Toledo Day Trip August 2022

Bus trips. Some people hate them, some people love them. I've been on quite a few and my preference is to keep the length of these trips to less than a week. Single day trips are really terrific especially if you don't feel like making the drive from here to there with no stops along the route. However, in my mind these do not replace the standard day trips I love where I tend to wander off the beaten path while making my way to a destination of choice for the day. Or, if it's someplace I feel uncomfortable driving around in like a larger metropolitan area (although there aren't really too many of those within driving distance of my home).

So it was that I found myself on a day trip via bus to Toledo this lovely August day. A couple of friends, a fun destination and copious strangers out for a good time made for a fun trip. This time we were on a privately chartered bus filled with ORMACO members. This group doesn't do a ton of these types of trips and I wish they would, we really had a great time. 

The bus ride was just over 2 hours each way. Once we arrived in Toledo, we stopped at the Maumee Bay Brewing Company for lunch.   Established in 1995, the Maumee Bay Brewing Co. is Toledo’s original craft brewery and can be found within the Oliver House, a former 19th-century hotel.  Maumee Bay Brewing is now a great pub and event center. 

Between the bar and the event section is a quirky little courtyard where we stumbled upon live entertainment by the name of Andrew Ellis. Mr. Ellis caught my ear with his gravelly baritone and one man band style of folk and blues. One drawback to traveling with the bus is that we are destined to eat with the crowd we came with. If we had been on our own, my choice would have been to settle in the courtyard to enjoy lunch and the live entertainment, but this is one great reason to plan another trip to Toledo and just one "to do" for the list of reasons to return.

After lunch we headed directly to the Toledo Museum of Art where we spent a leisurely 3 hours wandering the various galleries, a visit to the Glass Pavilion across the street, plus a stroll around the grounds where there are sculptures scattered about. The TMA describes it best from their website: Over nearly a century, the Toledo Museum of Art campus has grown from a single building to an architecturally significant campus that is a highlight of the city. With six buildings on nearly 40 acres, our campus offers Neoclassical, Art Deco, and contemporary architecture, as well as green space and a sculpture garden, all surrounded by the celebrated Victorian homes of Toledo’s Old West End neighborhood. Next door to the main building is The Center for the Visual Arts (CVA) which was designed in 1992 by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank O. Gehry. There wasn't time today to visit but next time this is a must see. 

Also off limits for the day due to a private event, as part of the Museum’s 1933 expansion, architect Edward B. Green designed the Peristyle Theater. A classical concert hall whose name means “an area surrounded by columns,” the Peristyle’s most distinguishing architectural feature is a curving row of 28 Ionic columns, which surround the main seating area, arranged in tiers reminiscent of theaters of ancient Greece. Inspired by a Greek agora, the two-story Peristyle lobby is animated by a painted Greek frieze. Everyone says this is a striking theater, sadly we weren't able to judge for ourselves today.

Toledo’s image as the Glass City of the US was firmly established by the time of TMA’s founding in 1901, based on a spate of inventions across the glass industry—bottles, window glass, tableware, windshields, and construction materials. Glass industrialist Edward Drummond Libbey spearheaded the initiative to improve the education of local craftsmen and designers by assembling a model glass collection. Throughout his lifetime Libbey continued to acquire systematically formed collections of high repute from both abroad and from the U.S. Today, TMA’s American glass holdings rank among the principal collections in the field, with objects of exceptional quality and historical importance.

With the opening of the TMA Glass Pavilion in 2006, Toledo acquired a state-of-the-art facility to house, care for, study, and display its renowned glass collection.

One additional "to do" when I return to Toledo will be to browse the neighborhood where the TMA is located, the Old West End. We bribed the bus driver to take a circuitous route through the  neighborhood where we viewed some lovely old Victorian homes in varying states of disrepair and renovation. 

While this Old Biddy has a long list of "places to visit", Toledo will assuredly be on it. 

To view the rest of my photos from this trip click here.

Cleveland weekend - October 2011

Summer seems to be coming to a fast and early end as September sped away. Most of us are trying to keep up momentum with putting as much into these beautiful days we have left, especially as it’s beginning to get dark so much earlier.

Last Saturday was no exception. Although it started out rainy and chilly, my friends, Nancy and Cathy and I, headed up to Cleveland for a visit to University Heights.

