Ohio

If you were vacationing for one week, where would you choose to go? That's right - Ohio. This will become clear as I painstakingly describe my trip. Here we go.

First the plane flight. It left at 11:30 p.m. Not exactly prime time, but it was a direct flight. Just to save money I've gone with flights with stops in between as those seem to be cheaper. In this case it was pretty cheap and no layovers. That it flew overnight is probably the main cost savings, but I'm fine with that. Another reason it was cheap was no free little tiny bags of nuts. No free 3 ounce cokes. Nothing. Its usually my favorite part of the flight - when I see that cart coming down the aisle. Oh well.


So we get in to Cleveland airport and rent a car. I think this is only the second time I've rented a car. If everything you want to see is all in one spot, then I guess you wouldn't do that, but I'm exploring northern Ohio, so I need some wheels. So I rent my stripped down economy car and off to breakfast. Done. Next to the house where the filmed A Christmas Story. That's right, it still exists. They should do more of that kind of thing with old movie locations. We got there a little before it opened and there was already a line.

I thought the outside of the house was used for the movie and the inside shots were on some soundstage in Hollywood. Turns out it was all filmed right here. The stairs where Ralphie came down in his pink bunny pj's, the window where Dad put his leg lamp, and kitchen where they ate. I think they probably repainted the house so there were the original colors, but everything else is pretty much untouched. It's 11:00 in the morning on Day 1 and this trip is already worth it.

The people that did this were smart. They also bought a couple houses across the street and made one a museum and one a gift shop. The original leg lamp doesn't still exist. Spoiler alert - remember, it got broken in the movie. But a lot of the other costumes - the bb gun, hats, etc got saved though, and are in the museum. As museums go, its not the Louvre, but pretty cool.

The gift shop has all your Christmas Story needs. You can buy any size leg lamp, from life size to Christmas Tree ornament. You can get Red Ryder bb guns, coonskin caps, videos, and footed pink pj's (thought about the pj's for a split second, but didn't, but I did cave and allow an ornament to be bought).

I was going to do a blog post for each day of my trip. I'm only up to noon of Day 1, so this could take a while, but well worth it.