Cleveland Market OOTD

I wore this to the West Side Market and the zoo during a recent weekend trip to Cleveland. It is a new dress from Eshakti and although I like it very much I admit it wasn't the best dress for traveling. I learned that it is very prone to wrinkles, as evidenced above. I had ironed it in the hotel before we left for the day but you would never know it from the photos. I do like the color very much and the shirt dress shape. But I wish the fabric had a tiny bit of stretch to make it less wrinkly and bunchy. Still, it yielded many compliments from friendly strangers which was nice.

Details:
Eshakti dress (c/o)
MBMJ shoes
Longchamp hobo

Emilia's outfit:
Gymboree dress and cropped leggings, Ballerina Crocs

Scenes from Cleveland Part 2

We picked our Cleveland hotel based in part on location but mostly on whether they had an indoor pool. In doing so, we sacrificed fancier digs for family-friendly amenities. But it was worth it! We were eager to take Emilia swimming for the first time and knew it was going be too cold to do so outdoors. Inside, the water was plenty warm and although she was suspicious at first, she clearly loved it! We took lots of videos and photos to commemorate the occasion, since she turned six months old during our visit. You can see her splashing me below.

 

Swimming wasn't our only goal for the trip. In addition to our visits to the museum and West Side Market, we were excited to try a few restaurants!

While there, we visited the Great Lakes Brewery, the Greenhouse Tavern (thankfully made our reservation just hours before this piece was published), Bonbon, and the Flying Fig (both the restaurant and the market).

 

As you can probably tell from the photos, we wore Emilia everywhere, including the restaurants (minus brunch at the Flying Fig, where she hung out in her car seat carrier, because we were leaving town afterwards and thought she might nap more easily.  She didn't and we wound up passing her back and forth in between bites. But that's ok!). I loved the food we ate everywhere we went! And next time, in addition to visiting at least one of the Michael Symon restaurants, I hope to revisit our favorites from this trip.

On our way home we decided to stop at the outlet mall in Aurora where I bought a full coverage outdoor swimsuit for Emilia and tried on this Marc by Marc Jacobs dress. 

It was marked down a ton but the pleat details in the front and back of the dress made for an unpleasant side view.

Overall, it was an amazing trip. We've gone to three places in Emilia's first six months: DC, New York, and Cleveland. And it has been so fun to try new things with her! Even the old things we do feel new again because of her, which is pretty awesome.

Scenes from our weekend in Cleveland (part 1)

Chris just started a new job and while this is fantastic news for our family, it also means that our schedules have become a little less flexible. Naturally, he has to accumulate vacation time and is beginning from scratch. But that doesn't eliminate our shared travel bug! We decided that in the meanwhile, we would utilize any long weekends we could to take short trips. Our first voyage was over Memorial Day weekend, when we drove up to Cleveland to eat, shop, and explore.

We visited the newly remodeled Cleveland Art Museum, which is pretty fantastic and free to the general public! While there, we saw so many wedding parties taking photos, which always makes me feel a little wistful. As a spectator, I was reminded of the strangers who wished me well and snapped photos from the patio outside of Heinz Chapel, while I waited to walk down the aisle on my own wedding day.

Chris put his art history degree to use as he took Emilia on her own private tour. It was fun to compare her reactions to the art on this trip vs her previous museum visit at the National Gallery of Art (when she was two months). At six months old, she was less into impressionism and cubism. She was more into portraits of women and girls. She still liked the mobile sculptures of Alexander Calder. But she also appreciated multisensory and multimedia pieces.

 

We loved the West Side Market, where we shopped and had lunch. Because it was a Saturday on a holiday weekend, it was very crowded. Thankfully, we opted to wear her rather than try the stroller. She loved looking up at the architecture of the space in the main terminal.

There was certainly a lot to see!

 

We took a break to eat our hand pies from one of the vendors. We also gave Emilia a break from the Ergo so she could stretch her legs.

We ate at some amazing places too. I can't wait to go back!

Outfit details
Me:
Tory Burch Warren ruffle trench
J. Crew anchor dress
Old Navy leggings
Lucky Brand Emmie flats
Marc Jacobs Mercer hobo
Norman Childs glasses/Etro sunglasses

Chris:
Vince sweater
Marc Jacobs jeans (note that these are way cheaper in the mbmj store than online for some reason)
Vans slip ons
Lifetime Collective sunglasses

Emilia:
Osh Kosh cardigan (similar hoodie set she also has here)
Tea Collection dress (same in another colorway here)
Old Navy leggings
Trumpette socks
Handmade hat

By the way, I'll be drawing the Shabby Apple Giveaway winner later today and contacting them via email. The winner will also be posted in the Rafflecopter widget. Thank you to everyone who entered and to Shabby Apple for providing the prize!