On our second day in Cleveland, we had a few hours to spend around town before the gates opened for the 4pm first pitch at the Indians game.  Since we only had a few hours, we didn't think it would be worthwhile to try to see an entire museum like the Rock & Roll HOF or the Cleveland Science Museum.  So we decided to take a stroll down to Lake Erie.

Unbeknownst to us, it was Marine Week in Cleveland.  All week long, the city of Cleveland had events planned throughout the city to pay tribute to the U.S. Marine Corps.  It turns out that one of the events was planned along a street that led directly to Lake Erie.

East 9th Street runs directly from the Indians baseball park to Lake Erie and was the pathway we took to get to the great lake.  Starting a few block from Lake Erie were displays of some of the equipment used by the Marine Corps.  The first thing that we passed was a tank.  We initially thought it was just for display, but as we we got closer we noticed a few kids were crawling out of the tank.  So Sarah was interested in getting into the tank as soon as possible.

Caleb, on the other hand, was not so interested. It was pretty sunny and the line to see the tank was not the shortest line.  So when Caleb did the evaluation of potential boredom waiting in line vs. potential fun being inside the tank, the boredom took court.  But Sarah's excited ruled the day, so we decide to give the line a try.  There were some minor grumblings while we waited, but by the time we got to the front of the line (after about a 30 minute wait), the grumblings were long forgotten.  The kids got to climb on the tank, in the tank, and talk with some of the servicemen.  

As we were walking away from the tank, Caleb turned to Sarah and said "Thanks, Sarah."  Unsure if I had missed some of the conversation, I asked Caleb why he was thanking Sarah.  In reply, he said "Because she wanted to see the tank even though I really didn't want to do it.  And the tank was really cool, so I wanted to thank her for thinking it would be a good idea."

While there were A LOT of favorite things about our first day in Cleveland (to be detailed in a longer blog upon our return), the most rave reviews were given to the "make your own snow cone station."

Caleb described it as "drippy, but awesome!"  Sarah, while a big fan of the MYOSCS, was a little less effusive in her description simply saying, "It was good. I liked it."

Before, during, and after pictures next to the MYOSCS are included below.

We leave for Cleveland tomorrow for our somewhat annual trip to see Granddadder's favorite team, the Cleveland Indians.  As a standard pre-road trip preparation step, we stopped by the library to check out some books for the 6+ hour trip.  Since they couldn't wait the entire 20 steps to the car to open their new books, Caleb and Sarah stopped on a bench in front of the library to get in a few pages.

While talking about the trip on the way back from the library, Sarah summed up what we needed to do in preparation by saying, "Dad, we need to get snacks, get drinks, and get on the road!"  I'm pretty sure she threw in a fist pump at the end of the statement.