Cleveland and Mesopotamia, Ohio- Monday, April 6, 2026

 

     We were awakened by a frantic call from Anna this morning.  She was at Wyatt's daycare, but no one else was there.  We soon discovered that the daycare was closed in observance of Easter, and we had to help Anna make alternate plans for Wyatt.  She ended up taking him to Julie' folks, who were happy to have him, but who also were having some windows installed today.  Anna was certainly late for work after dropping him off.  We were sorry not to be able to help.  Anna had changed her plans to let us take this little trip.  If we had been there, we would have been the ones dropping him off and we certainly would have had an easy time pivoting and taking him for the day instead.  But we were over three hours away. 

     For as really nice as this hotel was, we were disappointed that the pool was closed and Abby wasn't going to get to swim at all.  The breakfast area was impressive.  A chef prepared omelets and other items and the dining was in the spacious 8-story atrium in the center of the hotel.  Scott thought the food was a little sub-par, but he was impressed that Diet Pepsi was available as a beverage.

      We headed to the West Side Market, which was our main reason for this trip.  It's the day after Easter and Dyngus Day is a thing on this side of Cleveland too.  Even so, the market was quite empty, especially since we were used to seeing it on busy weekends.  Many of the booths were closed, but more than half were open and we had enough to look at.  We got "peach bacon" and pork belly, some calzones, spaetzle and some other things.  On our way out, one of the produce vendors was a real salesman and talked Julie into some of his post-Easter sales and she bought grapes, berries, spinach, onions, cucumbers, asparagus some garlic, and few and other things.  

     We then headed to the Amish area of Mesopotamia, Ohio, and went to the End of the Commons General Store.  We've visited here before with Julie's parents.  We got some goodies here, including licorice candy, stick and jelly beans for Julie and some stuff to make fried chicken.  We got some spice jelly candy for Julie's dad to thank him for watching Wyatt.  The store is supposed to be famous for their fry pies, but we didn't get any.  Abby picked out a bag full of marbles.  Julie enjoyed the quirky old time music they had playing.  It was a fun stop, but we needed to head for home.  Not only did we have to rescue Wyatt but Emma has to work the overnight shift tonight.