Trip to Toledo last weekend! (Cleveland, Oregon: for sale, motel, house)

[Count David]

Hey all!

So last weekend we took an impromptu trip to Detroit (story here), and made sure to include Toledo in the trip. A) Because neither of us had ever been to Ohio, and B) I've been pretty interested in Toledo, always thought it might be appealing (I actually liked it A LOT).

We drove down Saturday night. State #24 for me, #22 for my wife.



We headed for our motel in Maumee. We unloaded, and went across the street to eat at La Fiesta (probably good for Ohio, would pass in Colorado, would fail miserably in California ) and it was pretty good IMO. I couldn't get over the fact that there was a store called the Buckeye Wolverine Store, I told my wife that there's probably fights there all the time.

We went down the street to the Meijer and I had three pressing questions.
1) How do you say Maumee?
2) How do you say Meijer?
3) Is this Lions or Browns country?

By the end of the trip, I think I had all of the questions answered ("Mawmee, Meier, and both kind of).



In the morning, I wanted to see nature, so we headed over towards Walbridge Park. On the way over, we were driving through a beautiful neighborhood (somewhere S/SW Toledo proper EDIT: Just checked, it was the Beverly neighborhood) and saw a house for sale for $109K. That's the stuff dreams are made of folks. Epic.

Anyhow, I've been itching to take a trip through the Midwest/Upper South mostly to see big rivers and bridges (don't ask me why, even I don't really know), and the Maumee helped me quench some of that thirst.

Walbridge Park,









I was absolutely enchanted.

We headed north towards downtown, then over a bridge to International Park to take in the view of the city.












The inner parts of the city seemed pretty dead, even for a Sunday morning I suppose. There's a fair amount of visible poverty and pretty apparent economic problems (including in downtown), but where I see these things, I only see potential.

We zigzagged over the river a few more times, and then got a "bright" idea, that ended up taking most of the rest of our day. We were in East Toledo, and set a track back towards the SW side, because there was more housing I wanted to see down there (older/big/on the river).

We stopped at a Walgreen's (this is where the bright idea comes in), and asked if they sold postcards. The wonderfully polite woman who worked there said that she had no idea where to get them, and that they didn't have any, and that it was a shame that there was no store where you could buy Toledo memorabilia. We thought the same. We continued on.

We had lunch at Mancino's in Holland (very good btw), and continued on (by now it is completely pouring rain), but not before stopping at Broadway Food Store for Cheez-It's and Red Bull, and trying the postcard thing there, and at a Rite Aid across the street (lol). No dice.

Let's try Wal-Mart we said. Drove out to Oregon. Saw K-Mart first. Thought, wow, a K-Mart that had people in it (). No luck. Off to Wal-Mart. No luck again. No pride in Toledo? Come on people....this place is great!

We cruised over to the NW side to Barnes and Noble. No Toledo collectibles there either. A guy that worked there told us that he never saw postcards around Toledo either, and he didn't understand why as well. He recommended the Toledo Art Museum, he was certain there were postcards there!

We parked, paid our $7 and enjoyed your amazing art museum (didn't get to go to the one across the street though, not enough time).





....and we found postcards! But they were only of the museum. We also found a pin of that wonderful city limit sign that my wife has since turned into a fridge magnet. I love it.

We drove from there up to the far NE side of town to see what we could of Lake Erie (it was VERY foggy), and to show my wife the geographical oddity of the lost peninsula.

Here's the knot we tied around your fair city on Sunday (it appears we still missed some pretty notable parts though ):


Random anecdotal thoughts:
-Toledo is in an absolutely beautiful (IMO) area. Quite a bit prettier than Metro Detroit and SE Michigan (IMO). All the trees, the river, the lake, excellent! I liked it a ton more than I thought I would.
-The S/SW part of town/Maumee/etc. is incredibly appealing. I could totally live over there.
-The people were very friendly
-I've had a few overnight dreams about Toledo (lol)

Can't wait to go back!

[Rebek56]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed your visit. I don't live in Toledo, either, but fell in love with it when my spouse taught at UT a few years back. We periodically discuss moving there permanently.

[313 TUxedo]

mawMEE and MYirr.

Toledo may have had more fandom for the Browns in the past, but those Browns abandoned Toledo for Baltimore (changing their name to the Ravens). Cleveland was without NFL for a few years, before the "new" Ravens arrived.

Cleveland is actually about twice as far from Toledo as Detroit is by road, even though Detroit is a little closer to Cleveland than Toledo is (by airline distance), because of Lake Erie.

Housing in Toledo is a bargain, but that reflects the fact that it is difficult to find a job there.

