The cheesecake factory (it is as great as it sounds)

It is a huge restaurant which has the largest menu I have ever seen, including two packed pages of cheesecakes of all description. The food was good and the company was better.

Luis (formerly Antonio), his wife, Pamela, Lyudmila, Shu and I decided we would make the most out of the cars we have at the moment (Family Chile is going to New York on Sunday and I am leaving for the big trip on Monday). It was about 15 minutes down the I90 and sounded easy to get to. This was before I decided to go past Q arena where obviously there was an event on tonight. It took longer to get out of town and our cars were split up (Chile and I were driving, he has the faster car, it is red).

Shu was in the hot seat in my car with Google maps going on my Blackberry Storm 2 (welcome to the club Brad). We got onto the I90 without an issue and even found the right turnoff (Yanks know how to build a highway network). We crossed over the I90 to get to the restaurant, and took the first right. It turns out we wanted the third right as we successfully got back on to the I90, going back to Cleveland Downtown. We took the next exit, crossed back over and took the exit again. This time we took the second turn (again, looking for the third turn here). This was a little easier to correct, with a quick U turn.

The restaurant was in a shopping centre and the wait was an hour. We split up and browsed for an hour (well I browsed- Lyudmila did not let the opportunity to shop escape her). I was with team Chile and we tended to walk until we got cold and then we would browse in the closest shop to thaw).

Into the Cheesecake factory to be seated. The meals were American sized so I took my first doggy bag home (or as we do here, I asked for a box). The food was good but we all knew we were there for cheesecake.

I ordered the Banana cream cheesecake, Shu had the death by chocolate (that was not the name but you get the picture), Lyudmila decided to copy me and got the banana cream to go and had the original for there. She also considered getting the strawberry to go as well but decided against it. Our waitress was cute but, well, not much else. She came over a couple a times after we ordered dessert to see if Lyudmila wanted the Strawberry cheesecake to go. Lyudmila had to ask if she was saying the wrong words but not this time. The waitress was just, well, cute.

Chile and Pamela ordered the strawberry and the lemon raspberry, which they had to share with me because mine was late and then our waitress, who was cute, brought the wrong one (cookies and cream, not banana cream). I kept trying to take some off Shu's plate but he was defending it like it was last piece of food on post apocalyptic earth. My desire for cheesecake did not transcend my desire to live.

The drive home was interesting as while we were eating, an inch of snow had appeared on the car, from god himself. I was a little concerned as I had no idea what to do. While I was getting in the car, Shu had already picked up the ice scraper (apparently a standard extra on a Cleveland car) and was cleaning the windows. That was good to know before the big trip. I think I need to do some research about driving in the snow before heading off on Monday. Watch out for the blog posts to stop - an indication the snow got the better of me.

Going home was a little slow as I was staying a little under the speed limit, but we made it which was a positive. I did have precious cargo – Lyudmila and Shu.

Sunday is finishing off a bit of work and Monday is the start of the next adventure. I think I am going to drop Kansas City off the roster as I have lost a couple of days. I still have to actually sit down and plan the trip. Tonight is going to be a mix of spreadsheeting and packing.

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