A Great Mother's Day Visiting My Daughter in Ohio

     Sara, Jon, and I had a great time together for Mother's Day today. On our way to the Cleveland Aquarium, our Mother's Day excursion, we passed the Firestone Mansion in Akron.  None of the Firestone family actually lives in Akron anymore, so it's used for public events like the Hearst Castle in California. Tires and rubber aren't made in Akron, Ohio, anymore, so those rubber and tire factories are closed.  The business is in China now.
     Upon approaching Cleveland we emerged from the tunnel of trees along the grassy highway to a view of dredging piles and factory cooling towers spewing a little smoke.  Some of the roads were all ripped up for repair, so the GPS wasn't as useful due to the detours.  After quite an unplanned tour of Cleveland neighborhoods, we happened upon the aquarium. 

     It's built within an old brick factory with a circular brick chimney. They put spiny lobsters into the chimney and had a view glass ceiling to view them.  It was cool to walk right under them. The builders of the aquarium didn't have to go far to find rusting steel beams for their larger shark aquarium.  Cleveland still has some steel factories and a plethora of abandoned factories from the exodus of our jobs to China.  I loved the enormous coral mixed with the steel beams, but was quickly corrected by my daughter that the coral was plastic and not real.  Fooled me!  The aquarium wasn't up to the grandeur of Legoland's, Sea World, or The Birch Aquarium in San Diego, but it was a cool aquarium.
    For a late lunch we went to Mel's in Lakewood and had fancy grilled cheese sandwiches. I had a fried Monte Cristo, the heart attack special.  It was insanely good and dripping in oil.  The portions are also enormous in Ohio, so I have breakfast for tomorrow. We all had to rest afterwards---we were so full. No wonder people are so obese in Ohio.

    Before we drove back to Akron we managed to stop at Lakewood Park on Lake Erie to see the prettiest view of Cleveland.  It was well worth the stop, albeit quite chilly due to the cold wind off this cold lake.  I got a wonderful picture of my daughter and her boyfriend there. :-)
   What a wonderful Mother's Day.  I'm so glad that I used some vacation days and credit card points to come visit my daughter in Akron.  It might not be as pretty as my home in Sacramento, but it has my daughter, a jewel!
    My son, though in San Francisco, gave me a great present today, as well.  He found off-campus housing.  I'd heard that it was super difficult to find and extremely expensive there, so I've quite relieved.  I hope that it's in a safe neighborhood.  I wouldn't want him living in the dangerous part of town, like my daughter recently did in Akron.  I had no idea until we toured her old neighborhood yesterday.  I'm glad that I didn't know and that she and Jon are safely living elsewhere now.   What a wonderful Mother's Day!

P.S.  To my blog readers:  If you want to support a struggling math/engineering teacher and author, please buy my first book, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro," soon to be followed by my second book at:  https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781613464960         Thank You!