San Francisco, California

After my week in Seattle, I continued my journey down the west coast to spend the weekend in San Francisco with Kira, my oldest friend. This was my first time in California – I can't believe it took me this long to visit – and I can now say I finally understand the appeal. California truly is a paradise.

Kira and her husband Ben live in Tamalpais Valley, a small community in Marin County. Tam Valley, which is part of the greater Mill Valley, is a beautiful place to live. Despite it’s close proximity to San Francisco (only a twenty minute drive), it seems worlds away; bound my coastal hills, hiking trails, and extraordinary nature reserves, Tam Valley is a peaceful oasis on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Kira and I spent the majority of the weekend outside the city, enjoying the beautiful weather –something that is quite rare in San Francisco this time of year. To celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving, we visited the Crystal Bay Farm pumpkin patch in Watsonville, not too far from Santa Cruz, and prepared a Thanksgiving dinner with a group of Kira and Ben’s friends. I now believe the hype about California food – everything we ate was delicious. From contemporary Mexican food at Playa Mill Valley to fresh artisan sandwiches at Surf City Sandwich in Santa Cruz, the quality of ingredients in California is bar none.

After saying our goodbyes, I spent my last morning wandering through San Francisco proper. I saw the famous Lombard Street, meandered through Chinatown, walked along the beautiful waterfront, explored the downtown core, and climbed up the Coit Tower, which took more effort than I had hoped for such a leisurely morning. The highlight of my day, however, was my lunch at the Ferry Building Marketplace, where I got to eat an amazing grilled cheese from Cowgirl Creamery overlooking the sparkling blue bay. I couldn't think of a better way to end my weekend in San Francisco. Next up – Los Angeles!

Cleveland, Ohio

After a weekend in Cleveland, I can now say I understand what Drew Carey means when he exclaims, “Cleveland rocks!” For my birthday this year, my dear friend Amanda and her sister Laura surprised me with tickets to Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibition, but with a catch: we’d be taking a little road-trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art! Although we’d already seen Kusama’s installations when the feature came to the Art Gallery of Ontario, the opportunity to experience her works in a foreign gallery of a different city added excitement to an exhibit that is still fun and mesmerizing to experience in person.

Cleveland is only a five-hour drive from Toronto, which takes you through New York and Pennsylvania along Lake Erie. To give you a quick snapshot of the city, Cleveland is the second largest city in Ohio after Columbus, and is widely recognized as a benchmark for successful revitalization of an industrial city. It’s story comes from a history of manufacturing – a once destination for transforming resources such as ore, coal, oil, and steel. With that in mind, it’s no surprise so many of the buildings that comprise Cleveland’s urban-fabric are repurposed warehouses, abandoned buildings, and colossal iron bridges – interestingly enough, it is almost impossible to get from one side of the city to the other without having to cross a bridge.

What I gathered from my brief encounter with Cleveland is that it is a budding city, trying to build an identity of somewhere suitable for young and starting-out adults; they offer a tempting amount of quality craft breweries, colourful murals, as well as many other “Instagrammable” sights and attractions. We stayed in the area known as ‘the Flats’: a redevelopment along the Cuyahoga River, which is known as the nightlife and entertainment hub of Cleveland. However, I would say I was a bit more interested in food; we ate our way through “Cle” with beers and carnitas nachos at the Noble Beast Brewing Co., green juice at Beet Jar Juicery in Ohio City, and meaty appetizers at the Butcher and Brewer on trendy East 4th Street – a pedestrian street in the heart of downtown. We also enjoyed delicious donuts at Brewnuts, a donut-shop-brewery-stop with a kitschy tropical interior in Gordon Square, followed by comic book-themed cocktails at Ninja City. At the Big Bang Dueling Piano Bar, we watched talented piano entertainers duel it out through live requests from the audience, which honestly turned out to be a lot more fun than it sounds!

We managed to do some sightseeing during our short time in Cleveland, with highlights including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Cleveland’s waterfront, the historic West Side Market, and University Circle in Cleveland’s east end, which is home to major cultural institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Botanical Garden, and the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is the fourth-wealthiest art museum in the United States and is one of the most visited art galleries in the entire world. The beautiful interior took our breath away: the majestic atrium, which opened in 2012, is enclosed under a spectacular glass canopy and is anchored by beautiful planters on either side. CMA is internationally recognized for its substantial collection of Egyptian and Asian art, and has a permanent collection of over 45,000 different works from around the world. Due to our tight schedule we only had time to visit the Infinity Mirrors exhibition (which was amazing), however, I would love to experience the remainder of the museum one day - in my opinion, that would be worth the drive to Cleveland, alone.