Cleveland History Center

For me, the timing of the Cleveland History Days 2023 was perfect, since it was two months after my septal myectomy open-heart surgery at University Hospitals, and I was finally able to be active again for the first time in 2023.

With over 50 events happening during Cleveland History Days 2023, I was grateful to the organizations that hosted so many interesting activities. I did elect to skip the the Cleveland "Take A Hike" tours, since I was unsure of myself doing a lot of walking, but near the end of the 10 days of activities, I felt well enough to attend the "Ohio Freedom Path Hike" on Saturday, July 1, 2023. I can highly recommend the Cleveland "Take A Hike" tours from attending them with my wife in the past. I have heard that in recent years they have developed new tour locations and updated old favorite tours.

I was so impressed with all that was happening during these 10 days, that I wanted to capture what I could in my blog post. I hope you enjoy the following and share with others. Remember that even though Cleveland History Days is only once a year, most of the the places it features are available to explore year round!

Please read about the following:

• Friday, June 23, 2023 - Cleveland History Days Opening Ceremony

• Friday, June 23, 2023 - Cuyahoga County – Rediscover The Detroit-Superior Bridge: Community Conversation

• Saturday, June 24, 2023 - Cuyahoga River Rally

• Sunday, June 25, 2023 - Open House at The Historic B&O Roundhouse

• Tuesday, June 27, 2023 - Buckeye Trail

• Saturday, July 1, 2023 - Ohio Freedom Path Hike

• Saturday, July 1, 2023 - Talk at Cleveland Public Library: “The Other Trails of Tears: The Removal of the Ohio Indians”

I am creating this blog post to capture my memories of three exhibits that I visited with members of my family on two days in July. Each of these exhibits has a unique connection to me and/or my family:

• "Euclid Beach Park Days" at the Cleveland History Center.
  July 23 @ 10:00 am - July 24 @ 4:00 pm

• The second “Year of the Motorcycle” exhibit at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in the Cleveland History Center.

• On July 29, 30, and 31, Lake Metroparks Farmpark hosted the "Historical Engine Society’s 51st Annual Antique Power" Exhibition.

On Sunday, July 24, 2022, I visited the Western Reserve Historical Society's Cleveland History Center, and a week later, on Sunday, July 31, 2022, I visited Lake Metroparks Farmpark. In addition to the personal connection of these events, it was interesting to compare the motorcycle engines with the engines shown at the Farmpark.

•  Sunday, July 24, 2022 - My Son's Amusement Park Memorabilia Collection at "Euclid Beach Park Days"

• Mark Your Calendar! September 25, 2022!
  Announcing the 17th Annual "Remembering the Sights and Sounds of Euclid Beach Park!"

• Sunday, July 24, 2022 - My Son and I Study the Motorcycle Mechanics at the "Year of the Motorcycle" Exhibition

• Sunday, July 31, 2022 - My Dad and I Study Tractors and Small Engines at the "Historical Engine Society's 51st Annual Antique Power" Exhibition

This blog post shares what I learned about the Cleveland Museum of Art's Revealing Krishna: Journey to Cambodia’s Sacred Mountain exhibition before its opening, and while attending the preview on Friday, November 12, 2021. I was fortunate to be able to tour the exhibition before its opening to the public on November 14, 2021, and I want to encourage everyone to visit before it closes on January 30, 2022.

The Revealing Krishna HoloLens tour was more powerful than I expected. I have tried HoloLens before, but the way the museum used it to tell the story of the Cleveland Krishna statue was excellent. It was a very effective use of this technology to further the story behind the artwork!

I also included information about the historical Christmas decorations I saw at the Western Reserve Historical Society's Cleveland History Center while I was in University Circle.

On Sunday, September 29, 2019, our family participated for the fifth consecutive year in Euclid Beach Park Now's 15th Annual Remembering the Sights & Sounds of Euclid Beach Park event. This was a special year for us and for this Cleveland tradition for three reasons:

• For the amusement park, it represented 50 years of memories.

• For our family, it represented a new role for Julie and for our son, Kevin.

• For the Cleveland Metroparks, it represented fulfillment of a plan to honor Cleveland's history while better serving Cleveland's Collinwood community.

We write our blog posts as our way to thank the great organizations in Cleveland and Akron that bring joy to our lives. If you read our posts, you will see that we are very fortunate!

December 1, 2017 - a new month full of possibilities! We started off the final month of 2017 with a very active weekend!

• We decided to kick off this December weekend with Mix: Illuminate.

• We enjoyed Cleveland's University Circle Holiday CircleFest, which was expanded into a two-day event.

• We saw Wicked at PlayhouseSquare a few years ago, and were excited to enter the ticket lottery this year.

We had a such a great time at University Circle's 23rd Annual Holiday CircleFest on Sunday, December 4, 2016, that we wanted to share our photos and tweets/retweets of the day to thank all the sponsoring organizations. Unfortunately, Julie only was able to attend the early activities, since she had a choir performance, but Stuart stayed to the very end of the evening activities.

One of the great things about the day is the people who work at the sponsoring organizations, who warmly welcome and talk to visitors. Stuart wants to give a shout-out to the people he met during the day. Their actions show how to effectively engage visitors to University Circle.

A year ago, we were invited via Twitter to go on the final CircleTrek Walking Tour of University Circle for 2015. We really wanted to go, but unfortunately we had a conflict.

We have been very busy in 2016, and it feels like suddenly it is one year later. Luckily, we saw a tweet announcing the "...final FREE #CircleTrek guided walking tour of the season," and Julie signed us up to attend!

It was a brisk morning on Saturday, October 22, 2016, when we found ourselves with a group of other people interested in learning about our city's University Circle. As we were on the tour, we kept finding personal and family connections. This made the tour more interesting to us, as we personally related to the history and current developments of Cleveland's University Circle.

Although it is a very busy time of the year, and we had visited the Cleveland Museum of Art and University Circle recently, when we heard about the Ohio Blogging Association's University Circle Holiday Night Out, we knew we had to make the time for this special night. We know that we will remember this fun evening for a long time!

After attending six of the Cleveland Foundation's centennial events in 2014, Stuart was disappointed that he would not be available on December 30th for the final event due to work commitments.

Then, unexpectedly, he was given two extra days off from work! This allowed him, on December 29th, to enjoy a day of hiking on the Buckeye Trail in the Cleveland Metroparks and Cuyahoga Valley National Park. On December 30th, he was able to return to both parks and University Circle for Cleveland Foundation's Family Fun Day.

What follows is information about this final centennial event, and our photos/tweets of our activities of the day. Before we share our experiences from this one day, we want to share with you, the reader, Cleveland Foundation's "Enduring Trust" video. Understanding the worldwide importance of the first community foundation is more important than our thank-you message for one day of family fun.

Even though we are very familiar with the institutions surrounding Wade Oval, it was great to visit them again as guests of The Cleveland Foundation.

In addition to sharing our photos and videos from the Wade Oval event, please see the information on the next Cleveland Foundation centennial gift of free Tri-C JazzFest outdoor concerts on June 27 and 28.