This area contains some of the best things that Cleveland has to offer – The Cleveland Art Museum, The Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Case Western Reserve campus, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Severance Hall (home of the Cleveland Orchestra), MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), some wonderful restaurants, plus it sits close to Little Italy and all of its eclectic galleries and restaurants.

ONE OF THE BEST LUNCHES EVER!

We began our day with lunch at L’Albatros on Bellfower. Nancy had been here before and it was on her recommendation that we stopped for lunch. L’Albatros is a small space, as so many in this area are, and simple in décor. Visual stimulation is low but the food more than makes up for it with their well prepared French country fare.

We had mimosas to start our lunch and followed up with my croque monsieur with pommes frits. Nancy had the Cassoulet with braised white beans, lamb, duck confit and sausages. Cathy settled on the Roasted Cod served with garlic spatzle and sauerkraut. Nancy and Cathy both agreed these were some of the best meals they’d had in a long time. Cathy’s had to be good - we started eating and I’d taken maybe five bites of my sandwich and when I glanced back her direction, her plate was clean. And not just clean, she was busy using the bread at the table to wipe it completely naked! I’m not even sure the plate needed washing when we finally left. Which was too sad for her, Nancy and I both had restes de repas to take home for later. YUM!

NOW FOR A LITTLE CULTURE
Once lunch was over, we ambled back to Wade Oval and tried to get into the Natural History Museum. We were turned away at the parking lot because the museum was closed for a private party. This actually was really annoying since this museum was our target all along for the afternoon. I’d checked their website the day prior for hours and location – it would have been nice to have been warned the place would be closed.

Fortunately, we had options! A quick trip back around the oval took us over to the Art Museum where we spent a leisurely hour or so browsing the exhibits. It’s funny how different people like different things at a place like this. While I’m more intrigued by the paintings (my favorites are the Impressionists), Cathy preferred the other objects – vases, jewelry, etc, and Nancy liked a bit of both.

The Art Museum is undergoing a huge expansion project and some of the exhibits are quite a distance apart. We also got lost a few times. Still, this is a fascinating place and well worth visiting.  Especially since the cost of admittance is FREE!

AND A LITTLE ITALIAN FLARE!
After our cultural afternoon, we drove over to Little Italy for a bit of respite. The area was preparing for their quarterly Art Walk so all the galleries and shops were open with wine and some sort of nice food to munch upon. I have two favorite places in Little Italy – one is La Belle Vita which is a store carrying a veritable feast for the senses - bright colors of scarves, pottery and glassware – soothing aromas of fragrant soaps and perfumes – the tinkle of chimes and happy music in the background – the touch of fuzzy hats and cool silverwork. I really love shops like this one. The owner is friendly and chatty and offered us wine and appetizers as we meandered through the displays.

My other favorite place here is the pastry shop Presti’s on Mayfield Road. Presti’s has been a staple in the neighborhood since 1943 and the current pastry chef is the 4th generation of the Presti family to run the business. From traditional Italian breads, pastries and cakes, they’ve now expanded the menu to include a full line of fresh deli salads, pizza, Stromboli. Sitting in the café is to watch a slice of life in Little Italy. People of all ages sit and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea with a pastry or lunch or dinner or just sit and chat like we were doing after a long afternoon.

WINE AND FRIENDS – PIZZA AND WINE – SOME OF LIFE’S BEST PAIRINGS

For the evening, we headed east to Cedar Green Wines where we were meeting up with our good friends Bev, Lynn and Grant for their 2nd Annual Gourmet Pizza Night. Bev had attended this event last year and recommended it for a fun night out.

The wine shop owner partnered with the chef from the neighboring Zeppe’s Pizza to bring us 4 wines and 4 gourmet pizzas. The wine began flowing by 8pm followed closely by fresh hot pizza and a new pairing arrived at our seats about every half hour. The wines were so-so but the pizzas were wonderful. My favorites were the Yukon Gold potato and the butternut squash. I’ll be trying to recreate all four at home but these two will be first on the list!

The full line up was:

Provolone-parmigiano reggiano pizza topped with a baby arugula salad and a meyer lemon vinagerette paired with a Bianco Campania Triade

Ohio Yukon gold-white truffle oil-fontina pizza paired with Palma Nero Grillo

Pistachio-arugula pesto with grilled chicken and asiago cheese pizza paired with a Mandra Nero-d'Avola

Ohio butternut squash-applewood smoked bacon-extra sharp New York State cheddar pizza paired with Vitiano. 

Thanks Bev for the suggestion of the evening, I had a great time!