Brief Pit Stop in Cleveland and On to a Girls’ Weekend in Fort Worth

From Arizona, I flew to Chicago where I met up with Michael and we rented a car and drove to Cleveland.  We had considered trying to meet up with friends and family in Chicago but frankly had no time due to a bright and early appointment the next morning.

We had also debated whether to take the domestic flight into Cleveland but in the end opted to drive because we would have had to rent a car in Cleveland any way.  In retrospect, I wish we had flown.  I vastly underestimated the distance (I was horrified when it took us nearly six hours with no traffic) and I think Michael vastly underestimated how tired and jetlagged he would be coming in on a direct fourteen hour flight from Hong Kong.  I am just really not good at road trips…

During our time in Cleveland, I went to see Michael’s childhood home and had dinner with his parents and youngest brother as well as lunch with one of Michael’s brothers who works downtown.  

While in Cleveland we stayed at the Westin with SPG points.  The Westin is brand new – just opened spring of 2014 – and seems to herald some new life in Cleveland’s downtown.  The Republican National Convention will next be held in Cleveland so that should be interesting…

Overall, we had a really good visit in Cleveland – the best we could have asked for (except for the very last hour of the trip, when in the span of an hour we managed to discover that one of Michael’s credit cards had been stolen during a pit stop on our drive from Chicago and the other credit card had been cancelled and not properly renewed…which, combined with his bank card that mysteriously never showed up at his parent’s house in Ohio, left Michael with potentially no working credit cards to pick up his rental car the next morning… the panic which led us to take a roundabout and detour-filled route to the airport and which ultimately resulted in our rental car being returned late for a hefty charge...fun times). 

After that very stressful last hour, Michael  and I bid each other adieu; he was headed back home to hang out with his family before heading out to a childhood friend’s bachelor party, and I headed for my flight to Dallas Fort Worth, to see and hang out with my good law school girl friends for the weekend.