(not together, sadly)
We visited Anne and Terry in Cleveland this weekend!
It was the first time both Steven and I had been there, which means… new pin in the map!
FRIDAY!
Most of Friday afternoon and evening was spent driving. It’s a six hour drive, plus some, when you leave during Chicago rush hour traffic. Happily, traffic was a breeze in Indiana and Ohio!
Anne picked up personal pizzas for everyone from Mellow MushroomĀ (which we’ve had before in Texas and enjoy despite their sometimes odd service), and we ate at 10:00 pm. Totally normal dinner time (ha, the four of us always joke about eating dinner at 4:00 pm so it was funny to be eating so late)!
Teriyaki tofu, caramelized onions, roasted red pepper, and vegan cheese
Of course, Heidi kept me company during dinner!
SATURDAY!
Anne and I had plans to run in the morning, but we decided not to set alarms because we went to bed at midnight. So I was impressed when I woke up and my watch said 5:30 am!
Um, Kim, that would be because your watch hasn’t reset to eastern time yet. It’s 6:30, derrrrr…
But we still got our run in! We went to Brecksville Reservation, part of the Cleveland Metroparks trail system close to Anne and Terry’s place.
The park was gorgeous! It’s a treat to see so much green, after our forever long winter. And I enjoyed seeing the places in person Anne’s told me about. And of course, getting to chat during a run!
After our run we were off to a main event of the day – getting donuts at Brewnuts. Anne is a supporter of my Vegan Donut Tour of America, and Brewnuts has several vegan flavors each day! This weekend’s flavors were Oreo P’Nut Butter and Lemon Ginger (the rest of the group tried Raspberry Chiffon, Hot Nut Frycake, and Strawberry Sprinkle).
The flavors were AMAZING! Everything tasted light and fresh. I thought the Oreo one was going to be my favorite but I ended up loving Lemon Ginger! Definitely four drooly faces.
| State | Date | Name | Flavor(s) | Rating (0-4) | Photo |
| Kansas | 1/15/18 | Mud Pie | Cake Chocolate Frosted |  |
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| Illinois | 2/7/18 | Do-Rite | Chai Maple |  |
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| Illinois | 2/17/18 | Holcomb Hollow | Lemon Vanilla |  |
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| Ohio | 3/23/18 | Holey Toledough | Blackberry Hibiscus & Cinnamon Roll |  |
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| Wisconsin | 4/1/18 | Holey Moley Coffee + Doughnuts | Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Glaze, Cinnamon Sugar, Banana Bread, S’mores, Raspberry, Samoa, and Apple Fritter |  |
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| Ohio | 5/12/18 | Brewnuts | Lemon Ginger and Oreo P’Nut Butter | |
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We went to a park by Lake Erie after. The sunny skies from the morning were replaced with fog and it was chilly (naturally) by the lake, and also, windy enough for paragliding (ha, not by us, but maybe next time!)!
Guess what we did after that? Got MORE donuts. We went to Anne and Terry’s favorite donut place, Becker’s, so Steven could try those donuts too… but not then because we were all full (duh don’t be silly).
But not too full for lunch, which was leftover pizza and hummus and carrots! YUM!
After lunch was the main main event – more donuts! Just kidding – axe throwing (really, hatchets)! We tried it at Cleveland Axe Throwing. We’d already signed up online and signed waivers so we got to walk right in and get to throwing, after a brief safety instruction and a little bit of guidance and practice of two-handed and one-handed throws.
I’ll admit, at first I was really frustrated because nothing I threw would stick, but I eventually got the hang of it, as I thought of it as a strength move and talked myself through it like one – step and hard release, throw with your hips, exhale as you throw, etc.
