Cleveland Zoo

As with every other day, we awoke a little after 5 am but it was nice to stay in bed for a bit and just be lazy.  After watching all we could stand of the morning “news” shows, we walked down to breakfast at the Days Inn Cleveland Airport.  Since we were paying only $50 for a room with a king sized bed, we didn’t have terribly high expectations for breakfast.  However, there were several types of cold cereal, the ubiquitous waffle maker, some mini omelets and an assortment of breads for toasting.

After breakfast, we came back to the room to catch up on emails and plan for the day.  We were only 20 minutes from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo so we didn’t want to leave much before 9:20 since the zoo opens at 10 am.  Like yesterday, the weather was unparalleled today.  It was perfect for being out at a zoo.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the light breeze felt great in the mid-70s temperatures. 

The zoo wasn’t crowded at all when we arrived and we got right in.  Our Cincinnati Zoo membership got us in for half price so admission for the two of us was only $13 and parking was free. 

We were impressed with the size of the zoo that has a nice collection.  The Australia exhibit was especially good with several species of kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and other displays.  They have a great elephant exhibit with a number of animals in a large open area.  They have a number of primates and big cats in open enclosures.  We also liked the giraffes where there were at least six adults and some young.  Visitors could pay a few dollars to get lettuce leaves to feed to the adult giraffes.  Mary was happy that there are red pandas at the Cleveland Zoo.

We were also impressed with the botanical displays in the zoo.  It was obvious that many of the plants are brought in for the cold Cleveland winter.  There are a number of sedum and other succulents that are winter hardy.  Many of the late summer flowers were blooming this week. We stayed at the zoo until around 2 pm then walked over to the Rain Forest area which is included in our admission but has a separate facility next to the zoo.

The Rain Forest building is a large geodesic dome that has two main floors.  There many tropical species that were clearly labeled.  In addition to the rain forest plants, there are a few animals on display that are indigenous to the rain forest regions.  We especially liked the sloths and tree porcupines.  We stayed at the Rain Forest for a little over an hour and left for our motel around 3 pm.  Since we had skipped lunch, we ate some of the snacks that we had packed.  Most of these were Trader Joe’s items from my Christmas stocking last year.  We enjoyed munching on the figs and dried jackfruit on the drive back.

Mary had called her cousin, Kim, who lives in the Cleveland area and arranged to meet up for a bit this afternoon.  We had iced tea with Kim and her husband, Gene, at the Bob Evan’s near the motel.  It was nice seeing them.  Kim is the cousin who is closest to Mary’s age.  We had a really great time seeing them and catching up.  We promised to get with them soon for a longer visit.

This evening, we went to dinner at Campus Grille next to Baldwin-Wallace University in Berea, OH.  We had checked TripAdvisor and Campus Grille had excellent reviews for their Cuban food.  Since they were only 2 miles from our motel and we love Cuban food, we gave it a try.  The restaurant is very small with only about 8 tables inside and another 4 or so outside.  The staff there greeted us warmly and made sure we were happy with our meals.  I had chicken empanadas which had very moist chicken inside the masa flour shells with a generous amount of annatto added.  Mary ordered the Cuban sandwich, her favorite every time we go to a Cuban restaurant.  Her sandwich had a couple of slices of ham and a huge portion of some excellent roast pork and Swiss cheese.  The kicker that we have never had on a Cuban sandwich was the horseradish mustard.  The whole sandwich was toasted in a sandwich press.  The pork was falling apart and the juices dripped from the sandwich.  We had an exchange of entrees.  I gave her one of my two empanadas and she gave me half of her sandwich.  We were both happy with our meals.  We shared an order of tostones (fried plantains) that came in a large aluminum plate.  Most of the tostones came back to the motel with us.  Our bill was less than $20 for both meals.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and perhaps the nearby Cleveland Botanical Gardens.  After we have seen all we want to see in this area we will drive back home since we have obligations over the weekend.