A Perfect Sunday Morning in Cleveland, Ohio

1. First, attend the outdoor Sunday mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Euclid.
2. After mass, ride your bike in the Euclid Creek Metropark. Dip your feet into the clear waters of the creek and gaze upon the great shale cliff above the Welch Woods picnic area.
3. Then head up Nottingham road to East 185th Street, stopping at Buettner's Bakery.
4. Take your sweet rolls and coffee to Wildwood Park on Lake Erie.

You've had a perfect summer morning!

Grotto at Lourdes Shrine

Euclid Creek

Denny Coughlin used to hang from these tree roots!

Wildwood Marina on Lake Erie

Jet ski heading out to the Big Lake

What Happened to Euclid's "Mt. Baldy"?

When I was a kid, Euclid had one mountain--"Mt. Baldy." This mountain was somewhere between Highland Road and Chardon Road (US Route 6), about a quarter mile south of Euclid Avenue, US Route 20. I'm guessing Harms Road dead ended near the peak of this landmark.

Last Sunday I attended 9:30 mass at Lourdes Shrine, the beautiful and historic grotto off Chardon Road hill (just south of Euclid Avenue). After mass I drove up Highland Road to the Euclid Creek Park road that winds through a narrow valley, ending up at Green Road in South Euclid (by the way, it ends where the village of Bluestone once stood; here the beautiful slabs of Euclid Bluestone were quarried by some of my Irish ancestors).

Anyway, on my drive I couldn't see Mt. Baldy. Where had it gone? A mountain can't just disappear, can it? I used to be able to see Mt. Baldy from St. Joe's High School on Lake Erie. Something that prominent can't just disappear.

My best guess is that Mt. Baldy got some Rogaine treatments or transplants--in other words, vegetation has regrown on that once-barren hilltop and cliff. And now Mt. Baldy has transformed into Mt. Hairy. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.