To Cleveland we go!

Well Rowan took her first vacation! Matthew and I took a road trip and went to a wedding, don't know if it was a real 'vacation' for us but we survived and had some enjoyable moments along the way. Our good friends Brian and Ingrid planned their wedding for July 21st and we knew with Rowan's birth so close to that date that it would be a game day decision if we would make the trip. We prayed a lot for a quick recovery for me and a good start at life for Rowan, and an aunt to make the trip with us, otherwise this wouldn't have gone down. We were blessed with all three (Woot Woot Shelby) and decided to make the trip out east. Many people we told laughed and called us crazy to road trip with a 3 week old, others said it would be an easy adventure since she sleeps so much at this age. I'm not sure now who we agree with, maybe we will leave it as a tie.

The trip out there was scheduled to take almost 14 hours, we made it in 18. Not bad considering we had to stop and breastfeed/diaper change/burp/cuddle every 3-4 hours. Rowan did awesome for most of the trip, sleeping like a rockstar in between feeds. She had a breakdown for about an hour outside of Indy when we were caught in bumper to bumper construction traffic. She had bad gas and the carseat was not conducive to working it all out. As soon as we took her out and held her she would calm but we would go to put her back in that position and she would start screaming. Very stressful when you are tired, still driving, sitting in 110 degree heat with the AC blasting semi-cold air and trapped in close quarters listening to the screams. Thank goodness it was only an hour of crying, I don't think any of us could take more than that.

Once we got to Cleveland the trip went very smoothly. We explored around the first day we arrived. Matt wanted to play disc golf and I wanted to see Lake Erie. We found a course on the lake and were pumped heading out. The course and lake were beautiful and we had such a great afternoon walking the holes and playing down by the lake. We then took a trip to downtown to check in out. We hoped there would be a nice path along the waterfront to walk around on, or piers to explore, but we didn't find much. We did a drive by tour of the city checking out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Brown's Stadium, a huge submarine "The Cod", and all the guitars they had decorated around the city...much like the cows that KC had around one year. We went to the Clarke's that night for the rehearsal dinner. It was in Brian's childhood house's backyard and it was gorgeous. They had such a nice space set up, the food was great and karaoke was entertaining. Rowan was called a boy for the first time by some grandpa there and was quickly dressed in a pink headband for the rest of the night. She slept and ate great there so we had a nice night.

The next day was the wedding and reception which was also beautiful. I wish I had taken more pictures of the grounds the reception was on. It was basically a giant mansion so they had multiple rooms upstairs that Shelby stayed in with Rowan. We fed her when we arrived, around 6:30, and she slept until 11:30! That meant Matt and I got to enjoy the whole reception basically uninterrupted. She fussed for a bit but settled in quickly and just slept on Shelby for the whole time. Thumbs up for Ro! We ate a fabulous dinner of salmon, sweet potatoes and asparagus then danced the night away. And I finally got to have a drink for the first time since we stopped preventing, which was almost a year ago! Overall a really fun night with great company.

The next day was the killer, we had stayed up late and had a whole day of driving ahead of us. We got a jump start of the day with a 6am fire alarm in the hotel. Awesome. Which led to this picture of a dazed, shoeless, droopy eyelid dad holding his baby in the parking lot.

The drive home took 15 hrs but included a stretch of screaming outside of St. Louis where we made it 80 miles in a little over 2 hours. Every time her cries would progress to shrieks, Matt would speed to the next exit, pull off and get her out. We bounced and calmed her on many off/on ramps as this cycle kept repeating. The heat was a killer, over 100 degrees the whole way home, so we couldn't keep her out of the car for long. Shelby was a trooper in the backseat, just putting on her headphones and tuning out the screams. Besides that stressful period, she slept great the rest of the way.

The first day back home, happy to stretch it out!

Our overall impression of Cleveland was just so-so. The Lake was wonderful but not much along the lakefront to do. Traffic and the roads were awful and their "express lanes" were anything but. They just created confusion when they merged back with the other lanes. Our hotel was a let down for a Marriott and had no fan in the bathroom area so after showers the room was muggy for the rest of the day. BUT the company of the trip totally made it worth it. We had so much fun with our small group and Shelby. I can't say we would call it a vacation but it was definitely an adventure!