Weekend Whereabouts

An eventful weekend it was as I visited the West Side Market, Huntington Beach, and also survived my first Sunday alone on the job.  The Market was absolutely fabulous and reminded me of my past visits to the Borough Market in London.   West Side Market is the oldest market in Cleveland located in the historic Ohio City neighborhood.  I walked through the entire thing at least three times, and was fascinated the whole time.  Rows of fresh produce, warm baked breads, interesting specialities, etc.  kept my eyes wandering and made me very hungry!  I settled on a fresh fruit smoothie and some free samples of popcorn, my favorite was the strawberry lemonade popcorn. 

West Side Market 



Fresh Produce

There was also a couple of fresh flower vendors set up at the market, and of course I loved that!  They had fresh bunches of flowers or simple arrangements available.  The diversity of the West Side Market was exciting and I definitely plan to return in the near future.  Although, I still couldn't handle the massive amounts of cheese available from the cheese vendors, I am still feeling the post-Switzerland over exposure to cheeses!  It was a hot and humid day, so naturally my next stop was the beaches of Lake Erie.  I spoke with a few co-workers to find out which were the best beaches in the area, and I chose to visit Huntington Beach.  It was a little bit of a drive, but it was definitely worth it for the view and the beautiful houses alone! 

Huntington Beach Reserve, Lake Erie

I spent a couple of hours laying out and attempting to rid my arms of my farmer's tan, while enjoying a great book.  Once it started to cool off, I packed up and stopped by the BayArts Craft Festival.  Ironically, it was perfect timing because it was basically a smaller version of the Land of the Loon Festival back home that I was missing for the first time since I can remember.  All in all, it was a successful Saturday.  Sunday came quick and I spent my first day working at the garden alone.  It was interesting to say the least.  We had a heavy rain early on which sent me running for cover, but it eventually ceased and I resumed my morning duties.  The flowers were beautiful after the rain, including one of my favorites, the gardenia.  Plus, I got to lead my first tour in the afternoon, and it went very well.  I had a small group of five people, who were all from different areas of the United States.  It was great to show them around the garden and share some information with them while also hearing their stories, too. 

Gardenia Flower

After a successful first tour, my afternoon got a bit more hectic with a dysfunctional sprinkler that was not turning off.  As it is still only the beginning of my third week, I don't know much about the irrigation system.  Eventually we got the situation under control, but I was a bit stressed out until then.  Minus the sprinkler fiasco and morning downpour, I'd say that I had another successful weekend.