We made it home fine, and I was able to get the tire replaced the next day (it turns out it could hold pressure for about twenty-four hours, so I was able to fill it long enough to get to a tire place).

I’m still glad Mer took me out on a midweek date – it makes the work week more interesting.

Shannon left Monday afternoon, so we had time to do things in the morning. I had wanted to take Shannon to the Blue Door Restaurant here in Cuyahoga Falls; it is an amazing breakfast place, with gourmet breakfasts and European-style pastries. Sadly, as I had the wherewithal to look up before we left, they are closed on Monday and Tuesday. Plan B, then. I took Shannon to Yasoo, a breakfast restaurant that shares its space with a place called Hamburger Station (they change out menus at 11:00 or so). It is a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, with really good food. Shannon loved it.

We still had some time after breakfast, so we went home and grabbed Shannon’s stuff (so we could head to the airport if needed), and then I drove all of us over near Boston Store, in the Valley. I wanted to introduce Meredith and Shannon to the Stanford Trail, and then Shannon to Brandywine Falls.

I had hiked the Stanford Trail with my J-term class at CVCA back in January. The trail is very pretty, and fairly challenging, with several steep hill sections. It has a small stream as well, and has a remote feel to it, even though it is fairly easy to get to. Mer had never hiked it before, so it was new to her. The Stanford Trail has the advantage of joining up with the Brandywine Falls loop, which has the highlight of the boardwalks down to and overlooking the Falls themselves. Brandywine Falls is a pretty good-sized waterfall; it is the tallest in Northeast Ohio that I know of, and it is pretty to boot, spreading out over rock formations. Shannon seemed to like it pretty well. The Brandywine loop then follows the river down for awhile and crosses it, on a fairly new footbridge (you used to have to ford the stream). The loop took us back to the Stanford Trail, and we headed back to the car.

With one detour. When I had hiked the trail with my J-term class, I had seen a trail to a pond that I wanted to check out, but we did not have time. This time, I wanted to see it. Shannon made the smart alec remark that it was probably a little mud pond covered in algae. We hiked the quarter mile or so to the pond. Which was a little mud pond covered in algae. Needless to say, I got some grief about that.

Once back at the car, Shannon said he did not mind if we took him to the airport, even though it was a bit early (about forty-five minutes earlier than we would have otherwise gone). So, we headed toward Canton, but I deemed we had enough time to swing by Handel’s in North Canton, to which Shannon did not protest; he got one more Ohio experience under his belt, so to speak.

We dropped Shannon off at the airport, and he later e-mailed me to say he was at his gate about ninety minutes early; he got back to Chicago fine. We went home and resumed our more normal schedule by watching an episode of Lost while eating supper. I’m confident Shannon had a better time this time in Ohio than he did during his last (roofing) visit.

Sometimes Shannon gets lucky and gets things of which he reminds me for years. Such was Sunday. Shannon is my identical twin. He went to church with us because he really likes our pastor Ken. Shannon and Mer walked into church together while I used the bathroom. Ken saw Shannon, but thought he was I, and proceeded to tell him my recent Italian vacation did me a world of good because I looked so much younger. Mer then told Ken that Ken was speaking to Shannon. Shannon loved it.

After church, we headed home, and I made chocolate chip waffles with maple syrup, a standard Sunday treat in our home. Shannon had never had them before, and tried them. He finished his off, but then admitted he thought they were a tad too rich for breakfast food.

In order to fill in more rock exposure, the three of us drove over to the Gorge Trail in Cuyahoga Falls. Part of the trail had been closed last year, but was open again, although sections were still washed out and required some scrambling. The Gorge Trail has two real highlights – the exposed rock formations that you climb through on the far end, and the up-close look at the hydroelectric dam on the river that you pass on the way back. The rock is much less impressive than what’s at the Nelson Ledges State Park, but it is still pretty good and much closer.

We went home, and Shannon and I took naps while Mer went to a student’s graduation party. Shannon was invited, but was not keen on a social gathering where he knew almost no one. Mer came back home, and we waited for Zach and Londa to come along – they were kind enough to be willing to join us for supper.

Shannon was in luck – after two days of eating poorly, we all went to Aladdin’s, which is a Middle-Eastern-inspired restaurant; as such, it had a ton of vegetarian options. We had a great meal, and a wonderful time visiting with Zach and Londa.

After Zach and Londa dropped us off, it was still daylight out, so we headed over to the Ledges Park, which is only about five miles away. Again, the Ledges has less impressive rock formations than Nelson Ledges, but it still has a few narrow places in the rock faces in which to roam around. We also went to the west side of the park, which walks under the cliffs, and is a good walk with lots of impressive rock faces. We even made it to the overlook at the top of the park in time to see the sun set, which set behind a cloud so that it looked as if it was sending out “rays of glory.” We waited for the sun to go all the way below the horizon, and we headed home.

Saturday started out with Shannon’s and my running five miles down in the Valley, running under two different major highway bridges, which Shannon found cool. It was a fun time because of the company, but my run left me pretty beat (Shannon let me hear it, too). After heading home and getting ready for the day, we did a Shannon requirement – a good breakfast. Shannon’s favorite meal is breakfast, so we headed over to the dependable, if not exciting, Bob Evans. Mer observed that at least it is an Ohio-based chain, so it was sort of local. Breakfast hit the spot, and got us going for a day of art.

