Solon Community Park

I thought the red and blue of the playground area at the Solon Community Park would look pretty in the backdrop of our newly-fallen snow. It's on SOM Center road, near the library and community center.















There are ten baseball fields at the park. You can see the light poles in the distance.















This is the fireplace at one end of the picnic pavilion:















New skate park:















There are some more pictures of the park here.

Snowy residential street

This is a photo of a snowy Solon residential street the morning after a snowfall. Solon gets a fair amount of snow during the year, due to its proximity to Lake Eerie.

Avg snowfall by month:
January = 13 inches
February = 12 inches
March = 10 inches
April = 2 inches
October = 1 inch
November = 4 inches
December = 12 inches

Despite the significant snowfalls, there are no months of the year where the average high daily temperature is below 32 degrees, so the snow cover tends to come and go. This week is a good example, with snow on the ground currently, and average highs forecasted this week between 40-55 degrees each day.

Solon High School

Here are some photos of Solon high school. The last photo is the instrumental music room. You can see some of the instrument cases in the background.

Solon Library

We went to the Solon public library yesterday, too, and I got some books on CD's to listen to as we make the long drive home to Indiana and back for Thanksgiving this weekend. They also have a huge selection of music CD's. It's a nice new building, built in 1998.
















The library, rec center, and schools are all centrally located, near S.O.M. Center road and Portz Parkway. Here is the young adult section, which is where we picked up the books on CD. They also have a nice kids' section, but it was really full of little kids yesterday, and I didn't want somebody thinking I was a creepy guy taking photos of the kids.
















Here's an area within the adult fiction section. It was cool that they had the fireplace going. It inspired me to start a fire in our fireplace last night and cook hot dogs with the family.















The librarians are pretty nice, too. They still treat us kindly, even though we have the entire fourth season of Seinfeld on DVD lost somewhere in our house. Overdue charges are currently at $55 on that item. Hopefully it will turn up sometime. With six library cards in our family, it does give us a little flexibility in continuing to get items despite charges on one of the cards. If it gets out of hand, we may need to start inventing new names for our kids and getting additional cards ;) ha, ha, just kidding-- we would not do that.

Solon Rec Center

One of the things that we enjoy most about Solon is the rec center. Amazingly, it is $325 a year for our whole family. We're still pretty amazed at that. My wife and I go there six days a week to exercise, and are very happy with the facility. It's bigger and cleaner than a lot of the fitness clubs that we have belonged to in the past.















Our kids get some good use from the indoor and outdoor pool-- both areas are really great for kids, with zero-depth sections in both areas that make it a great outing even for our littlest one. We've done the rock wall a few times with the kids, too. You can climb four sides with four levels of difficulty. In the photo, you see on the second floor the treadmills and elliptical machines overlooking the rock wall.














The machines are not usually that crowded, but today I couldn't find an elliptical machine that was free so I ran (OK, I walked) around the second floor track that circles the basketball courts. You can see a few walkers / runners in this picture.

Smells of Solon

I once lived in a city where there was an International Flavors and Fragrances factory, and you could sometimes get the smell of artificial cherry in the air, or sometimes a rose scent. It was interesting, but not all that pleasant. In another city, we lived near paper mills, which was not at all pleasant.

When walking out of my office this week, I could smell the Stouffer's plant nearby, and knew that they were making meatloaf. It is kind of an interesting experience to smell meatloaf outside on a cold fall evening, and I actually thought it was quite pleasant. The food smells are not all that common, but I thought it was nice in comparison to some of the other "hometown" smells I've gotten to experience.

Jim's Open Kitchen

Went to Jim's Open Kitchen for breakfast this morning with the boys. It's located at 33779 Aurora Rd., just west of S.O.M. Center Road. We're trying to get some different Solon experiences, and my philosophy is that going to breakfast at a local diner is one of the best ways to get to know a city.
















It's a small diner with 50's decor, and it was quite crowded, but with quick, friendly service. I had corned beef hash with eggs, which I was not all that impressed with. The home fries were very good, though, and prices were quite reasonable.















There was not a lot of standing room, so as we walked out, someone hopped in our booth before the table was even cleared. Most of the people in the diner were seniors, and some had their own "Jim's Open Kitchen" mugs, so I'm guessing that they have a pretty steady group of loyal customers.