August 15th, 2010 | permalink

Disney World

I’ll admit, I was never much of a Disney person. We went once when I was about 12 because my sister was competing in the national high school cheerleading competition at Sea World. So the whole family went and I think we spent a day at the Magic Kingdom and a Day at EPCOT. I was at the age where I was more interested in looking cool in front of all of the cheerleaders rather than enjoy Disney. It was at the Magic Kingdom where I witnessed one of the few arguments that my parents had in front of the kids and it all stemmed from my brother’s need to have an invisible dog on a leash. Needless to say my father did not see this as a necessary souvenir.

We needed a family vacation this summer and after most of the summer passed, we finally decided on Disney World. We looked up the cost of a few other places including Cedar Point resorts and Virginia Beach, but when it came down to it, the price that we were getting for Disney won out. After all, traveling to Florida in August has to have some sort of incentive.

Erika did an excellent job of planning the vacation in 3 weeks. Many of our friends (thanks Rhea, Sam and Amy) had tips on what to do, where to go, how to navigate the parks, and many other helpful tips. She also read a couple of books on the topic. Then another friend gave her the number of a local travel agent that specializes in Disney World www.mousemadesimple.com. They handled making all of our reservations for our meals, character dinners, character lunches, the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, the Pirates League and made a bunch of other recommendations. A lot of these reservations are made much further in advance, but she got us in and the kids loved it.

We stayed five nights at the French Quarter at Port Orleans. I liked the resort due to its proximity to Downtown Disney which we could hop on the river taxi and ride on over. There are also Disney buses that pick up and take you to the other resorts and parks. We never had to wait too long and it was very convenient for getting around. The resort had a nice pool with a slide that the kids enjoyed on our downtime. Liv loved that the resort was New Orleans themed since she is a big fan of Princess Tiana of The Princess and the Frog.

My Foursquare check ins from our trip:

View Disney World 2010 in a larger map

Here are some of the highlights of the trip:

We were able to get to three of the parks, Magic Kingdom (three days), EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. We passed up Animal Kingdom so that we could get the third day at the Magic Kingdom and get to some of the attractions that we hadn’t got in the first two days.

Kade was made up as a skeleton pirate in the Pirates League at Magic Kingdom. It is located right outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. He made his own costume at home and packed it for the trip so we only had to get the face painting package. He received his pirate name, James Calicocash, and took the Pirate Oath and was lead back to private chamber where he received some of Captain Jack Sparrow’s treasure.

Liv had an appointment to become a princess at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Downtown Disney. Since her birthday is this coming weekend, she became a birthday princess. Her appointment included hair, nails and makeup. It was a very quick transformation but lacked the detail of Kade’s Pirate League experience.

After Liv was made up as a princess, we went to The Princess Lunch at Akershus in EPCOT’s Norway Pavilion was great. The kids got to meet Belle, Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel. Kade even got a kiss from Ariel and I think he fell in love.

We had a character breakfast with Pooh, Tigger, Alice, the Mad Hatter and Mary Poppins at the Grand Floridian.

EPCOT has beer and wine!

We rode on Dumbo the Flying Elephant as the fireworks were going off all around us.

Liv was one of the stars of the show at the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. She played the role of Boo in the interactive comedy show. She was pretty shy and preferred not to be on the big screen.

We rode most of the attractions, some multiple times. Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, The Mad Tea Party, Peter Pan’s Flight, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, The Tiki Room, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, The Haunted Mansion, Swiss Family Treehouse, Jungle Cruise, Stitch’s Great Escape, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Carousel of Progress, Soarin’, Spaceship Earth, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway, The Great Movie Ride, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Star Tours, MuppetVision 3D and Toy Story Mania. Whew.

Some of the best advice we received and/or learned on our own:

Get the Fastpasses. Some of the rides had up to a 2hr wait which is not worth it. Let’s face it, the thrill rides are nowhere near Cedar Point’s caliber. We fastpassed a lot of the more popular rides which made them more enjoyable. It was nice to wait in line inside in air conditioned rooms on most of the rides.

Don’t do the meal plan. We did, but found that we were forcing ourselves to get to a certain place at a certain time. The meal plan we had included 1 snack, 1 counter service (entree, drink, dessert) and 1 table service meal (entree, drink, dessert) per person, per day. The plans do not include tip or alcoholic beverages. If it included an appetizer instead of a dessert at the meals it would be better.

