One of the staples of sightseeing in Cleveland for many years has been the Goodtime ships. They began touring the Cuyahoga River and the lakefront back in 1958. My first experience was with the Goodtime II. The ships have done lots of educational tours with local school groups and I was room mother the year that my fourth grade twins were to take their field trip.
I remember the effort it took to keep several school groups quiet enough to be able to hear the commentary as we cruised up the Cuyahoga River past Collision Bend--almost a 90 degree turn that ore boats and freighters have to make to navigate the "crooked river." As we passed by and under several different kinds of bridges, the mechanics and history of each was explained. There are all sorts of different bridges along the Cuyahoga many of them dating back to the early to mid 1900s. Some swing. Others lift. All are fascinating.
You also get to pass by where Moses Cleaveland first set foot in 1796 in what was to become the place where a city would bloom and be called by his name. He was sent with a contingency of 50 others to survey what was then a part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. A spelling error on the surveyor's map left the a out of Cleaveland and thus the city became known as Cleveland.
We thought it would be a fascinating trip to take when our soon to be ten year old granddaughter visited/ After all she would be the same age as her dad when he first made the trip. Of course now the ship is called the Goodtime III. It replaced the II in 1990.
Unfortunately we discovered too late that one of the bridges along the river past Collision Bend was frozen in place and we wouldn't be able to make the usual trip. Instead our cruise turned around at Collision Bend and went down another branch of the river that is even more industrial and does not have the variety of bridges.
We did get to go back outside the breakwall that protects Cleveland's harbor and cruise along for an hour for a delightful refreshing trip that gave us beautiful views of the skyline and a great pass by the lighthouses that flank the entrance to the harbor and the river.
Oh, and our granddaughter enjoyed my iPhone games when she got bored. A ten year old can only take so much relaxing.
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