#10: ROAD TRIP!

This was the best resolution to check off yet! Since finishing treatment, I've been yearning for a spontaneous and simple way to run away for a weekend. As much as I love this city, there are moments I know I'd love it a lot more watching it gradually grow smaller in my rear-view mirror.

And last weekend, that's just what Mike and I did. ... To Cleveland.

Ok, it might not be the destination dreams are made of, but I'm currently transitioning back to full-time work and my finances have not yet reached their pre-treatment stability. Also, the drive was completely manageable (did you know Ohio was only 5 hours away?), and there was just enough to do to fill a two-night stay.

Downtown Cleveland is a beautiful urban centre, full of colonial style buildings, shopping arcades, red-brick warehouses and a lake front City Hall. Though traces of the recession are evident in the many abandoned buildings, the restaurant and sporting industry is still booming in Cleveland!

Over the course of the weekend, we dined on savoury beef cheek and scallops at Lola, relived moments in rock history - including women's rock history - at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and indulged in pastries, cupcakes, coffee and local beer at the West Side Market. By Sunday morning we had ventured through artsy Tremont, met a nice American couple and gawked at the pyrotechnics at the Quicken Loans Arena, and the icing on the cake was getting one free night from the Hyatt, along with two! free breakfasts.

As a first-excursion-out-of-treatment, Cleveland was a grand success!

And while I highly recommend to anyone else who needs a quickie getaway to try Cleveland (it's got to be better than Buffalo, right?), I must admit I'm going to be a little more ambitious in planning my second-excursion-out-of-treatment.