Don’t go to the Magic Kingdom on the day you get there. We did but would not do it that way if we go again. Plan some days as “vacation” days. Plan some days to have no plans and sit at the pool or go shopping at Downtown Disney. We filled our itinerary with parks and it would have been nice to have some more relaxing days.

Have realistic expectations. If your kids have meltdowns at home, they will have them at Disney World. Don’t let it ruin the vacation. Easier said than done. Get to the parks early and ride or get fastpasses on the popular rides. It just gets more and more crowded at the parks as it gets later.

Have an escape plan. When leaving the Magic Kingdom at night after the fireworks, you can walk through all of the shops down Main Street. They open the adjoining doors. It is less crowded and air conditioned.

It is going to rain. It rained a little everyday we were there but it hardly effected anything because we were prepared with ponchos. Stay at one of the Disney resorts. The transportation from parks, attractions and other resorts is worth it alone.

Before this vacation, I thought that we would only do a Disney themed vacation once, but we had a great time and I can definitely see us doing another Disney vacation in the future. Maybe I am getting old, but seeing the kids faces light up at all of the amazement around them is worth it. All of the “cast members” or workers at the resorts and parks were amazing. The characters stayed in character and the staff was friendly and helpful ALL OF THE TIME. One instance was when we were leaving the Magic Kingdom, Kade bought a lollipop. When he opened it, he found it was cracked down the center into two pieces. He began to cry as a normal 6 year old would and before we could fix the situation, a woman walked up to us and explained if we go back in the store we could exchange it for a new one. The woman worked at the Magic Kingdom but was there on her day off and out of uniform. That is how friendly the people of Disney were.

If I had one complaint I would say the one thing they do need more of… craft beer at the resorts/parks. But Abita Turbodog and Yuengling Lager at our resort bar was a great sight.

View more photos.

July 11th, 2010 | permalink

LeBron James

A lot has been said and written about LeBron James and “The Decision”. These are my notes for posterity’s sake.

Everyone knew that this time would come. Ever since LeBron signed the three year extension on his contract with the Cavaliers, there was going to be a major announcement involving where he would go three years later. I guess the surprise came in the spectacle that “the decision” evolved to.

In happier times… the picture above was taken after LeBron was presented the MVP trophy in the 2008-2009 season. They lit up the WITNESS billboard. Representatives from the lighting company stood behind Erika and I and got a photo of us taking a photo of the billboard. The photo was also on the Wieden + Kennedy blog (the ad firm that does all of the LeBron Nike advertising).

In the weeks leading up to the decision, I had been ok with whatever decision he would make. After all, how can you blame someone for what they want to do with their lives? I was resigned to the fact that he would probably move on… Chicago or Miami. Hey, I am not the biggest Cavs fan and have only seen him play live twice. He would move on and we all would get on with our lives.

About a week or so before the decision, billboards started popping up around town trying to get Lebron to stay. “HOME” was one of the themes used by morethanaplayer.org. There were flash mobs, an LBJ Appreciation Day and many more efforts to try to appeal to the superstar. The desperation was disgusting.

Then, it was announced that there would be a one-hour special to announce his decision. Can we really blame LeBron for treating us like we are his minions when you look at how high we placed him on a pedestal? At first I thought that it was ridiculous and that I wouldn’t even watch it. But I was sucked in like everyone else. This is when my opinion went from not caring to anger.

I knew that it was a no win situation for Cleveland, the city. If he left not only would it be another chapter in the history of the misery of Cleveland sports culture but it would also fuel the nation’s perception of how destitute my home city is. “God Bless those people”, Stuart Scott. – Thanks Stu, but we don’t need your sympathy.

If he had decided to stay in Cleveland, this whole ego-trip and backlash that is happening in the national media would be tied to our city. Either way, Cleveland was going to be cast in a bad light.

We all should have seen this coming. After all, he wanted to be a global icon not the mayor of Cleveland. He said on more than one occasion that he is from Akron, not Cleveland.

Side note – Jim freaking Gray? Really?

And then there is Dan Gilbert. Even without the Comic Sans, his open letter to the media was a disgrace.

TV crews were all over the city: at bars, in front of the Q, in front of the WITNESS billboard. They were just waiting for something to happen. I am glad to see the city held it together pretty well except for one riled up fan. Burning jerseys is not really my thing either. I think grown men in sports stars’ jerseys look ridiculous to start. Burning them you look doubly so.