[Tobias C]

Love the post David, glad you got to check out the city a bit.

- About the Mexican food....the majority of Mexican restaurants around here serve crappy cheap food and exist solely to sell mass amounts of margaritas. There is good, authentic places though if you know about them. Right now I would say Cocina de Carlos (in Perrysburg) and his downtown spot, Carlos' Poco Loco are probably the best around right now.

- Your 1,2, and 3 are correct. Sports loyalty around here is truly mixed and is interesting. These would be my best guesses.....

NCAA Football: legitimately 50/50 OSU/UM

NFL: Probably 30/30/30 Browns, Lions, and Steelers. Steelers are huge around here. The other 10 are likely Bengals or Packers or something.

MLB: Probably like 65% Tigers, 45% Indians.

NBA: Probably 75% Cavaliers, 20% Pistons, 5% other

NHL: 95% Red Wings....maybe 5% Blue Jackets

AAA/ECHL: 100% MUD HENS & WALLEYE!


- Downtowns potentials already being realized, it just isn't bustling every day, all day....you kind of have to know when to be down there. During the week it's pretty busy everywhere down there during office/working hours (so up til around 6) then its starts to die off. Anytime theres a Mud Hens game is a boost, and come the weekend....its usually decently busy downtown...especially if the weather is nice and if there's an event or festival going on.

As far as nature in the city goes, the Metroparks are excellent and true treasures of the city/county. Check em out if you make it back here someday.

And definitely do some research on restaurants next time you come. Toledo has a bunch of good places if you're in the know.

Sounds like you enjoyed the city though and the pictures you shared are great! Thanks for visiting!

[acealive1]

did u manage to see the river in perrysburg? there are still old civil war cannons set in place lining the banks

[Count David]

Originally Posted by acealive1

did u manage to see the river in perrysburg? there are still old civil war cannons set in place lining the banks

No, I really regret not going down there now.

[313 TUxedo]

Originally Posted by 313 TUxedo

mawMEE and MYirr.

Toledo may have had more fandom for the Browns in the past, but those Browns abandoned Cleveland for Baltimore (changing their name to the Ravens). Cleveland was without NFL for a few years, before the "new" Ravens arrived.

Cleveland is actually about twice as far from Toledo as Detroit is by road, even though Detroit is a little closer to Cleveland than Toledo is (by airline distance), because of Lake Erie.

Housing in Toledo is a bargain, but that reflects the fact that it is difficult to find a job there.

Correcting my mistake.

[residinghere2007]

Glad you enjoyed your visit to our fair city.

Wanted to note if you are back here again to go to the Libbey Glass store in downtown Toledo's Warehouse District. They have postcards of Toledo and lots of Toledo glass collectibles. They are also right next to the Farmer's Market.

Wanted to also suggest you look at N. Toledo, especially Point Place and Ottawa River Rd next time. I love Point Place and probably it will be my next neighborhood here in Toledo due to being in close proximity of our other beautiful river (the Ottawa River - hence the name of the road) and Lake Erie.

Also visit our new metro park - The Middle Grounds downtown. You can kayak the Maumee from that park and it is right near the more bustling parts of downtown and San Marcos - a decent Mexican restaurant. They have some great authentic Mexican tacos, which are my favorites there.

Will also note that our unemployment rate in Toledo is pretty low right now and jobs aren't hard to find anymore.

[acealive1]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

No, I really regret not going down there now.

its ok, blink and u can miss them. u almost have to completely stop or get out of your car to see them anyway. theres fort meigs as well out there. theres others to see across the nation.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

Glad you enjoyed your visit to our fair city.

Wanted to note if you are back here again to go to the Libbey Glass store in downtown Toledo's Warehouse District. They have postcards of Toledo and lots of Toledo glass collectibles. They are also right next to the Farmer's Market.

Wanted to also suggest you look at N. Toledo, especially Point Place and Ottawa River Rd next time. I love Point Place and probably it will be my next neighborhood here in Toledo due to being in close proximity of our other beautiful river (the Ottawa River - hence the name of the road) and Lake Erie.

Also visit our new metro park - The Middle Grounds downtown. You can kayak the Maumee from that park and it is right near the more bustling parts of downtown and San Marcos - a decent Mexican restaurant. They have some great authentic Mexican tacos, which are my favorites there.

Will also note that our unemployment rate in Toledo is pretty low right now and jobs aren't hard to find anymore.

Thank you for all of these suggestions, noted for when we return!

It's good to hear that the economy is doing better -- if we are ever to make the move, we can take our jobs with us.....no sense in continuing to live in our current COL area when both of us are pretty tired of it anyway!