One Friday afternoon, Ethan said to me, “let’s go to Cleveland”. No offense to Clevelanders out there, but without hesitation, my exact response was, “ew, why?”

I’ve heard since I was a little girl from my Ohioan mom that Cleveland was “the armpit of America.” Those are not exactly words that would inspire anyone to want to visit. But, he insisted and being the travel-lover that I am, I wasn’t about to turn down an adventure - even a questionable one.

It was a fairly long drive, but when I got there, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. The city was far cleaner than I had heard rumors about it being - at least when it comes to the infrastructure. The people, however, were a different story. Let’s just say that of all the people in the world I would be intimidated by, Cleveland Natives would top the list.

While we were there we saw a magnificent air show celebrating Memorial Day in all its glory. We wandered and saw the sights, even if those were just the mall and the city park. We stumbled upon a little coffee shop that served us probably the strangest cup of tea either of us had ever tasted. We couldn’t have been more thirsty in the 90 degree weather and that did not quench any part of our thirst even remotely. There wasn’t enough sugar in the place to make that bitter water enjoyable, but it was a laugh nonetheless. At the end of the evening, we ate a world-famous grilled cheese sandwich at The Melt on Ethan’s recommendation, because what else do you do when you’re in Cleveland?

On Sunday before we ventured home, we took a short train ride on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway into the country to see some of the natural splendor that Ohio had to show us, but of course, because it’s us, we got delayed on the tracks and stuck in the middle of nowhere for an extra hour or more. But, at the end of the day, I guess that wasn’t Cleveland’s fault.

While Cleveland won’t win any awards anytime soon for greatest city to visit - at least not in my opinion - I am glad to have seen it with my own eyes. Ethan was right. Cleveland deserves a lot more credit than it gets. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty. I guess I’ll have to find a new city to call America’s armpit.