So the conversation has turned to who will be the next Cleveland Icon. “Great” ideas have been spawned including putting Josh Cribbs on the Witness Billboard. It is funny how people claim he is so loyal and quickly forget how he whined and cried to get more money with a year left on his current contract. Let’s not try to crown the new king. Don’t you see how well the first one turned out?

I think the majority of the city was more angered by the circus around the decision and not so much the decision itself.

Other good reads on this topic:

LA Times
Vanity Fair
Yahoo Sports
Deadspin
Detroit Free Press
Mo Williams Twitter Reaction (Cleveland.com)
Inside the Decision (Cleveland.com)
All of Northeast Ohio Isn’t Mad (Cleveland.com)

May 16th, 2010 | permalink

New Chapter: Sandusky, Take III

Since Erika and I are both from Sandusky, Ohio it has always been “home”. Between us, we’ve lived in Toledo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. We’ve always had our families in Sandusky to come back to visit. Sandusky is a beautiful lakefront city with its own Bay, Cedar Point, islands and indoor water parks. There are some really good things going on in the city and downtown is picking up steam thanks to a handfull of local restaurants, bars and bakeries. Zinc Brasserie, CRUSH Wine Bar, Water Street Bar & Grille, Mr. Smith’s Coffee Shop, City Bake Shop and Wendy Kromer Confections. There are also some establishments that have been down there for many years; The Sandusky Yacht Club, The Maritime Museum, The Merry-Go-Round Museum, The Sandusky State Theatre, Battery Park and other marinas.

A lot of these places are combining their efforts through the Sandusky Main Street Association.

All of these goings on have us optimistic about Sandusky. After leaving to go to college, we attempted to move back there once. It was not the right time. Ideas of the younger generations were being shot down left and right. We had the idea of opening our own business then, but put the idea on hold due to lack of support for other similar businesses. Like I said, it was not the right time. We only lasted in Sandusky a year before moving to our current home in South Euclid, Ohio.

After five years in Cleveland, it seems that things have slowly began to change in Sandusky. The momentum that has been building downtown has led us to believe that this is the right time to begin our own business.

In a previous post I mentioned how Erika’s Grandmother had operated the Tea Rose Tea Room in Downtown Sandusky (it was actually the first website that I ever designed, beautiful, eh?). They still own the Victorian home and the home and lot on each side of the Tea Room. Since Grandma’s recent sickness that lead to her passing away a couple of weekes ago, Grandpa has been faced with a lot of questions regarding the properties and their future. So after many discussions with Grandma and Grandpa, Erika, along side her sister, Brittany who currently lives in Chicago, are going to re-open the Tea Room and expand upon the once thriving business. Traditional high tea Monday through Friday from 3 -5pm with tea leaf readings following. There are some other ideas floating around regarding the business as well but have yet to be explored. Erika and Brittany spent many years working for Grandma and picking up the craft and everyone that we have told of  the idea to re-open the Tea Room has given us positive feedback. Grandma had created a large clientele through her 15+ years of operating the Tea Room, so it would be wonderful to continue what she had built.

I am going to continue with my current position at Epstein Design Partners in Cleveland and commute as needed. The kids love the idea of moving closer to family. We love Cleveland, we will defintely be back often. The museums, restaurants and nightlife are enough to bring us back but we also have an ever expanding group of friends that we do not plan on abandoning.

We will have more details as far as the move and Tea Room opening soon. There is a lot to do to open up but we have already begun the process of getting the kids enrolled in school for the Fall. This is the next chapter of our lives and we are excited to embark upon it.

April 22nd, 2010 | permalink

Who Needs Dark Lord Day Golden Tickets?

Due to a family illness, it turns out that I will not be able to make the trip to the Three Floyds Dark Lord Day 2010 on Saturday, April 24 in Munster, Indiana. So, I am offering up my 2 golden tickets. The festival is free, what the tickets get you is the guarantee of being able to buy some of their Dark Lord Russian Stout at the festival. This is the one day a year that you can buy this beer. The tap list for the festival was just released and looks amazing, too.

There is a catch, I would like to be able to purchase the allotted share of one of the tickets, the other ticket’s allotment will go to contacts me first and agrees to the terms. Another catch, you will also have to pickup the tickets in Sandusky, OH since I am there right now. It is on the way to Indiana from Cleveland.

