Downtown with Dad

Being from the wonderful city of Cleveland (sure, Cleveland isn't perfect but, trust me, there is magic in most cities; it is just a matter of finding the parts that shine), I get to see all of the creative guitars that artist paint around town. While visiting the Arab store downtown, I came across this lovely guitar that is about music and color!

After getting about 15 bags of pita, my dad and I decided to indulge in a typical American tradition: made to order hot dogs from street venders! There are street venders all over Cleveland, but we stopped off at one stand in particular that was close to where we parked. It had chili hot dogs, hot sausages, Italian sausages, Polish sausages, chips, and beverages. Everything to eat was hot since it was all settled around the hot dogs, but he kept the water and soda nice and cool. Very refreshing! We ended up having 6 between the two of us, trying to have as many variations and types of hot dogs as possible. Since I went to Japan, and he moved out West, this was something we'd both been missing!

I can't wait to chow down on the hot dogs!
On a chilly day, it really hit the spot!

The hot dogs were good, but our main focus this afternoon was The Horseshoe Casino (learn more here). The first casino in Cleveland in around 30 years, my dad especially wanted to get a look before going back home. I was up for a trip downtown, and armed with a complete ignorance for all things gambling, I followed after in hopes of finding out what all the fuss has been about. Ever since moving back home, all the local news has been doing is covering the casino, peoples reactions to the casino, how this casino is different from others, wait times, parking prices, blah, blah, blah, I GET IT ALREADY! 

They had completely changed the old Higbee Company in order to have this great casino, and while I'm not a fan of the Las Vagas glitz, I must say that the decor looked very nice. There were lots of stairs and escalators (dorky, but that is something I like in architecture), chandeliers every few ceiling panels, lots of gold and brown, dim (but not dark), flashy (but no neon). We played Blackjack, or Dad played while I learned Blackjack, with a pair of rather drunk Italian-Americans and a Guatemalan man. The Italian guys had heavy accents and thought that my name as Alexis. The smaller one was so out of it, that he started yelling any word he could think of when the dealer gave him a card, and the larger one was constantly talking, like a short-stop in a baseball game. 

"Come'on, Johnny, let's see at 10 over here! What d'ya doing? Ya not gonna take a chance like that?! Ya killing our luck over here, Alexis! The table's a family, aight? D'ya need some chips? I got some right h're. Take 'em. Hey, Jonny! Let's get some luck going! Oh, he's gonna fold, totally gonna fold..."

By the way, they were a blast!! Everyone should have guys like this to play with. The Guatemalan man who got along well with my father, speaking in Spanish to each other and talking about all the changes to Guatemala. They got hung up on talking about a dish called pollo loco (crazy chicken), but I've never been to Guatemala, and my Spanish died sometime in Sophomore year, so all I've got is an impressive Spanish vocabulary and not skills to use it.

Before we left, though, we looked around the first two floors to see what there was to see, and my dad encouraged me to try my hand at the slot machines. We picked one called "Bamboozled," which was panda and China themed, but all those slots were taken in our area. Instead I played "China Shores," which was also panda and China themed. It was cool that all the games were pretty much the same thing, but the styles and characters, colors and themes were what kept the variety in the casino. I also got to play a typical slot game, but no winnings at the end of the day. Sorry.

To end the day, we stopped off to get a refill of holy and police supplies at a little shop Dad knew of, and I played with the store's staff: two dogs! On was a fox hound who was so gentle, quiet, and soft. The other was a super energetic young pup named 'Happy' who was following everyone around the store. All in all, a productive morning and a great afternoon hanging out with my Dad!