January 13 to 19, 2017
One would ask why travel to Cleveland and Columbus? Well, since the location of these great cities is approximately half way to Washington DC or New York City from our customer base, Ready Travel is looking for an exciting educational city to use as a stopover on our way to and from the east coast. We all know that it is a long journey to these east coast cities to visit. We want to split up the long motorcoach ride for touring and safety. An evening stopover and nights rest will make the remainder of the trip much more relaxing. This way we can enhance our tours by including cultural, science and education from another city to include our tours and make them more exciting. We found just that in these Great Lakes cities. It was a great Familiarization Tour loaded with lots of tour and travel experience.
We just finished our site visit to the great Ohio cities of Columbus and Cleveland. We were surprised at what these great cities had to offer for us to visit with student groups. Columbus, Ohio’s capitol is loaded with new places to visit. The Beautiful Franklin Park Conservatory, the only American whistle manufacturing facility in the United States, the Phoenix Bat Company, second to only the Louisville Slugger factory in bat manufacturing. As a gift we were also given a sample bat to take home. Each student would get a bat upon a visit. Historic German Village is where we ate great home cook sausage made at the Schmidt’s Sausage Haus for lunch. An afternoon visit to the Igloo Letter Press to learn how they made printed holiday and birthday cards back in the turn of the century. Our evening meal at the “the Kitchen” a restaurant we could interact the experience cooking the meal. How exciting!! As a historical note, we visited a home that was actually used for the Underground Railroad. The “Kelton House and Museum”. The Kelton House tour was very emotional and an important part of the slave history of the 1800’s.
On our way north to Cleveland, we made a stop at Dublin, Ohio. We had wonderful visits at many of the Irish heritage museums. We also were able to learn an Irish Dance at one of the Oldest Irish dancing schools. Our group was taught Irish Dance 101. If you ever saw “Riverdance” you would know what we are talking about. The Irish people are very proud of their culture and great are dancers.
Our last visit was the great city of Cleveland. The city culture in Cleveland is surprising. We had the opportunity to see the Museum of Art. It houses some of the finest painting in the Midwest. It has a complete set of armor for the Knights of England to do battle. Our next stop was the Science Center. The home of the famous Mercury Astronaut John Glen and his story of the earth’s orbit. Our next visit was to the home of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. This 2000 seat facility built in the 1930’s, it does not need electronic sound equipment for you to enjoy the music. It was built to make the sound come to your ears naturally. When seeing these buildings and their holdings, one would think you were in Washington DC. Cleveland wanted it visitors to see its culture just at if you were in Washington. Many of these great exhibits and buildings were funded and built by the Rockefeller family and the Oil industry. Mr. Rockefeller once lived in Cleveland. Our last visit before departing Cleveland was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All of our previous musical groups love this stop. It contains music history for all age groups. It will get you “Rockin”. It is a must on our trips in passing through Cleveland. It is surely a treasure.
As we summarize our visits, we are definitely including one of these cities on future travels to the East Coast. Columbus and Cleveland will be a memorable stop with all the attractions I mentioned and our concern for safety and long distant travel.
At Ready Travel and Logistics, we are continually looking for ways to enhance our tours. We strive on great memories, fun and safety on our student tours.
Tom and Kathy Ready
