Last day. You ready to do this? Me neither. We’ll get through it together though.
We started the day with breakfast at Jack Flap’s which is mostly waffles. On the way there we passed a hot dog cart and I almost made a joke about how gross it woud be to have hot dogs for breakfast. Little did I know that's what I’d be having - a waffle covered with cream cheese, garlic greens and a chopped-up, all-beef hot dog.
I will confess to having expected the hot dog part of this meal to be a little more chi chi than a straight-up wiener because of the price and the atmosphere of the place (maybe a "deconstructed hot dog" that was actually chunks of steak, for example) so I was surprised by what was served, but I still ate it and you know what? I'd do it again.
From there we spent most of the day driving around and taking pictures.
Though it had nothing to do with steel, we visited Heinen's - a grocery store on Euclid that's located in a former bank in the Cleveland Trust Building. It. Is. Beautiful. A gorgeous rotunda serves as a lunch counter and cafe, a second floor offers wine and beer sales and tastings, and an adjacent grocery store has everything else. You can read more about it here and then please install something similar in Hamilton in time for me to buy groceries this Sunday, thanks: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/02/heinens_opens_downtown_superma.html
After that we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for some shots of the waterfront where ships used to unload. One of these was the William G. Mather, which is still there. The boat houses a museum these days, but at one time it was a bulk freighter that carried ore, coal, stone, and grain around the Great Lakes. The steel mills of Cleveland were a standard stop on its route. Sadly we couldn't go in because it's closed right now, but we had plenty of other stops to make.
One of these was Arcelor Mittal. If you want to spin by their property, you can. Independence Drive winds through the middle of the grounds and it's wild to be able to drive back and forth and see the facilities steam and grind around you.
Our most fruitful stop of the day was thanks to Positively Cleveland. The city’s tourism arm put us in touch with Joe Yachanin at Cleveland Metroparks. He was good enough to open up the Steel Museum down at Steelyard Commons (it's usually only open in summer) and arrange for an interpreter to spend a couple hours talking to us about the city and its industry.
Afterwards, Joe took us up to a lookout in the Tremont neighbourhood where we could get a view of the entire city and the Cuyahoga River. No sooner had he finished saying he wished we could see a freighter navigate the channel than a freighter swung into view and navigated the channel. I don't want to say it seemed like a set-up, but I'M ON TO YOU, CLEVELAND.
We also drove out to see the massive campus of the Cleveland Clinic, a huge academic medical centre with a campus that’s like a city of its own, before grabbing dinner in Cleveland Heights.
Now I know this isn't a competition, but Cleveland wins. At least as far as food goes. It has been outstanding, even if there was a direct correlation between the awesomeness of the meal and the idiosyncrasy of the server. For instance, I don't think I have ever been bowed to as much in my life (in fact maybe only once before, at Disneyworld, near Cinderella’s castle) as I was tonight at Vero, Cleveland’s answer to Bread Bar. The server all but ended each interaction with "your grace" which made me want to tell him “kid, stand up and save it for someone who didn't eat a hot dog for breakfast.”
So. That was it. Ten days of steel. People in every city we've visited have been incredible. Generous with their time and stories and tours. I wish we could keep going, but John's got to go win photojournalist of the year at the Ontario Newspaper Awards and I've got to start transcribing interviews.
Thanks for reading and tweeting and sending emails. This story should publish sometime near the end of May, but I'll keep you up-to-date on twitter @amyatthespec
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have something in my eye...