I was working nights the week of Brian’s birthday, so we couldn’t really do anything on his special day besides follow social media for LeBron’s Decision 2.0. We had big plans to go to Cleveland the following day to go to the Cleveland Aquarium and the Indians-White Sox game.
When we were 20-30 minutes shy of downtown Cleveland, the LeBron “I’m coming home” thing hit the internet. I had to drive so that Brian could handle his excitement and communications with his family and pals. We could hear people squawking and horns honking pretty much as soon as we got off the highway. We parked across from the Q and walked through excitable people and TV reporters. We came across a guy with a professionally made sign that said, “THE KING HAS RETURNED!” He was riding around on a bike with that sign, yelling, “THE KING HAS RETURNED!” He rode by us, I told him I liked his sign, and he made his way closer to the TV crews and cameras. I took these 2 pictures, the first of which shows the sign guy (also notice the maroon shirt guy on a bike right in front of us):
Here’s that exact moment from the other way (and on Sportscenter):
Anyway, after the excitement near the Q and us not realizing that we should have gone directly to the Q ticket office to buy season tickets, we walked to the aquarium.
First things first, I’m the realest froggy sex:
Chris Bosh just went about his normal business, despite LeBron’s decision:
Here’s a cool African Tortoise we met:
There was a cool Shark SeaTube, but it was really difficult to take good pictures inside the tube. Here’s a picture of a big shark at the entrance of the tube:
In general, we liked the aquarium, though it is small. There were a lot of nice, clean glass pillars full of marine life, which was nice because you could walk all the way around them. I was disappointed a few times by a lack of explanatory signage.
BUT!
Since it was Brian’s birthday celebration day, I said yes to the $2/person upcharge for feeding stingrays. We did have to wait around a bit for stingray feeding time, but it was worth it. For the low, low price of $2 each, we each got 2 pieces of squid and a lesson in stingray feeding.
I went first, and I squealed in delight (in contrast to everyone else, who found stingray feeding soooo boring). You have to make a fist with your thumb tucked inside and leave the squid piece sticking out the top, like Brian is doing here:
Then you put your hand under the water, and the stingray will swim over your hand and kind of stop when their mouth is over the squid, and then they will suck with their whole mouth.
After our stingray excitement, we stopped along the way back to get some lunch. We made our way to Progressive Field and eventually settled in to be Kipnesses and/or enjoy being in Bro-hio:
Usually it works out that Brian’s birthday lines up with a Blue Jays game and we are surrounded by Canadians. I thought we were in the clear this year since the Indians were playing the White Sox, but no such luck…another year, another weird, fighting Canadian couple. Also, Brian was sitting next to two grown ass men sharing a vape thingy (vaporizer? Whatever, weirdos).
Cavs Colors:
This flashed briefly during the game as one of the only acknowledgements of the momentous day (other than the MANY people wearing >4 year old LBJ jerseys that mostly didn’t quite fit anymore):
This game was the first we have been to that the Indians won:
We beat the traffic by skipping the fireworks, but here’s a fireworks picture from the parking garage:
