History, hot dogs make Cleveland great vacation destination

Alejandro Rodriguez viewed the car in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated while at the Henry Ford museum.

If you’re a lover of sports, art, music, history or food, then Cleveland, Ohio is the place for you.

My family and I went to Medina square, which has book and coffee shops, dog stores, card shops and even a military surplus store. We also went to Dan’s Dogs on the square where I enjoyed a hotdog smothered in peanut butter and jelly and another covered in green chile and pineapple. The last Saturday I was there, I visited a farmers market and ate the best kettle corn I have ever eaten.

The U.S.S. Cod submarine, which sunk Japanese ships during WWII, was a fun spot to visit. My family and I boarded it and played with the five-inch deck gun. We saw how the torpedoes were fed into the launch tubes, the claustrophobic sleeping bunks, radio rooms, officer quarters, cafeteria and a small room dedicated to the men who fought and died on the Cod.

During the trip, my family drove to Canton, a 45-minute trip from Cleveland. I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame and saw many football relics from golf ball-sized rings to jerseys to helmets. I enjoyed viewing the Lombardi trophy, which will be used for TV’s most watched event of the year, the Super Bowl. It also crossed my mind several times to break the glass to grab Deion Sanders’ cleats in hopes to run as fast as him.

The last place we visited was the Cleveland MetroParks Zoo ,where I saw endless numbers of wildlife such as rhinos, falcons, sharks, giraffes, polar bears and birds. They had aquariums with jellyfish, seahorses and turtles. They had shops with cool stuffed animals, mugs, and even living Venus Flytraps for ten bucks!

In addition, I went on a road trip to Detroit, Michigan to visit the Henry Ford Museum. I saw John Hancock’s table where he wrote and played poker, the chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot and sat in the bus where Rosa Parks said “No.” Throughout the museum, there were maps with marked locations where machines molded historical wax statues of Abe Lincoln’s head, Ford Model T cars, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile and JFK’s presidential car where he spent his last moments. I saw Lincoln’s funeral train along with one of the very first mobile homes called the Dymaxion house designed by Buckminster Fuller.

My most enjoyable moment of the trip was visiting the Pro Football Hall of Fame because football is my passion. I look forward to going back and I highly encourage others to visit these places.