The Adventures of Zoë

A Previous Friday Adventure

I actually started writing this post a while back (shortly after that particular Friday!) but never got around to finishing and posting it. So, here is another episode of Friday Adventures with Shannon!

We needed a break, both to get out of the studio and to get some fresh inspiration, so we spent some time driving around Cleveland. First we went to the Cleveland Museum of Art. It's currently undergoing some major renovations, so lots of it is closed, but they did have a really neat exhibit of Asian Art.

We drove by Franklin Castle, which is actually just an old fancy house, but is also supposedly quite haunted. Apparently any time anyone tries to fix up the building or use it for anything, things "mysteriously" keep going wrong, and every project and owner so far has failed.

Then we drove through the Lake View Cemetery, which is both huge and elaborate. There is a rather famous chapel there, Wade Chapel, which has possibly the most famous Tiffany stained glass window. In fact, the entire inside of the chapel was designed from Tiffany, and aside from the window, it features enormous biblical mosaics on both inside walls.

The entire cemetery was full of lots of really ornate monuments and mausoleums for some very famous and wealthy dead Clevelanders. The Garfield Monument is definitely the king of them all; it even looks like a castle, complete with turrets, gargoyles, and imposing iron doors. Random trivia - it is one of the first mausoleums (combination tomb and memorial) ever built.

We then finished the afternoon with a trip to the West Side Market, which has both a farmer's market of sorts as well as an inside hall full of year-round specialty vendors with amazing fresh pasta, meats, seafood, baked goods, and about a zillion other delicious things to eat.

posted by Zoe @ 10:01 PM