Hot in Cleveland

 We spent Memorial Day driving, and driving, and driving. We left Minnesota at 4 A.M., drove through Wisconsin in the dark, in Chicago for lunch, and then we made a pitstop in South Bend, Indiana. Jay wanted to see Touchdown Jesus at Notre Dame.

We made it to Cleveland by dinner. Jay had an all day meeting the next day so we didn't go out to explore that night.  It was a lot of driving, but we knew the rest of the trip was going to be easy as we were only 6 hours away from home.

The next day Jay headed off to his meeting and I went to see the wildlife that lives in Cleveland, the zoo.                                             



Travis the giraffe



                                               

 After the winter that I thought would never end I finally got my first taste of summer. It was about 99 degrees and extremely humid. I was in heaven! The landscaping was gorgeous and there was a huge variety of animals. I fell in love with Travis the giraffe as fed him some lettuce. I have always had a thing for tall men. The Cleveland zoo was extraordinary in more ways than one...It was one of the most beautiful zoos I have ever been to, and much larger than I had expected. Sadly though, not all the wildlife was in a cage. The things I saw and heard that day were a reminder to me that I was no longer in PG-rated Utah. I was now in R-rated Cleveland where clothing seemed to be optional and some of the people REALLY should have been wearing clothing. I hope someday to get those images out of my brain. Fortunately, for me, we were heading to see some church history the next day.

Kirtland was just a short distance away from Cleveland. We decided to stop there and visit on our way to Niagra Falls, Canada.

 We had not been there since the mid-1990s and the Church has purchased much more of the property and has done extensive renovations. We took a 2 hour tour and we were off to Canada!!