Sunday, September 12, 2010

Cleveland Or Bust - Part 2: My Adventures as a Tourist

As promised here's a little of our Cleveland sightseeing...

First stop was to visit the house that played the role of the Parker Family's home in one of my favorite movies, A Christmas Story. Now, seeing as it is played 24 hours a day around Christmas time, I imagine most of you are familiar with the story of young Ralphie Parker, who's only 2 wishes in the world are to receive a Red Rider BB gun for Christmas, (No, Ralphie you'll shoot your eye out!) and to finally get his little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin, in the mail.


A small talk is given outside of the house, and once inside you are basically given free range of the home and encouraged to act out your favorite scenes! An added bonus to our visit was that Ian Petrella, the actor who played Ralphie's little brother Randy, was visiting his old home as well! All grown up now, he was gracious enough to pose for a picture with me, (second row middle). The whole thing was a complete blast!

Now, no trip to Cleveland would be complete without a visit to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...


What a fabulous piece of architecture! In fact the whole surrounding area was gorgeous! I had no idea that the city of Cleveland was so beautiful. Lots to see in the museum, but picture taking was only allowed in the lobby. Also, if you ever are looking for obscure and generally hard to find music, the gift shop is a super resource. Lots of great finds!

We also did lots of exploring of various small towns and beaches. My favorite town was the beautiful Chagrin Falls. If I had the money, I could see retiring here, it was that enchanting...


(First picture top row, is of a restaurant we ate at, with a view overlooking the falls.)

On the way back home to Pennsylvania we visited one of my favorite places, Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. This was a joy to see again. No photo's are allowed to be taken inside the home, but outside it's free range... the only stipulation is that you don't share any of the images of the house publicly, (which is too bad as I got some beauties!). I am however, (just to validate that we were there!) going to share this one photo of hubby and me, with just a wee little bit of the home in the background... I think that would be okay...
(don't tell!)



Thanks for indulging me. Next blog post will be about sewing. Promise!

16 comments:

Erin @ Why Not Sew? Quilts said...

Your trip looks like it was great! I'd love to visit the Christmas Story house. I wish I had the dad's lamp!

Caterina Giglio said...

oh I love Falling water, thanks for a tiny glimpse! what crazy rules they have!! outrageous!!

Jane Moxey said...

What a terrific adventure! I will look forward to seeing your segment on Quilting Arts! You took some wonderful photographs and thanks for sharing them with us.

Cheryl Arkison said...

Oooh, Fallingwater.... The whole trip sounds like a treat!

Anonymous said...

Oh what FUN you guys had! I'm so sad that I lived within driving distance of Falling water for many years and NEVER made the trip! And Chagrin Falls looks so cool!

connie said...

Oh, it looks like a fun trip. Someday I hope to see a Frank Lloyd Wright home. What a thrill. I love your mosaics of the photos. Thanks for sharing

picciolo said...

what a great trip, it lookslike you had a great time
: )

Allie said...

I think I'm the only person in the world who hasn't seen that movie, lol....looks like a GREAT trip, I'd love to go to the museum, and Fallingwater - be still my heart!!!

Jackie said...

I love blog posts like these..I'm so nosey. I don't know The Christmas Story but I have long loved Falling Water when I did History of Architecture at school. How lucky you were to see it.

XUE said...

I shall think of you when I finally watch A Christmas Story! What a great time you had with these sightseeing. And Chagrin Falss is truly spectacular - I googled to see more of it! Happy week, Vic!

Kristin Shields said...

Oh, I've always wanted to go to Falling Water. And I had no idea you could tour the Christmas Story house! Will have to plan for both of those someday.

Fer said...

What a fun trip! If I ever get to America then Falling Water would be high up on the To Do list!

Hey Harriet said...

I loved hearing about (& seeing) your holiday adventures! Looks like you and hubby had a super time away! I'm ashamed to admit that I've not seen A Christmas Story! I'm just not big on Christmassy movies but as it's one of your faves I think I should watch it. Because you have great taste! I'm so glad you had such a fun time Vic. You deserved it! Fun times are over now. Get back to work! ;D

Colleen MacDonald said...

Ahhhh.... a traveling break to fill your senses and rejuvinate your inner gypsy. Looks like it was a fabulous trip. You look beautiful and happy!

henny said...

Great traveling for both of you, second honeymoon? ;)
Thanks for sharing the pics. Love to see the Falling water of FLW. Remind me of old times when studying it at college :)

9patchnurse said...

OMG! I love that movie! I hope you didn't get 'soap.....poisoning!' hahahhaha I want to go there.