My wife and I decided to take a trip to the East side of Cleveland to check out some Christmas time activities. Our first top was to the Wade Oval ice skating rink in Cleveland Heights.
Ice Skating
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| Wade Oval Rink. |
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| Kids used cones to hold onto while skating. |
If you have never been ice skating before, it is very similar to roller blading, but with a really, really thin piece of metal touching really, really slippery ice. So it is not the same at all. Ice skating is like pool. You are the 8 ball and at some point if you are out there long enough the cue ball (children) is going to fly into you and knock you down. Luckily, neither of us left with icy rears.
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| Proof for all the doubters. |
Little Italy
After ice skating we made our way around the corner to the Little Italy district of Cleveland. I had only ever driven through the culturally inclined street and Sarah had never been there at all. It was really cool. The street was filled with art galleries, clothing boutiques, trinket stores, restaurants, and bakeries.
After we visited a few of the small shops (including an art gallery that gave us free wine) we came upon a beautiful sight.
Corbo's Bakery has been family owned and operated for over 50 years and specialize in (you guessed it) Italian pastries and cookies.
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| You don't have to tell me twice. |
We decided to go inside and survey the goods. The place was packed with people who were familiar with the ordering process, which apparently is yelling your order across the room while you weave in and out of the other occupants. This was no bother to us, because as the display case became visible we were presented with the most glorious selection of authentic Italian goods.
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| Heaven. |
Even with all of this temptation in front of us, our decision was easy. What we were after resided on top of the case.
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| Best cannoli I have ever had. |
We then left the bakery with our goods and returned to the car. We had one stop left. A family Christmas tradition for the both of us closer to home, the Finwood Estate in Elyria.
Finwood Estate
FInwood Estate was built in 1929 for an Elyria Judge by the name of Guy B. Findley. In 1945 it was deeded to the City of Elyria to use for park purposes. In 1958 he passed away and his wife lived there until 1978 when the ownership finally passed to the city. The forest around the property is littered with different trees from around the world that the Findley's brought back from their many trips and much of the Oak and Walnut that was used to build the residence was taken from the property. (City of Elyria)
The property is now used for rental of the garage area for meeting and during the holiday season is home to an amazing Christmas display of lights, trains, hot chocolate, cookies, and of course, Santa Claus.
Both Sarah and I have been coming here with our families since we were children. She used to pass out girl scout cookies and I used to eat them. We probably even ran into each other a couple of times and never knew it. Here are some pictures of the display.
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| Lights when you enter the parking lot area. |
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| Finwood Estate and the fuzz. |
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| Living room tree. |
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| Second floor window. |
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| Eskimo! |
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| Hot Cocoa! |
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| This picture only took like a thousand tries. |
After we checked out the lights and drank our cocoa we returned home, driving by some more lights on the way. When we got there we sat in front of the tree and applied the gift we bought for ourselves from Little Italy.
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| Buon Natale! |
Thanks for reading!
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