Eeek! No, my dear reader, I have not been neglecting you. While I am sorry for the lack of posts lately, Todd and I are on vacation in Ohio! Why Ohio do you ask? Well, that is a very good question. Ohio is where Todd grew up! And we have a wedding to attend! I'm very excited to be here, as you can tell.
While I've been neglecting you away we've been enjoying visiting with family, healthy grocery stores that don't exist in Alaska, and seeing fun wildlife like raccoons and deer! Here are a few pictures to tide you over until we get back up to Alaska, because I love you.
Okay, so this may be a strange photo to start a post with but seriously you guys, I found this toilet was in the Chicago airport and I just had to take a picture. What is this?! A little Alaskan like myself was unsure. I can spot an outhouse from a mile away, but this gadget I was unfamiliar with. Did I accidentally board a plane to Tokyo or something?? Now, before you get any ideas, I'm not some uncultured hillbilly okay?
I have traveled a fair amount. My mom worked for a large airlines for most her life so we flew standby and traveled on a whim. I've been to most of the United States, Scotland, England, the Galapagos Islands and I'm heading to Turks and Caicos this fall, but I have never seen one of these guys. I've even been in the Chicago airport before...several times! So, you can imagine my excitement. It took me a minute to figure out how to work the thing. Anyway, I felt I had to share this marvel with the world. Have you seen one of these toilets before? I thought it was pretty neat.
After the visit with the alien toilet, we decided we needed some food. And the Chicago airport lended some tasty fare. After some research, I found that a little stand called Cibo Express had some vegan options. It wasn't great, but I felt blessed to even have an option that didn't involve a packet of oreos or an apple.
I got Todd a Vegan Jerusalem Steak Sandwich and I myself a Vegan Buffalo Tofu Wrap. I was surprised to discover after my first bite that it was not a buffalo wrap but infact their Vegan Southwestern Wrap. It was still good though. I also got some of those Brad's Kale Chips after, the previous week, watching how they were made. This happened to be pure coincidence and as we don't have these kale chips in Alaska and so I just had to buy them. I also bought some fresh fruit and a San Pellegrino Limonata. It cost a small fortune.
My little friend, Cari (if she lived in Alaska, we would be inseparable. In my eyes anyways...in my creepy, creepy eyes), the boys and myself went to the West Side Market in Cleveland. Soooo many animal body parts. Ick. But, you know I love to grocery shop and we found a great bread place, with delicious vegan bread. I bought some fresh and dried fruit and some kale, too.
The seller of the fresh fruit kept calling Cari and myself, "Baby". Such as, "Come on Baby, I'll give you three peaches for price of two. Three for the price of two, Baby." Anyways, Cari, if you're reading this, I love you dearly and if you and Mr. Grumpy ever break up, we'll sure miss Mr. G. Cari is behind the delightfully hilarious food blog, Home With You.
Todd and I always get our picture taken by the Chagrin Falls. The first time I ever visited his hometown we took a picture by the falls and it just stuck. Now it's our little tradition. It's fun to see how we've changed through the years and it always reminds us of our prior visits. Chagrin Falls is a small town in Ohio, about an hour outside of Cleveland. It's a pretty snotty little frou frou town, so of course, I love it. Actually, the popcorn shop in the comic Calvin and Hobbes is the popcorn shop in Chagrin Falls! The Calvin and Hobbes creator, Bill Watterson, is originally from Chagrin Falls. As a fervent reader of Calvin and Hobbes, (as in, I have all the books and I used to read them before bed over and over again) I nearly died when I found this out and I immediately had to go there for myself.
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We took a kayak trip down the Cuyahoga River. Yes, this is the same "river that caught fire" many years ago. Look how much you're learning? I know, I know. I didn't swim in it, okay! Okay, I did. But not really. See, nature called, so I had to row ashore and while getting out of the kayak I tipped it over like a complete fool and fell into the water. When we completed our 2 hour float trip about 45 minutes later, I realized that my phone was in that tipped kayak. Key word was.
Well, we launched back upriver by a bridge and had to paddle upstream about 20 minutes to find the spot where I had stopped. Well, Todd, myself and his little brother "search-and-rescue" style found my phone in under 2 minutes! It had died so we couldn't use the "Find My iPhone" locator and the water was too murky to actually see through. It was a harrowing experience. Not to mention my poor knee took the brunt of my spill out of the kayak. I had to literally dig a pebble out my knee myself! But my phone is okay. It lives inside a Lifeproof case, thank goodness and I can personally attest to it's function! My phone survived being submerged, at the bottom of a river that had once caught fire, for over one hour. Now that's sayin' something. That case has saved my phone many times. Sometimes I wish I had a Lifeproof case, like, for my body...
Well, that's all for now. Tomorrow we head down to Columbus for a wedding and then we'll be back up to Alaska shortly thereafter. By the way and completely unrelated, I just saw a trailer for a new Wolverine X-Man movie. True story. Whhhaaattt?! Soooo exciting!!
