Healthy Road Adventures, or Spicing Things Up: The Culinary Adventures on the Road to Healthy: Ride

Summer is bike-ride season for me. Lucky, Cleveland has awesome places to ride on. I love riding though the Cleveland Metroparks, and through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park; they have awesome bike trails, there are restrooms available, and you see gorgeous scenery. However, I am a destination-driven rider. I want to go places. I want to see places. I want to experience places. So for every time I’ve rode on a Metropark trail, I’ve rode to “somewhere” at least 5 or 6 times.

Rocky River, OH. June 2014

Sometimes the Metroparks can be “the destination”. I love (LOVE) riding my bike to Huntington Beach. I ride there a few times a year from the East Side, but my favorite part of this ride is the stretch between Rocky River and Bay Village. This 5-mile segment takes the average rider (me) under 30 minutes to complete. It's a relatively easy terrain to ride on because it’s mostly flat, and it only has a few small "hills" along the way (the hardest one being around Bradstreet’s Landing Park). There are no bike lanes on Lake Rd, but since it’s common to have riders on this stretch of the road, the drivers are generally mindful of (and sometimes kind to) cyclists.

Bay Village, OH. June 2014

Along the way you’ll see beautiful homes and lakefront parks. At the Rocky River end you’ll find some boutique stores, a local “farmer’s” market, and a few restaurants. A short 5-mininute ride (under a mile) southwest towards Detroit and Old Detroit roads will take you to many more cool stores, coffee shops and restaurants, and it'll give you a more “Downtown” Rocky River experience. At the Huntington Beach end, well there’s the beach. This beautiful beach in Bay Village is one of the nicest beaches in the Cleveland Area. It's clean and manicured, there's no trash around, and people are always having fun and at their best behavior; kudos to Cleveland Metroparks! While there, you can have a picnic, you can go sun-bathing, or you can go for a swim. If you are up for a hike, you have Huntington’s Reservation literally across the street. Throughout the summer there are multiple events both at the beach and at the reservation. My usual routine though, involves getting some good ice cream at Mitchell’s Ice Cream (at the beach), and then I get back to my ride. But that’s just me.

Huntington Beach. June 2014

There’s plenty of free parking both at Huntington Beach and at Huntington Reservation. Bike-parking is available as well (at the beach). There are clean bathrooms at the beach, and additional bathrooms and changing areas on the reservation. There's a pedestrian tunnel that connects the two parks so you can easily go between the two. It's probably best to walk your bike through the tunnel, to prevent any accidents with the pedestrians. Once again, there are no bike lanes on Lake Rd so ride with caution, avoid distractions, and respect the traffic laws. Have fun!

Huntington Beach. June 2014

Huntington Reservation. June 2014

Huntington Beach. June 2014

View of the Wade Lagoon and the Cleveland Museum of Art from Euclid Ave. May 2014

I feel very excited to be writing this first post on a series I’d be calling Cleveland’s my gym. In it I’ll be exploring different ways to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle, while enjoying some of the coolest neighborhoods and sites that Northeastern Ohio has to offer. Of course, as soon as I started getting serious about writing it, my inner saboteur immediately went on to ask: “Why would anyone care about this?” And so I told myself, “SWEETIE, first of all, ALL of us in Cleveland have been traumatized by this last, painfully long, bitterly-cold winter; now we want to be outside to enjoy the nice temperatures. Besides, it seems to me that more and more Clevelanders are trying their best to engage in active lifestyles and we could all benefit from knowing of good places to work on our fitness while enjoying the many, many assets our region has to offer.” And with that I kicked my inner saboteur in the butt, and got started. After all, if there’s something I’ve learned in the last few years is that the real secret to a successful health and fitness journey is to learn to overcome your inner saboteur; that’s when you can go on to achieve your goals.

