Road Trip: Cleveland, 2017

My wife and I make what seems like an annual pilgrimage to Cleveland to run a 10k hosted by the A Christmas Story House and Museum. It’s a great cause — the proceeds from the race all go into the museum’s charitable work to help improve the surrounding neighborhood — and it’s a lot of fun. We had time to do a little bit of sightseeing, some of which included the house.

It’s a major award!

This is a great scene of “life” in the house. Also, the Look magazine reminded me of a rare stamp from the 1950s that was issued on a special paper and used on mail from Look.

The “Old Man” drove a 1938 Oldsmobile.

Not everything I photographed was in the house, though. I found a little bit of neon, and a couple of other things along the way. I found a few fun pieces of neon artwork, and we toured Great Lakes Brewing. I don’t drink beer, but touring the brewery was a very fun experience.

The Corner Alley has a great neon sign.

So does Mabel’s BBQ.

So does the West Side Market. Also, what a beautiful December day it was!

The remnants of the old Schlather brewery now reside at Great Lakes Brewing.

We enjoy our adventures in Cleveland, and we’ll definitely be back.

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Road Trip: Stephen Kellogg in Spring Lake, 2017

In October, my wife and I made a quick trek across the state to Spring Lake to see Stephen Kellogg in concert at Seven Steps Up, an amazing little music hall right downtown.

This is a lovely bit of neon; I regret not catching a photo after the sun went down.

There’s nothing better than walking up to a music hall and seeing Stephen Kellogg’s name on the sign.

The venue is a nifty site with amazing acoustics. The wood floors add to the ambience, and the staff who work there are amazing. As always, Stephen Kellogg put on a great show. Our seats weren’t conducive to getting great shots of the main show, but we did get to catch up with Stephen before the show during a meet-and-greet event. Here are a couple of photos of Stephen doing what he does best.

Look at that smile!

Seriously, Stephen Kellogg puts on a great show. It doesn’t matter if he has an opening act. It doesn’t matter if he has a band or plays by himself. He’s just great at what he does, and he sure enjoys doing it. Everyone should be so lucky.

Road Trip: Port Huron, 2014 – Part 2

Because Port Huron is right on the St. Clair River, the trip afforded me the opportunity to snag photos of a few freighters and ships that passed through. I didn’t capture all the names; in some cases, the zoom on my camera phone wasn’t quite enough to allow me to pick up the name here 3½ years later as I finally post these. Oh, well — that’s life.

The tug in the previous photo was pulling this barge.

The Mississagi

The Algoma Navigator

The John J. Boland

The Emilie

The Cason J. Callaway

I hope you enjoy these photos. If you want to see my other photos from this trip, please click here.

Road Trip: Port Huron, 2014 – Part 1

I spent a couple of days in Port Huron back in 2014. Port Huron is a lovely town with so many great sights to see and photograph.

My hotel room offered a very nice view of the St. Clair River and the Blue Water Bridge.

The lightship Huron is part of the rich history on display in Port Huron.

The USCGC Hollyhock was in her Port Huron home during my visit.

The Port Huron Paint Company has a great sign.

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The view from the observation deck of the Fort Gratiot Light is magnificent.

For photos of the many boats and ships I saw on this trip, please click here.

Road Trip: Mobile, 2017 – Part 1

I’m way behind on a number of things; one of those things is in sharing photos. I’m 2-3 years behind on that stuff, so I’m trying to dig out the backlog. This post will share a few of my favorite photos from the trip that my wife and I took to Mobile, Alabama, in May 2017.

Pretty much every trip south for us hits a Waffle House early. We don’t have those in Michigan, so Waffle House is a must-visit location. This one is in Daleville, Indiana.

Waffle House, Daleville, Indiana

The next highlight of the trip was in a little commercial strip in Athens, Alabama. Here, we found Joe’s World Famous Pizzeria. In most cases, the phrase “world famous” is a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s not really the case here. Joe Carlucci has won multiple world pizza championships and hold a couple of Guinness world records for his pizza skills. Joe left my wife and me feeling like we were his long-time friends, and prepared amazing calzones for us. He shared a number of stories from his pizza-making adventures, and treated us to cannoli for desert. We look forward to our next visit to Athens.

The man himself: Joe Carlucci performing his wondrous craft

Legendary calzone (well, half of one)

Our first day proper in Mobile featured a walk around downtown Mobile and a trip to GulfQuest, the national maritime museum of the Gulf of Mexico. Given that I enjoy photographing ships and neon signs, both of these destinations worked well for me.

GL Calmena

Naman’s Department Store neon sign

Hoffman Furniture Company neon sign

For the next parts of this series, click here and here.