Michigan: Great Lakes. Great times.

Pittsburgh was much more fun once we found out how to navigate the streets (it helped to have a native Pittsburgher in the car.) Brianne kindly guided Paul and me to Oakland, a Pittsburgh neighborhood that encompasses most of the city's universities. Our first stop was the Cathedral of Learning. It sounds impressive, doesn't it? Well, it was. The building is 42 stories, but the elevator system was quite complicated. I think we made it up to floor 36 or 37 before the elevator system 'ran out.' But it made for a nice view of the city. The best part of this building, though, which is part of the University of Pittsburgh, is that they have world rooms on floors 1 and 3 -- classrooms designed as classrooms from around the world. We saw a dozen or so of the rooms that were unlocked, such as Armenia, Poland, Japan, Israel, and Lithuania. They were really beautiful and interesting; it was unfortunate that some of the rooms (France, Russia, Norway, etc.) were locked. I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in the city, and maybe you will even spring for the cassette guide. That comes with a key to unlock all of the rooms, so you won't have to sneak into the rooms on the first floor behind people with cassettes. :) All of the rooms on the third floor are open for free, though.

The Israeli room. And Paul. I don't really get it... But I love it!

After the Cathedral of Learning (I even love the name!!) we went over to the Carnegie buildings. We toured around the hallway of the Carnegie art and natural history museum and poked our head as far in to the Carnegie Music Hall as we were allowed, but opted not to actually go into the museum, as we were somewhat museumed out from the world rooms. We took a walk around some of the streets after that, checking out the Plaza, and then headed back to the twins' house. Alana was home from work by then, so we all hung out and chatted it up before Paul and I had to load up the car and hit the road.

Off to Ohio we went, to Uncle Bob's house (not actually my uncle, or even Paul's. Uncle Bob is actually Paul's great uncle.) En route, we popped into Youngstown to find dinner. Well, we discovered that there really isn't much in Youngstown. We continued driving until we finally found something... that something was a little bar: pool tables, a bar, and nothing else. We stood awkwardly for a moment as everyone in the bar took one look and sized us up. Everyone in the bar knew each other and the bartender, so we stood out as the young, out-of-staters that we are. We moved to the bar and placed our orders, though. And, as it was only fitting to have a beer at a place like that, we each had a Bud Light (quite the deal for me, not liking beer and all...) with our sandwiches and fries.

Our dinner joint

The bartender was very nice and talkative, though, and all in all it was a fun experience. We pulled into Bob's around 8 or so. He showed us around his farm and barn (he houses 19 horses) which was really something! It was a beautiful farm, and Paul and I went for a walk around the place, down by the river, after settling in. We also got very acquainted with Baloo, an adorable (and HUGE) rotweiler.

Baloo loved me.

The next morning, after a short chat with Uncle Bob and breakfast, we drove up to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Wow, was that worth it. We deliberated for awhile on whether to go for it, as it was quite the splurge for our daily budget, but we were both happy to have done so. We actually planned to only spend about three or four hours there, but after the first floor (out of four exhibition floors) we checked the time and realized we had already spent three hours! There was so much to see, it just made my head spin! It was all very exciting, but, among much, we really liked Jim Morrison's cub scout uniform, Bob Dylan's high school report on Steinbeck, Joni Mitchell's drawing of Graham Nash, and just learning about so many musicians and so much music to which we need to listen.

After our extended visit to the museum, we headed up to Ann Arbor. To pass the hours in the car (spent driving the speed limit to conserve on gas) we have taken up reading novels to one another. Our first project: Pride and Prejudice. It's been surprisingly fun to read aloud, as we get to comment on the book as we read it together and make funny voices for each of the characters. Also we have taken up imitating the dialogue styles from Jane Austin:

Paul: Miss Harway, you do merge onto the highway with such precision, and yet your countenance maintains such complete and thorough composure as to suggest it was but nothing at all.
Alina: Oh Mr. DeBell, you compliment too freely my driving skills, though I am quite amenable to such flattery. But let us head for Ann Arbor godspeed.
Paul: Indeed. Quite. Yes. Indubitably.

We got there in time for dinner and a short stroll down Main St before checking in at our hotel. We were so happy to discover, upon arriving at our Microtel, that we had been bumped up to the junior executive suite due to overbooking ($150 normally...$52 for us.) The room is beautiful and we are big Microtel fans now. (Actually, even the regular room would have been great. Free wireless and free long distance calls!)

Our classy hotel room

We're retiring for the evening, while watching a horribly bad movie (Mr. and Mrs. Smith), so as to be ready for a long day of exploration of the city and the university tomorrow!