(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 Mushroom (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
Illinois	2/7/18	Do-Rite	Chai Maple
Illinois	2/17/18	Holcomb Hollow	Lemon Vanilla
Ohio	3/23/18	Holey Toledough	Blackberry Hibiscus & Cinnamon Roll
Wisconsin	4/1/18	Holey Moley Coffee + Doughnuts	Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Glaze, Cinnamon Sugar, Banana Bread, S’mores, Raspberry, Samoa, and Apple Fritter
Ohio	5/12/18	Brewnuts	Lemon Ginger and Oreo P’Nut Butter

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,”  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!

Last weekend was my annual December trip to Dallas to see my otra familia – Gina, Steve, Luca, and a new family member, GINGER!!!

Steven didn’t come on this trip since he’s too busy with work in December to travel

Gina is fantastic at finding fun stuff for us to do when I visit. We did our annual trip to see Santa, tried Goat Yoga (!!!), and went to a “Holiday Balloon Glow”!

We ate at some of my (and their!) favorite restaurants – Silk Road Thai Cuisine and Mellow Mushroom.

Photo we sent Uncle Steven as we were leaving the Thai restaurant to let him know it was us turning off the holiday lights from afar…

Conversation with Luca at Mellow: “What is Uncle Steven doing right now?” “Draw me what you think he is doing!” (using a weed wacker)

We had some home cooked meals too (Gina found a yummy vegan frittata for me!), including these amazing nachos.

Ha ha ha. On Saturday night, we were talking about nachos for dinner, but decided not to have them. Then on Sunday Steve mentioned the Cowboys vs Giants game was going to be on at noon and we decided we HAD to have nachos for the game… even though we only watched the final quarter. Any reason to make nachos!

On Saturday we were on the go (running, Santa, goat yoga, shopping, lunch, hot air balloons). Sunday was quiet, which I needed, because the cough I had during the week got worse, and I was also dealing with chills and sweats (sweats at night only), and achy lower legs. I was run down. And bonus: I got a bloody nose at the airport (waiting to board the plane home), which was a bit of a disaster.

I’m a bit of a disaster right now. Ugh. I’m grateful I could make my annual trip but bummed my body wasn’t feeling 100%! And hopeful I kept all my crudiness to myself. Eek.

On a funner note, now it’s time to start planning our 2018 adventures! We reviewed our 2017 visits on Sunday – five visits (March, April, May, July/August, & December). That’s pretty good for living so far apart!

I know I’ve mentioned this many times but it amazes me that I’ve become close with people I’ve met online. It makes sense – you meet people who share your interests and are more likely to hit it off when you meet in person because of that, but I suppose the “luck” of it is what blows my mind. How is it that we met friends that are like family to us, and like family to my family?!

I was in Dallas last weekend for Luca’s 6th birthday!

Steven and I have celebrated Luca’s 2nd, 3rd, and 5th birthdays in person with him! Steven wasn’t able to make this trip because of work though. Sad face. Luckily, I found affordable tickets for both of us to go for a weekend trip in May that won’t interfere with work. Yay! Better late than never!

Family pic minus Steven

We had a chill weekend <— my favorite kind! On Saturday am, Steve and I ran, then we volunteered at a 5K put on by the PTA at Luca’s school. Then we got lunch, did some shopping downtown, TOOK NAPS!, watched Luca open his presents (while we Facetimed Steven), and went out for dinner.

I found a cute Iowa decoration while we were out shopping!

On Sunday Gina and I ran, then we all chilled before going to Luca’s birthday party. He had a bowling, pizza, and arcade games party, and the kids were so well behaved! We went home for a bit after, then went out to dinner. On Monday Gina and I ran then I had to head home. Short but great trip!

The title of this picture is “Tan=delicious.” Clockwise from top left: custom vegan pizza at Mellow Mushroom, nachos from Frankies, Pad See-ew from Silk Road Thai (not pictured: super strong Mai Thai), and our traditional homemade pancakes (we try to make them each time we’re together!)

Even though we see our otra familia several times a year, I’ll always wish we had MORE time together, so I am happy for the chill times when we can hang out, catch up, and be ridiculous together. And I am happy Steven will get to be a part of that in May!