Playhouse Square on Euclid, looking west. May 2014

I know that when we think of outdoors + Cleveland it usually equals the Emerald Necklace or the Metroparks. I love them all, and I’ll get there eventually. However, I wanted to start this series somewhere closer to the heart of the city and its history: Euclid Avenue between Downtown Cleveland and University Circle. The once world-famous Millionaires’ Row saw its decline during the Great Depression and it seems like rest of the 20th century was not really that kind to it. But that’s really changing now. The avenue has benefit from heavy investment, and it’s full of life again. It’s about time we enjoyed it!

Uptown development, view from MOCA. May 2014.

The single best thing you can do on Euclid Ave. is to ride your bike. It’s only about 5 miles long and there are bike lanes on both sides of the road through most of way. The speed limit is 25 mph, so you probably won’t be intimidated by the cars driving in the lane next to yours. Besides, I’ve never really seen heavy traffic on Euclid, so you won’t be smelling exhaust as you ride. The terrain is flat, which makes this an easy ride that takes the average rider about half hour each way. What really makes this ride cool is that you have tons to do on both ends of your ride, so you can couple your ride with a day-visit to work on your Cleveland pride.

View on Euclid looking west, by the Cleveland Clinic. May 2014.

If you start in Downtown Cleveland, you’ll find plenty of reasons to make it to the cultural heart of Northeastern Ohio, University Circle. You can for instance, and for free I may add, go into our world-class Art Museum. Fairly small fares will get you into the Art Museum’s special exhibits or to the many other attractions around (MOCA, Museum of Natural History, Western Reserve Historical Society, the Botanical Gardens, and others). You can also go and check the Uptown development, which is so cool. You’ll have plenty of food and drinking venues there such as the ABC tavern, Mitchell’s ice cream, Coquette, Cleveland Beer Cellar, and soon there’ll even be a Happy Dog. In addition, you’d be within a 2-3 minute by bike from Little Italy and its art walks and restaurants, and if you really want to extend your ride, you can go down all the way to Lake Erie on MLK’s bike lane through the Cultural Gardens. Just make sure you keep the calories under control if you do choose to dine or drink in the area! Oh, and don't forget that the Wade Oval Wednesdays and Parade the circle, both are coming up soon!

View of Severance Hall on Euclid Ave., from Adelbert Rd. May 2014

If you are heading towards Downtown Cleveland, you’re in luck because you won’t be worrying about parking once you get there! Besides the obvious attractions (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Great Lakes Science Center, Lolly the Trolley, and the beautiful buildings everywhere), there are many outdoor events going on during the summer. I would suggest to go even if it is to check out the area around the new Convention Center because it’s so damn cool. The East 4th district will have your eating/drinking needs covered and will really make you feel cool while you’re at it. The East 4th district is also home to the Cleveland Bike Rack, a bicycle garage with locker room and showers that might interest you if you are considering commuting to Downtown by bike, or if you want to make sure you are nice and fresh for your downtown visit (great if you are meeting people there and you want to freshen up!).

Snapshot of the E.4th District looking west, on Euclid Ave. May 2014.

Going back to the ride itself I’d say it’s quite enjoyable. I need to mention that although the road and the bike lanes are for the most part in great condition, there are some fairly big potholes concentrated in the area between E. 30th and the bridge over I-90. Luckily, because of the low volume of traffic, it is fairly safe to switch to the “car lane” and avoid those potholes. Still, be careful. But once you are done dealing with that, make sure you enjoy your ride and see all the cool stuff along the way. You’ll see people doing their thing around the Cleveland Clinic, along the thriving Cleveland State University campus, and at Playhouse Square. If you pay attention you may see some of the remaining Millionaires’ row homes still standing. And as a special trivia, I’ll share a little secret with you. The first time I rode my bike on Euclid I was confused by all the HTC banners between Cleveland State and the Cleveland Clinic. I somehow felt the cell phone company had some sort of a presence in Cleveland, but turns out I was just being dumb. HTC stands for Health Tech Corridor, a conglomerate of companies in those industries taking advantage of the local assets in those fields. Many of them are located in new and/or renovated buildings along Euclid Ave. Classic me, lol.