Steven and I got matching bullseyes once
We were on teams of girls vs boys and had to come up with team and individual names (we kind of wished we had known that and could have prepped those in advance!). We were “You Axed 4 It,”Ā featuring 2 Axe 2 Furious and Lil’ Orphan Axie, and the boys were “Maxe Professionals,” featuring Maxe Payne and Mad Maxe (Why didn’t I think to use my maiden/middle name which has “ax” in it?! I don’t know!). The teams competed in several point tallying games and a version of tic-tac-toe.
I had fun, but it’s definitely something that can be frustrating if you aren’t successful at least a few times, or don’t have good pointers (for example, halfway through, our guide suggested I move my hands down the axe and I did much better after that… maybe we should have spent more time on form to start?).
Steven won the final competition, so he got the “Lumber Lord” tattoo!
We chilled at home after axe throwing (my arm was tired!) then got dinner at Taco Tonto’s. The service was baaaaaaaad, but I enjoyed trying their vegan nachos, and tacos!
And of course, we had to continue to vegan tour after that, by stopping at Mitchell’s for ice cream!
Steven casually showing off his tattoo while eating the vegan Salted Caramel Pecan ice cream
So. Much. Good. Food.
Anne had been telling me about how she noticed a lot of places out here have vegan options, and they sure do! Crazy that Cleveland is like that… and that we don’t see more of that near where we live in Chicagoland!
SUNDAY!
We were going to hike Sunday morning but it stormed during hiking hours (much like right now, as I took time off from work this am to run but it’s pouring rain)! Boo. So we had a relaxed morning. Anne and I went on a run (yay!) and the boys watched part of John Wick.
Then we went to the best restaurant ever, Melt Bar & Grilled.
Oh. My. Gosh. The menu is mostly crazy awesome options for grilled cheese sandwiches that you can completely customize. The menu is EXTREMELY vegan friendly with several meat substitutes, and two kinds of vegan cheese. I could tell the waitress really understood veganism too, by the questions she asked.
We got Wild Tofu Wings,
Hangover Fries,
and I got the Melt Vegan Cheeseburger (made with the Impossible Burger),
and Steven got the Backyard BBQ.
Everything was amazing and I found myself feeling giddy with excitement to try my sandwich after the appetizers were so good. I was actually clapping my hands when I saw our dishes come out! It’s totally not healthy, but such an awesome treat (and so fun to be excited about food!). I’ll be thinking about that sandwich for weeks and months.
After lunch we said our goodbyes and left! Sadness! We hit the road at 1:00 est. We did four shifts of driving and got home at 6:00 cst. A little quicker than our way out there, thankfully.
The kitties were happy to see us! They had even given Steven a card to give me that morning, aww.
Although right when we got home, Data did a very messy poo in his litter box that required cleaning walls and mopping floors after. Yeah, I’m calling the vet today.
After that it was our normal trip unpacking and Sunday evening chores!
We had such a fun time hanging out with Anne and Terry and eating our way through Cleveland! We both miss our monthly dates with them. I hope we get to see them when they’re in town this summer, and of course, at their new place in Columbus!
Sounds like a great weekend! The park for your Saturday run looks beautiful and all the food looks amazing š
It was! I am so glad we were able to go!
That looks like such a fun trip! The oreo doughnuts look amazing.
I guess you wanna stick by Steven for the zombie apocalypse, never know when you’ll need that axe throwing skill š
Its a pity Chicagoland doesn’t have more vegan places. I have an ice-cream shop (still haven’t tried) and a entirely vegan Thai place within blocks of me. If you ever come to L.A I’ll stuff you to the gills ha ha (I don’t know if thats an incentive or scary!!)
It was so good. Gah.
Ha! Definitely! He has a lot of other good apocalypse skills like fire building, beard intimidation (intimidating zombies with your beard), etc.
That is TOTALLY an incentive! And Chicago proper has stuff, I am just surprised I am not seeing more vegan friendly options out by me, in the yuppie towns. It’s all gluten free stuff š
We’re both so glad you guys were able to come to visit! We miss our monthly dates too š Once we get settled in Columbus I’ll start scouting out all the vegan places! Just kidding, we’ll go to Melt for every meal next time.