I had sent Shannon a link to an Ohio tourism website, mostly as a joke, but he actually used it and found out that the small, but quite good, art museum at Oberlin College was having a special exhibit on medieval art. Both Shannon and his wife Jo are really into all things medieval, so he really wanted to go. Oberlin is about an hour away, so off we went. As a bonus, the museum also had special exhibits on book illustrations, which I knew Mer would like, and Saturday was also the day of the town’s sidewalk chalk art fair. It was a good day to be going.

The museum at the college is free, even the special exhibits. Shannon was impressed with the medieval art pieces – there were probably about forty of them in all. I liked them because the vast majority of the works were religious in subject matter, and that always interests me; plus, Mer and I felt as if it was an extension of our recent Italy trip.

We more or less blew through the regular museum to get upstairs to where they had fifteenth-century illustrated church choir books on display; they were elaborate and impressive. Next to them was the exhibit on modern book illustrations, with examples from books by Poe, Bronte, Cervantes, Shakespeare, and more. Mer, as I expected, loved the books.

We headed back outside to see the chalk art. It was quite good, and varied wildly in effort and talent and subject matter. That was very cool – you could have kids drawing more or less next to “real” established artists. What really surprised me was the size of the event; I had thought it would be more or less around the art museum, but it stretched for five or six blocks in two directions. We wandered over the entire space, and we enjoyed the scene, even in the mid-afternoon heat.

We headed home and rested a little, after swinging by Handel’s for ice cream. Shannon impressed us by getting a shake and then going back for a sundae. Back at the house, our friend Ami (“Dubbs”) came over, which was a meeting six years in the making. I love Dubbs – she is a ton of fun, and I knew Shannon and Dubbs would get a kick out of each other. I had tried to get them to meet over the last six years, but it never worked out. Happily, I was right – Shannon and Dubbs hit it off, even to the point of Dubbs carrying Shannon piggy-back into the movie theater later in the evening.

We headed over to Big Boy in Valley View because Dubbs had mentioned it. For the second evening in a row, Shannon ate a veggie burger. He and I both ordered shakes, which were good, but more than either of us could finish. I actually got a little ill from the heat of the day, and had to spent a little too much time in the bathroom. After supper, we walked over to and then over a very cool pedestrian bridge, so Shannon got more bridges in for the day.

We finished the evening by going to the theater nearby to see Joss Whedon’s version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing. I loved it – it was an updated version that worked well, and it was well acted and funny throughout. The movie had a great scene where Beatrice overhears that Benedict loves her, and it was the first time Mer or I had ever seen that scene play out as amusingly as the corresponding scene with Benedick. It was really well done. The only slightly odd thing was that the four of us were more or less the only people in the theater who were laughing, and it was a very funny production. Strange.

Art and Shannon had a pretty good day of it.

My brother Shannon last came out to visit us in Ohio about three years ago. I immediately put him to work for three days helping me put a new roof on the house. They were long, hot days, and for some reason he has stayed away for three years. Odd.

He finally made his triumphant return to Ohio on Friday when he flew into my favorite convenient airport, CAK (Akron-Canton). We met him with no problems and took him home, where we could plan our assault on fun. Shannon had told me he expected only two things – he had better see lots of rocks on hiking trails, and he had better eat ice cream at Handel’s. That helped get Friday’s plan in order – we took him forty-five minutes away to Nelson Ledges State park, my favorite park in Ohio for impressive rock formations.

We chatted the whole way out to the park, and found it with no issues thanks to the handy little GPS. We started into the park, which is modest-looking enough at first, and we went right, heading toward the waterfalls. The rock formations emerge suddenly out of the trees, and Shannon started tromping about them, investigating little side trails and such. He was impressed with the height and beauty of the falls, even though the volume of water is low. Then I took him to the “big guns” – the red trail.

There are four trails at Nelson Ledges, and each is (somewhat) marked by different colored blazes. The red trail is the most difficult and leads over, under, and through many rock formations. Shannon finally had to admit he was impressed, especially when the three of us went through a new-to-all-of-us crack in the rock that was a long and very narrow squeeze, but still officially part of the red trail. We made our way down into rock formations that actually had cool breezes blowing out of them because of the cave-like temperatures in them. We made our way back from the end of the red trail via the blue trail, which was easier, but still interesting (although it did give rise to the derogatory comment of “That’s so blue trail!” by me and Shannon). It was a great outing.

On the way to the park, I had noticed lines in the road that looked like buggy tracks, so I mentioned there must be Amish nearby. That made Mer remember that Mary Yoder’s Amish Restaurant should be close by, and once again our little GPS came in handy – it found the restaurant on the “search” feature, and so we went there for supper. Shannon is a vegetarian, so his options were sort of limited, but he had a veggie-burger and all was well. We all had pretty giant pieces of pie for dessert, and we headed home. Day One made up some small ground in erasing the memory of roofing the house.