It is unfortunate that I cannot make it, but family is the most important thing that we have in life. I hope that someone else is able to take these tickets and enjoy the festival.

April 21st, 2010 | permalink

Win two tickets to Thirsty Dog Craft Beer Dinner at The House of Blues

Have you ever wanted to get the Rock Star treatment? Here is your chance. I have been given a couple of tickets to give away for the Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. Craft Beer Dinner at the House of Blues Cleveland on Tuesday, April 27th. Thirsty Dog is one of North East Ohio’s premiere breweries hailing from Akron, OH. The concept is unique, experience the House of Blues as if you were the artist. This is the first in their Craft Beer Dinner Series. Meet and greet at 5pm and dinner on stage starts at 6pm. The Price is $75 per person, but I am giving you the chance to win 2 tickets free of charge simply by commenting on this post.

Here is the lineup and menu…

A Special Cask Conditioned Meet & Greet Backstage Accompained by House Made Bavarian Pretzels & Mustard Seed Aioli

“Chicken & Waffles” – Confit Organic Bell & Evans Chicken Thighs, Roasted Corn Waffles and Cabbage Slaw, Truffled Honey Drizzle paired with Whippet Wheat

Coriander Crusted Diver Scallops, Micro Cilantro Nage Braised Baby Potatoes, and Root Vegetables paired with Hoppus Maximus

“3 Little Pigs” – Porter Brined and Double Roasted Pork Shoulder, Hickory Smoked Port Belly and Crispy Pancetta, Sauteed Dill Dumplings, Brussel Sprouts, and Spring Onions paired with Old Leghumper

Siberian Night Imperial Stout & Milk Chocolate Gelato, Pan Toasted Poundcake, Thirsty Dog “Raspberrys” paired with Siberian Night

Download the full House of Blues Thirsty Dog Beer Dinner Menu

All that you need to do to enter the contest is comment on this post. You must be 21 or over to win. In your comment, please include your name and email so that you may be notified. All entries are due by 11:59 pm Sunday, April 25th. A winner will be randomly selected by Random.org on Monday, April 26th.

Good luck to all! I hope to see you all at this unique dinner concept.

April 12th, 2010 | permalink

Indians Home Opener

Less of a post, more of a series of phrases.

Opening day in Cleveland, Indians baseball, sun, hot dogs, Stadium Mustard, Great Lakes Burning River IPA, salty peanuts, Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids, Ketchup wins the hot dog race, Me, Kade.

And the Tribe lost 4-2 in 10 innings.

April 11th, 2010 | permalink

Thorna

Great Grandma Kraus performs a palm reading on Liv Ellen as Aunt Brittany assists and Erika and her father look on. The photo effect was applied via an iPhone app that randomly places a cool spot on the image which just so happened to be placed on her palm being read. It was part of a very emotional weekend in Sandusky visiting with the Kraus family. Many memories were recalled and made.

Listen to the audio: (recorded on iPhone, sorry for low quality)

The past few weeks have been tough on the entire Kraus family. The matriarch, Ellen Kraus, has become ill and we are all dealing with losing this wonderful part of our lives. She has impacted many lives for the better and will be missed by many, many people. With the kids spring break being last week, Erika and the kids were able to spend a lot of time up in Sandusky.

Since 1992, Erika’s grandmother operated the Tea Rose Tea Room Bed & Breakfast in Downtown Sandusky, OH where she was known as Thorna. She ran the tea room portion for over 15 years where visitors would schedule their afternoon tea party, get their crumpets, scones, cookies and have their tea leaves read by Thorna. Dinner parties were also performed with an extended menu and ending with the famous tea leaf readings. She also performed tarot readings, past life regressions, weddings and filled the role of therapist to many loyal customers. Over the years the tea room provided a workplace for both Erika and her sister Brittany. Having been featured in media outlets in Toledo and Cleveland, the tea room gained regional recognition as a landmark destination.

She is also a licensed minister and performed our wedding in 2001 and Brittany and Marc’s wedding in 2007.

It took three different medical ailments and her children and grandchildren changing the phone numbers and taking down her website to get her to finally hang it up. She did not “retire” without a fight, if you can call being forced into closing your business at the age of 78 due to health retiring. She is one of many strong women in my life and has had a huge impact on where I am in my life and what I am today. Her stories about her mother and father, her Danish and German roots and her one-liners always warm your heart. She never forgets to tell you how important you are to her. I hope that our children will remember all of these great attributes that their Great Grandmother embodies. With the time that we have with her, we plan on continuing to make memories that will carry on her legacy.

