We got home this evening from a little mini-cation. Hubby has been dying to go see the house from A Christmas Story since we first learned it was open as a museum / Air B&B. But Cleveland has never really been on that list of place we are just aching to get to. Imagine that.
Still, there have been a few aborted plans to get up there. Last year, around this time, we were getting serious and started looking at booking hotels, but it was in the throes of insanity with quarantining if you came from out of state and all that madness and Ohio and New York were two of the worst with it. So yeah. Nope.
But this year it worked out great.
We left early Wednesday morning (and by early, I mean like 8, which probably doesn't qualify as early) and trekked up to Cleveland to make our 3:00 check in time. (There's a window, we hit the early end of it.) We checked in, got tickets for the last tour of the day (which includes more than just the house in which we were staying overnight) and then went on said tour.
They have all manner of original props and costumes and have set the house up just as it was for the parts of the movie that were actually filmed there (they had to use a sound stage for some, because it's not a large house and filming takes space, I guess.)
We spent the night in the house. It was spendy, but given how huge a fan of the movie hubby is (and the boys as well, though maybe some less. And I enjoy it, but more I enjoy how much hubby enjoys it) it's worth doing. One of those true "once in a lifetime" type things.
The boys slept in the beds in Ralphie's room. We were on the 3rd floor (not shown in the movie -- and they've converted it to a lovely loft bedroom with sitting area and full bath. There's a kitchen and eating area on the 2nd floor behind a door that is open after they close for tours and gives access to the rest of the house with all the Christmas Story decor all for yourself when you're staying there. Honestly, it was super fun.
The next day, we checked out and then headed off to Niagara Falls. It's a 3 and half (ish) hour drive from Cleveland, so we were there by lunch. We did the Maid of the Mist and the Cave of the Winds (both spendy, good night. Cha-freaking-ching.) and still, we were glad we did. While we were on the boat getting doused by the Horseshoe Falls spray, I looked over at eldest, who is well and truly a teenager most of the time, and all I saw was unfettered joy. I don't think I've seen him grin that big in a year. I'd pay that much and more to see him have that kind of reaction.
The hotel in Niagara (a Hyatt Place, so you'd think reasonable) was a massive letdown. The first room had an open soap still wet on the sink. Maybe it's picky, but...no. So they switched us, but the new room toilet needed plunging (they came up and took care of that), the deadbolt wouldn't turn to lock the second lock, and when I showered this morning the drain was clogged with hair (gak). Sufficient to say, if they send me a survey, I'm not going to be all a twitter with praise.
Before heading home, we toodled up to the Old Fort Niagara and that was well worth the two hours we spent there. (Though again, cha ching. Does everything in New York just cost a lot??) Eldest is the budding history buff and again, he loved walking about and looking at the embankments and so forth. Youngest was thrilled just to run around and up and down all the stairs. And of course the cannon. Who doesn't love cannons? They have costumed interpreters so we also got to see a musket demonstration (this particular red coat was clearly living his best life and made it all the more fun -- moreso than some of the folks we've run into at Williamsburg who seem...annoyed with their lot in life? Anyway, he was fantastic and guns and bayonets are always fun.)
We didn't pop over to Canada because covid silliness (they require either proof of vax or a negative test result and it all felt a little much simply for the boys to be able to say we'd gone to Canada.) We did wave to Canada several times, so there's that.
The drive home was long because we took the smaller highways rather than heading out of the way to the east or west to get an Interstate (although maybe time-wise it was still about the same as it would've been either way.)
Vacations are always a joy, but there really is no place like home.
No comments:
Post a Comment