Last Saturday was Mer’s day, but she did not have any plans until the afternoon, so it gave me time to run a twenty-mile run with Nate, which is the last long run until the Akron Marathon on the 28th. Of course, one of the kitties had played with my Nike+ receiver that keeps track of my running distances and speeds, so the long run went unrecorded; happily, I found the receiver the next day, ironically under my treadmill.
In the early afternoon, we headed up to Cleveland, to the area around the Cedar Lee Theater, to see Mer’s friend and former classmate Jill. We had a grand visit with Jill in her apartment, talking about music (mostly Over the Rhine) and eating french fries from the shop downstairs from the apartment. Later in the afternoon the three of us went over to the Case Western area to check out MOCA – the Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum itself is worth seeing – it is a funky building with lots of angles and glass. I’m not much of a modern art appreciator, although I do like some of it on occasion. Most of the art in MOCA was very abstract and did not excite me too much. I liked a small building made out of found and rescued stained glass, and I liked some sheets of colored paper that had been exposed to the sun, one day at a time, to form a sun-faded calendar. One hallway was “painted” in different colored lights with music playing that had that color in the title of the song, and that was fun. It was good to see another museum in Cleveland, and we went on a free-admission day, and the museum is easily toured in ninety minutes since it is only three small floors.
After a brief swing back to Jill’s apartment, we headed over to Shaker Square to meet up with Jill’s family to go to the Shaker Square Garlic Festival. The festival is two blocks long and celebrates garlic. The food we tried was excellent, and we saw the entire festival in about an hour. It was very enjoyable, and great weather for it. The only downside was admission – it was $8 each and that just got you into the festival – food was extra. I’m glad to have done it once, but $16 is too much for two people to then pay even more for expensive food.
As if the french fries and garlic festival were not enough, we headed over to Little Italy to meet up with one of Jill’s friends, also named Jill. Jill-2 lives right on the edge of Little Italy, so we walked there from her place. We went to Mama Santa’s restaurant, which is known for pizza, so of course I got pasta. The pizza that Mer and Jill-1 got looked really good, so I will get pizza next time. After supper, Mer and I picked up too many deserts from an Italian bakery, which we took home with us and ate back home. First, we walked back to Jill-2’s place, and then took Jill-1 back home before heading home ourselves. We did not quite eat our way through Cleveland, but we managed three distinct areas.