April 8th, 2010 | permalink

Baseball Beer

Above is the newest tap handle for The Greenhouse Tavern and Buckeye Brewing Co. that I designed. After the first design for Saison de Maison (pictured left), some people were offended by the nude female figure. So with this design, we opted for the nude male figure in the style of the old Chief Wahoo sign that stood at the top of Cleveland Municipal Stadium for years. It also ties in the likeness of one of the bartenders at GHT, Will Hollingsworth, who was up for an award as Metromix Cleveland’s Hottest Bartender.

The story of this series of tap handle logos is further explained on the Cleveland Magazine Blog in an entry written by Laura Taxel.

Baseball Beer is three-way blend and cask conditioned ale made up of Buckeye Aquarius, Buckeye Bling Bling and Saison de Maison. This beer will be released (on tap only) on Sunday, April 11 from 2pm – 11pm, the day before the Cleveland Indians home opener. It is part of the Pre-Opening Day festivities at The Greenhouse Tavern.

Also, congratulations are in order for Chef Jonathon Sawyer and the whole GHT crew as he was named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs 2010. This is a truly great accomplishment and I think it is just the beginning for this great person and chef.

April 7th, 2010 | permalink

Thirteen years

Kyle & Erika photo set on Flickr

As of April 8, Erika and I have been together for 13 years. It is hard to believe it until I started to look through old photos the other night. It all began when she came up to the University of Toledo to come visit with my cousin, Keri (Kromer) Bechtel. We began dating at the end of her Senior year of High School. In the Fall she left for school at Washington University in St. Louis. A year later we both transferred to Pittsburgh, her to the University of Pittsburgh and I attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. She also studied abroad in Italy, was published multiple times for her medical research and for her work on the European Drawings 1500 to 1800 book and exhibition at the Frick Art and Historical Center, and finished post-bac pre-med program Duquesne University. We got our first apartment, graduated from college, got our first professional jobs, got married, honeymooned in Italy, rented our first house, vacationed in Hawaii, got our dogs, vacationed in the Caribbean, and decided to start our family all while we lived in Pittsburgh.

Then, it got interesting. We decided to start our family.

Just before the birth of our son, we moved to Sandusky. We lived in the apartment on the top floor of her Grandmother’s Tea Room. We loved the Tea Room but we knew that we could not stay in Sandusky.

After a year, I got my current job in Cleveland. It was a rough first few months as I commuted back and forth, but soon after, we bought our first home where we reside now. Here we had our second child and began to put down roots and embrace the city. Then, another turn, my Mother was diagnosed with Leukemia four years ago and Erika was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes three years ago. As with anything, it is not always easy, it is up to us to make our own path when there is not one.

It was Grandpa Kraus that told us when we asked him how he and Grandma Kraus made it last (now over 56 years married). He told us that you have to keep the romance. Those are the words that we try to live by.

It has been a long winding road and I am sure there will be more turns but I am glad that I have Erika every step of the way.

March 31st, 2010 | permalink

Passion Pit at the House of Blues, Cleveland

I am glad that I got to see Passion Pit again, this time at the House of Blues here in Cleveland. The tickets went on sale a while back and they were pretty cheap, part of 92.3‘s Cheap Date offerings. The cost was $9.23 per ticket. You can’t pass that up.

Our first experience seeing Passion Pit live was pretty cool. It was at Lollapalooza 2009 in Chicago and they put on an amazing show.

This show was great as well, however, Erika was not able to attend due to some family health matters. So I took my friend “Kromer”.  It was nice to run into some other friends, Nicole & Eddie and Rachel & Mike.

After watching some of Mayer Hawthorne‘s performance from the balcony, we decided to get to where the action was a couple songs into the Passion Pit set. I am glad we did. Totally different point of view being on the floor in the pit. They played a three-song encore and threw in a cover of The Cranberries “Dreams” which may be on the upcoming album.

Yes, I may have been on the upper end of the age scale of the concert-goers, but hey, good music is good music. Plus, our kids ages 6 and 3 absolutely love Passion Pit. Played some tonight while cleaning up dinner and Sweet Baby Girl dances through the kitchen and tries to sing along (The Reeling: “Oh no oh oh oh oh, Oh no oh oh oh oh ).

Fun times.