Chickenfoot RulesHad a good weekend in Cleveland. Took the day off on Friday, dropped the kids off at Nana and Papa's house and headed into town. On the way downtown, Lisa and I stopped off at two different Marc's, Bed Bath and Beyond for a hot pot and to Five Guys Burger and Fries for Lunch. I guess I should explain the Marc's issue with Lisa. Lisa is totally addicted to the closeout section of Marc's. She loves the bargain that can be had about 30% of the time. Sometimes the selection varies from store to store slightly so it has become sort of a personal quest to find all the good deals every time we come within 2 miles of a Marc's store. Typically we shop the entire store at the first stop and then it's merely a 10 minute look around the front of the store at any stops thereafter. By the way, Five Guy's was pretty damn good! The best fast food burger I've probably ever had and the free toppings didn't hurt matters. One other item of note before I go too much further is that Lisa and I definitely fell off the diet wagon on this trip and started back this morning.
Friday afternoon, we met up with my Mom and Ron and headed to the Rock Hall. The Rock Hall has been open for probably more than 10 years and I had never set foot in the place. Matter in fact, I never had the urge to plop down $22 to go through the museum. I'm glad I got free tickets! Not that the museum isn't interesting but most of the people highlighted, I had never heard of before. If I had about 6 hours and was by myself, I probably would have learned a lot about the history of Rock N Roll but I really didn't feel like reading what would have amounted to a small novel while I fought for a decent position to read. Anyway, I am glad I finally saw it but it may be another 10-15 years before I go again. After the Rock Hall visit, we all jumped in a cab and headed to The Great Lakes Brewing Company. I've been wanting to go to Great Lakes for some time and finally had the opportunity...thank to Ron for suggesting it. Mom, Ron and I shared a sampler and then I had another pint of my favorite (the IPA) before heading back to the hotel to change clothes for dinner.
Dinner was at Brasa, which is a Brazilian type steakhouse. The food was pretty good but not as good as I remember when I went to a different Brazilian Steakhouse. Brasa didn't seem to have the same entertainment factor and the service wasn't as quick as I remember at the other place. The meat wasn't seasoned as well either. All in all, it was still a good meal and I was grinning ear to ear with all that juicy meat being served. I did enjoy myself but I think I would pick a different spot next time I'm going to spend $35 a person downtown.
Saturday, Lisa and I slept in late and then headed down to The West Side Market. I hadn't been to the market for probably more than 20 years and I was bound and determined to go and buy a fish. I have absolutely no idea why I wanted to buy a fish but I did....and I didn't buy a fish at all. I ended up buying a really cool montage of Cleveland pictures in a print by Jim Ptacek. I spent some time speaking to the artist and he's a really nice guy. My sister, Kim, actually bought me one of his prints several years ago of Jacob's field which I have hanging up in my office at work. Jim even threw in a few postcards and signed them for Lisa. I also picked up a really nice t-shirt that is a picture of a half ham with the word HAM printed on it. I will wear that one to work one casual Friday for obvious reasons.
After the market, I headed to my brother's house to pick him up for our wine making session. We had time to kill and Lisa and I hadn't had anything to eat so we stopped by The Brew Kettle for a quick bite and a couple of beers before walking two doors down to make our 30 bottles of Shiraz. The process was incredibly simple. Basically mixing a coagulant into grape concentrate, mixing in some oak and adding the yeast. The hard part comes over the next 8 weeks or so. There will be 5 racking and more additives before we go back to bottle mid October. After wine making, Lisa and I headed back down for the big concert.
We ended up heading down to the concert 2 hours before show time in order to get a seat in the VIP tent. In the tent we were served hamburgers, brats, coleslaw, chips and cookies along with all the Miller products you could drink. The concert wasn't bad at all, it was much more enjoyable because of all the people I know that attended. It was nice catching up with everyone. Jeff is a groupie of the opening act, he and his fiance Paula have seen the guy 8 times (I think that's what he said anyway) and the only way I can describe his music is Eric Clapton style. Chickenfoot was exactly what you would have expected out of a group let by Sammy Hagar. I didn't mind the music at all. After the concert most of the group headed to Flannery's (see several previous opening day posts). I had a beer and then Lisa and I headed back to order the one and only Rascal House Pizza (again, see opening day posts)!
Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, stopped at a few more Marc's stores, a stop at Target and Marshall's and then headed for home. Lisa did find a nice picture for Katelyn's room for the wall over her bed at Marshall's. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home for a few things and then Bev and Ted dropped the kids off and had dinner. Brad; your Mom liked the Berry Wheat but your Dad preferred the pale ale.
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