Emily Visits!

One of my good friends from Cincinnati came up to visit me this past weekend. She was one of the first friends I made at college (we were in the same learning community) and is the longest friend I've had from school. I was really excited for her to visit because I don't have a whole lot of friends here and it's hard to plan things with the friends I do have because we either work the same days or they have other commitments, so it was nice to have a break and be able to hang out with someone. (Sorry in advance for only having Instagram pictures!)

My goal for her visit was to have her experience "Cleveland." It was a short trip, but I think it's more fun to experience what is typical to that area than what you can go to at any other city (like chain restaurants). Our first stop was Melt Bar and Grill. If you ever visit Cleveland you have to go there. It's grilled cheese on steroids. It was a really long wait but worth it. Emily thought it was hilarious that they gave us Nick Cannon as our wait name, so I had to take a picture of it.

Afterwards, we got coffee at Dunkin Donuts (I know, not local, but if you live in California it'll be a new experience for you!). We went to Salvation Army to try to find an ugly Christmas sweater. Although we were unsuccessful at finding an ugly Christmas sweater we were successful in finding other ugly clothing items. Then I gave her a short tour of Mentor before we headed over to the mall. Even though I hate the mall I did find a couple cute shirts.

We headed back to my house to charge our phones and settle our stomachs a little more before heading to Great Lakes Brewery. Honestly, you do not have to eat the next two days after having half a Melt sandwich, but we were troopers and made the most of our GLB experience. It was my first time at GLB and so I was nervous about parking but Emily spotted the perfect place to parallel park without having to pay! It's a good thing I had practice parallel parking in Cincinnati because I parked my car like a champ.

I don't know if it was our luck or we just showed up at the wrong times but the wait for a table was also really long. So we passed the time drinking Christmas Ale (which you all must try if you are 21 and older) and chatting. We finally got a table and order some Edmund Fitzgeralds, which is also super delicious with its' chocolate-coffee taste! Emily ordered mussels, and I got artichoke dip. Both offered plenty of food or we might just have been full from lunch still! Finally, we finished our experience off with Christmas Ale ice cream! Yes, they have ice cream! It was so delicious!

Finally, since we were in the area I thought it would be fun to drive past the Christmas Story House. Yes, the actual house from the movie! Part of the film (all the house scenes) were filmed in Cleveland right in that very house. It was too late to see anything inside, but it was fun to just see the house. I actually have tickets to go on the tour, so keep an eye out for those pictures! It was almost surreal to see something from one of your favorite movies in person!