Kirtland, Ohio
1/19/2015
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is located in Cleveland, just
about 2 hours from us. Tickets are also very expensive. However, the museum is
free one day a year – on Martin Luther King Jr. Day – and since we haven’t been
able to unleash our inner Patricia in awhile, this year seemed as good a time
as any to head up there for a little daytrip.
We stopped at the Holden Arboretum, since it was on the way
and I can’t resist hitting as many places at once as humanly possible, despite
Laura’s persistent complaints to the contrary. The Holden Arboretum is 3,500
acres of Ohio land that Patricia refers to as “lush” and like “Eden.” Try going
there in January. Yes, Laura, I guess that was kind of my fault.
As stubborn as I am, I would not be deterred – plus, this
place isn’t free on Martin Luther King Day, so I was going to walk one of those
darned Eden-like trails, even if it killed me. I tried to take baby Brigid’s
stroller through the tundra, but Laura intervened, which I guess is why babies
have mommies. Laura and Brigid returned to the visitor’s center where it was
warm.
The rest of my crew of explorers did persevere, and all in
all the kids had fun.
Kathleen tripped in the snow about 15 times, so I’m not
winning “Dad of the Year” after this.
The Arboretum’s claim to fame is a collection of hedges,
which Patricia says should bring out your “inner Edward Scissorhands” – which
sounds like a call to vandalize, now that I think about it.
All in all, I can’t blame nature for disrupting a natural
place – I’m sure it’s a much different experience in the spring. However, I
think I was also nonplussed because I grew up in this area. All the trees and
plant-life was the kind of stuff I saw all the time just around where I lived.
There’s nothing objectively bad about the Holden Arboretum – it’s just that
there’s no way this place would seem exotic to me. We know even the Eiffel
Tower is boring to a Parisian. Not a very original observation, of course, but
true.
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