Terry and I agreed that this is by far the most fun weekend we’ve had in Cleveland. So I guess we needed to import friends sooner š
I hope Data is okay! Maybe he was acting out because he couldn’t spend Mother’s Day with you, as if all of the #catmomguilt I’m sure you experienced all weekend wasn’t enough.
Yeah, we gotta learn our lesson – only Melt. Ha ha ha. I need to make it through that menu before any future move!!!
Aww, yay! I am so glad! We had so much fun too! I’m glad this weekend worked out for all of us!
I wondered if that was why he did it. Like, geesh, can I take a break from my furr children and have some freaking me time and self care and all the vegan food?! I GUESSS NO!
AXE THROWING. I love it. You guys have the best time together!
We do! And I do recommend the axe throwing! I want to try again, now that I kind of know how to do it. Kind of. Ha. (As you can guess, Steven is now plotting how to build an axe throwing board in our yard.)
I would expect nothing less, LOL.
Ha ha ha!
It sounds like Anne is the key to finding a four drooly face donut! Hopefully there will be four drooly face donuts in Columbus, too š How many drooly faces does the vegan ice cream get?
I had never heard of axe throwing until a little over a year ago, I think? Now it seems like it’s everywhere! I’m curious about how it became to be a thing, because throwing axes at targets certainly would not have been my first idea of a way to have a good time, haha.
She is! I bet she will find the good donuts in Columbus too! Hmm, the ice cream was definitely good. I’d say 2.5-3. The texture was almost just right (very creamy) and the flavors were great (although a bit too sweet) but I’ve totally been spoiled by how realistic the dairy-free Ben and Jerry’s is. Ha!
I wonder too. I blame the hipsters š Do you think you will try it? This place we went to even has a league! Crazy!
Maybe? I’m actually one of the people responsible for planning events for the three departments that report up to my VP *flips hair*, so I certainly have the power to suggest this as a team outing!
Oh nice! Suggest it! Ours actually had some team building activities (well, competition against the other team)!
Wow, you had so many good meals (and snacks/desserts) on this trip. Even though I just at dinner, I still want so many of those fries and donuts (and pizza). We had a Mellow Mushroom in college, and I always liked it, but the inside was so dark and weird. Take-out sounds more enjoyable.
I think I’ve run on that trail! It looks familiar, and I’ve definitely been running on a water-side trail around Cleveland, so…
Maybe you can run the Cleveland marathon some time!
Steven said the Hangover Fries were his favorite thing at Melt! They were so good. They were supposed to have a fried egg on them, which I bet would be even better! Ha, that is a good description of the Mellow interior!!! Takeout probably IS better… even though it was pre-ordered and 20 mins late. Ha (but we got in so late anyway so it didn’t matter).
I bet you have! Anne said it goes around the entire city!
I do need to do an OH race š
That pic was from the Towpath trail near the Station Road trailhead in Brecksville Reservation/Cuyahoga Valley National Park. But pretty much every trail in every Cleveland Metropark looks like that at some point š
Aww what a wonderful weekend! It looked like you guys really hit up all the delicious places š I want the pizza and wings and everything.
Iām hoping my boys got me a card, but Iām sure CB is ready to murder us all after being boarded for a week.
We did! It was so fun to eat all those treats!!!!!
Aww, poor CB! I hope he doesn’t murder you guys! LOL
Oh my, I had no idea axe throwing was a thing you could just do for fun, hahaha. I kinda want to see if there’s something around me where I could “practice” my axe throwing skills. You never know when you’re gonna need ’em. š
All of the food you ate while in Cleveland looks OMG DELICIOUS. I would never pick Cleveland as being a foodie paradise, but apparently, I’m wrong.
Hee hee, you DEFINITELY need to! Let me know if you go!
Right?! Me either!!! I am STILL thinking about Melt. I have to go back a few times this summer/fall for work and am going to try to go again!