Cleveland, Day 2

The purpose of our family trip was to celebrate my parents' 35th wedding anniversary. They have a goal of watching baseball in each of the MLB stadiums, and they haven't yet hit many of the Midwest parks. So that's what brought us to Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and NYC.

Saturday's plan included the Indians vs A's night game and nothing else. So we decided to head south to Canton and hit the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I'd been there once before on a trip with Brad's family (Brad was actually born in Alliance, OH, and has tons of family in the area), but I was only allowed to visit the bathroom and gift shop. This time we paid the admission fee and actually went inside - woohoo!
Jerry Rice, a McKee family fav, is one of this year's Hall of Fame inductees:
There was tons of history and memorabilia (Did you know it was originally called foot ball - two words?). There was also a section highlighting each NFL team's history and hall of famers. Dad posed by Steve Young in the 49ers display:
Seahawks for me and Mom:
Then into the hall, which has a bronze bust of each inductee.
Very cool!
Brad, who has been to the hall of fame several times (and doesn't even like football!) decided to spend his time across the highway taking pictures at Monument Park:
We'd vowed to eat local on this trip - no Denny's or McDonald's for us. What's more Ohio than Hartville Kitchen?! Brad remembers eating here when it was just a little restaurant. It's now a huge place with gift shop and more:
I learned on my previous Ohio trip that there's nothing more authentic than noodles and mashed potatoes. Brad literally dreams of this dinner:
I had the fish version. YUM!
After dinner we spotted the very worst comb-over we'd ever seen. Ever. We started laughing and decided we needed a photo to remember it (though it's burned in our minds forever). We posed for a "family photo" while Brad stealthily got him in the shot. I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants.
Seriously?!?! It looked like horns.We continued north to Progressive Field in Cleveland and scored some great seats down the third-base line.
Brad also doesn't like baseball but enjoyed practicing his sports photography with the new toy. He snapped some wonderful action shots.
Patriotic fireworks after the game:
This was just days before LeBron James made the big announcement that he was leaving Cleveland and signing with Miami. The Cavs had signs around town hoping to keep fans loyal even if King James left town. I tried out the LeBron pose:
Days later, we heard the much-anticipated and debated announcement and then saw news footage of workers immediately taking down that billboard.

:)