We didn't fly out of Cleveland until 7 pm on Wednesday, so we had some time to kill in Cleveland that day. The only thing we knew about Cleveland before researching was that the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame was there. We knew that our kids would be super bored with that, so I researched a little the day before we left on our trip to see what unique things I could find in Cleveland. I found this blog that had a lot of good suggestions, so I made notes of all of the things in our spreadsheet and that was the extent of our planning for the day. When we got in the car that morning, we asked the kids which of the things they wanted to try first. The one that peaked their interest was Tim Willis' Junkyard Playground. We put the address into GPS and were more skeptical about the choice the closer we got. We were headed into the hood. This is what we found when we got there.
We were hesitant to get out of the car, but we could see a few other people wandering around in the dirt lot, so we got out to check it out. The first thing the boys went to was this car
It had a ladder set up, so the boys figured that was an invitation to go inside. As they were sitting inside, Tim Willis himself walked over to us and asked our permission to make the top of the car move with them inside. He said that they just needed to sit there. Then he grabbed this big remote and proceeded to lift the whole top of the car off of them (it was hinged somewhere near the back bumper). From that point on, we got the private tour from Time. The next place he took us was to his dragon. The kids did not waste time when he told them that they could climb up on top of it.
The dragon had moveable heads and wings and probably legs, though we did not actually see the legs move. He builds his robots and cars out of people's junk. They were all painted in his signature yellow and red paint. We explored a bit around the yard while he talked about his art. Meanwhile, all of these sketchy looking people were driving past and calling out to him in greeting as they went by. LOL.
After we had explored all of the creations out in the yard, including the robot and his dog (both with moveable parts), Tim took us back into the little house that he built, complete with a bunker that he dug himself. There was also another robot in there. He showed us some of his high-tech equipment that he had back in his workshop, too.
When we were done, we got a picture with Tim and thanked him. We wanted to donate to his cause, but he declined any money. He told us about his Instagram page, so we found that. There are some fun videos on there of his robots and cars driving down the street.
After we were done at the junkyard playground, we went into the downtown area. There was a giant rubber stamp statue in one of the parks that we had read about online. We drove by to look at it because parking was kind of an issue downtown. We also drove past a giant outdoor chandelier in the theater part of town. We drove past the Browns stadium, too. We saw the science center but decided that visiting it wasn't worth the time and money to do so. Our last stop in Cleveland was the West Side Market. It was an indoor marketplace with a bunch of different booths. Most of the places sold baked goods, cheese, or meat. The macaron varieties were impressive.
The boys wanted to get lunch at the crepe booth. They love crepes. I walked around a lot with Ashley to try and find something that we wanted for lunch. (Danny decided he wasn't hungry). We settled on a place that sold calzone-like things. Mine was a chicken alfredo and Ashley just got cheesy bread. We also passed a booth that sold maple flavored goodies. We bought a little bag of maple candy because it looked delicious and a bag of maple candied cashews. While Ashley and I were walking around and waiting on our food, Danny and the boys broke out the maple candy. The eight pieces in there disappeared so quickly. So Danny went back and bought more. After the market, we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags and hang out in the lobby until it was time to go to the airport. We saw this sign as we walked into the airport.
We were sad to be done with our trip, but we were also excited to go home to our dog and our own beds. Our last flight was delayed, so we didn't end up pulling into our driveway until around 1:30am. We were exhausted and we all slept in late the next day.
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