A year ago, I suggested to my husband that I would consider doing a series of interim CIO engagements. He is a retired minister and does a lot of volunteer projects for the denomination and ministers association – all from his home office. So he was supportive. His view was we’ll just have an adventure in a new city. We’d bring the dogs with, stay in an apartment and go home to check on our house once a month. That was a great working assumption.

The first interim opportunity was at University Hospitals in Cleveland, which was a great location to start this plan!  It’s just a short 3-hour drive from our home in Ann Arbor. But then we relocated from Michigan to Rhode Island in order to be near family so things didn’t work out quite as we planned. There was way too much work in Michigan to sell and move out of our house; on the other end way too much work to find a house and move into it. So I’ve spent many weeks in Cleveland on my own without my soulmate to have those new city adventures with.

But in the past 8 months, we got to know Cleveland as best we could and it’s truly been a fun adventure! Some of the highlights to pass on to our new CIO who has relocated to Cleveland from Iowa and anyone planning to visit:

• Early on we saw the incredible Cleveland Museum of Art. We saw only a fraction of it and had good intentions to get back for more but never did.
• One of the first weekends, we went to the iconic jazz club, Nighttown, for a great dinner and night of music.
• In April, we went to the 40^th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) which was ironically on our 40^th wedding anniversary. One of the movies we saw was at the Akron Art Museum so we even got a view of that new and very stunning contemporary building.
• We visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the lakefront on a glorious sunny day this summer. That’s a must see if you are in the area!
• I visited the quaint town of Chagrin Falls a few times where I found a wonderful yarn store, The Artful Yarn. After all, I had to make another baby blanket this summer for grandbaby #4.
• With colleagues I made it to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the historic West Side Market.
• And I can’t forget the beautiful Metroparks throughout the area! I hiked in one for a few hours with a work colleague on a lovely spring Sunday afternoon.

And of course I shared Cleveland’s overwhelming joy with my work colleagues when the Cavaliers won the NBA championship in June. We’re all rooting for the Cleveland Indians who look like they will make the playoffs with a solid 1st place lead in the American Central division at this point.

We all know the spotlight was on Cleveland as host to the Republican National Convention in July. Fortunately for all, there were no significant incidents and Cleveland shined as a great place to visit.

University Hospitals is celebrating its 150^th anniversary of serving northeast Ohio. You don’t think about visiting hospitals when you visit a new city, nor should you. But know that if you ever find yourself in Cleveland and need health care services, you have one of the best health care systems in the country ready to take care of you!

There is much more to Cleveland I haven’t seen or experienced but I can say it’s truly been a great adventure. Thanks to all my new University Hospitals and Cleveland area friends for welcoming me and making me feel at home.