December 9th: Finally Catching Up - Cleveland trip in September

 I cannot believe it is December! Yesterday I noticed I hadn't caught the blog up since my trip to Canada. It's been a very busy 3 months. In a good way. At least until I got COVID 5 days ago. I was very tired at first but Paxlovid really helped so I started catching up on the blog since I would be homebound for ten days. I sure don't want to spread this to anyone else.

Julie and Jim at home in Euclid

 As usual, I stopped to visit with Julie and Jim on my way back to the West coast. They had a great dinner waiting for me after flying from Burlington to Cleveland. They are doing well.

My niece Stephanie told us about some major ecological restoration being done on the Cuyahoga River. Yes! that's the one that was on fire when I was a kid. The improvements over the years have been wonderful. Stephanie told us they removed a dam that I used to walk by in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. She wanted us to check it out and send pictures. She hiked that area and was anxious to see the improvements first hand. Of course we were happy to oblige.

As I was looking for information for the blog, I got sucked into a very interesting history. I provided these links for those who like historical details. What I appreciate most is that following years of abuse, progress is moving ahead rapidly and there are now plenty of safe to eat fish in the Cuyahoga river. There is so much negative news today! I wish they would focus on things like this!

Cuyahoga River fires

Cuyahoga River Gorge $100 million dollar dam removal project

Brecksville Dam removal videos

It was a beautiful day so Julie, Jim and I went to see, or I guess not see!, the dam. It looked great. Here are some pictures of the path along the river. The path runs the full length of the park.

This is the area of the river where the dam was removed. The bridge was always impressive to walk under.

The path is handicap accessible so I was able to take Jim for a very nice walk to the site where the dam was removed. I got ahead of Julie so I could get a picture of the trail and woods.

We arrived at the site. They did a great job. You would never know the dam had been there.

There is a nice overlook where we could get a good view of the river

Here is some additional information.

After our trip to the Cuyahoga river we went to the Creekside Restaurant for lunch. Julie recommended it. It was a very nice setting overlooking the river and the food was excellent!

Jim's bacon onion
 cheeseburger

Jim's burger was incredible! and so was Julie's crab cake sandwich.

Julie's crab cake sandwich

Julie is an excellent seamstress and has a very fancy sewing machine. I had been wearing a jacket that my nephew Will Torack gave me when I needed one while visiting the Toracks. I really like the jacket and Will said to take it, he hadn't worn it in 20 years! Okay then. The trouble is after wearing it a while in Canada it started coming apart at the zipper. Julie, being the wonderful sister she is, fixed it. She even had the matching color of thread. Good for another 20 years!

I happened to be at the house with Jim while Julie was at her Slovenian class. Jim asked if I'd help him try out his new suspenders. He had never worn any before. The back of his scooter is open and he was concerned about possibly "Mooning" people because his pants would slowly slip down while riding in the scooter. I supported the effort wholeheartedly. (Jim has a great sense of humor.)  We figured the suspenders out, adjusted them and they worked great. And he looks spiffy!

It was a relatively short visit but I was anxious to get back home to Encinitas and the kids. I had left in May and it was now mid September.