the start of summer

Ahhh, Memorial Day.

The unofficial start of summer.

As Clevelanders, our Memorial Day weekends can be a mix of several weather elements - rain, cloudy, 50 degrees or 80+ degrees, as we all got to experience this weekend. After the insanely  long winter filled with polar vortex after polar vortex, I was ridiculously happy to soak in all the sun rays and be outside from afternoon to night without a jacket on.

Even though I was happy, I still complained I was sweating on Press's patio with friends on Saturday and we cursed our local weather anchors because they lied! Sixty-five degrees, no way! I have the sunburnt shoulders and chest to prove it.

Memorial Day weekend Tremont bar crawl

There's always one who loves a duck face.

The weather continued to work in our favor with a breezy 80+ degrees through the holiday. Even though, we were still complaining that we were sweating while laying at Whiskey Island, I came up with a list of summer activities to check off my list.

Friends, my brother stretching and not a cloud in the sky

Well, maybe not a long list of activities but still, I already have 6 weeks planned so squeezing these in  should be no problem. I hope......

• Put-in-Bay trip
• Rent a boat and jet skis for the afternoon
• Spend the afternoon at East Harbor Beach reading amazingly awful beach reads
• Friday night Indians game
• Scheduling a date for my Real Housewives Book Club with friends

Better hydrate - it's going to be a busy summer!

a sort of carnaval comes to The Shoreway

After living downtown Cleveland for 2.5 years, I am still excited to call the downtown my area home. Earlier this year, I actually looked at several different areas to move to in our popular neighborhoods over the bridges, but I decided against it for now and stayed in the downtown area, moving only one block west to the East 4th area. Because why not?!?

Virtual high five to myself because I love my new smaller and friendly little apartment building.

Upon making my decision, it was really hard to pass up The Shoreway and not patiently wait a few extra months and move farther west to the detroit shoreway neighborhood of Battery Park where you could see the apartments under construction.

You can't miss the building from the shoreway and I instagrammed a photo months ago when I saw the sign go up. New apartments available, yes please!

While I'm sticking in my downtown digs for the next year, the developers partnered with Valerie Mayen to host a one-of-a-kind fashion show and peek inside the 45 luxury apartments at The Shoreway.

Need plans June 7? Look no further and enter my giveaway below to win a pair of tickets to attend the event.

What: Carnaval Event featuring a full bar, fashion show and unreal views of the city
When: Saturday, June 7, at 7 p.m. - 2 a.m.
Where: The Shoreway

To enter to win, please comment on your favorite summer activity on this post with your twitter handle or email OR tweet the following by Friday, May 16:

Tweet to enter: "Pick me to win a pair of tickets to Carnaval on June 7 at The Shoreway, @allisonpeltz!"

Contest ends on Friday, May 16 at midnight and random winners will be announced on Monday, May 19.

Because I only have one pair of tickets to giveaway, you can get yours here but hurry - only standing room tickets left!!!!

Disclaimer: The kind people at The Shoreway provided me with a pair of tickets to host this giveaway for you fine people.  Enter at your own risk!

celebrating because that's what the weekend is for

This weekend felt like summer - well a little bit of summer - has finally arrived after a long and cold winter that kept me inside more than I like to admit.

Saturday - a birthday celebration fit for a fellow Polish friend as she turned the ripe young age of 30.

Sometimes you stumble upon friends that you quite simply connect with in a way that would indicate you knew each other for years - Donna is one of those people. Because Cleveland is a rather small city at times, we crossed each other's paths on a Friday night when I landed from my amazing European vacation in the fall and have been friends ever since. Her celebration was sensational with a delicious chocolate and peanut butter cake, moscow mules and she had quite the talented group of karaoking fools to keep everyone entertained all night long.

Closed for partying; the birthday girl; obviously I'm all for the desserts

hands in the air for the birthday girl

Sunday: celebrating a very young at heart Julie Jean

My brother and I always want to out do ourselves from the year before and love to take our parents to new restaurants because they love to explore all of Cleveland's neighborhoods through the food. After experiencing the Provenance brunch with friends in the winter, we knew that this would be the perfect spot to celebrate Mother's day, especially since my parents have been to every other museum but not the art museum. Provenance provided an awesome experience for us and even gave my mom a $40 gift card to dine in the next few months another time.

an afternoon at the art museum

"Hey why is this so short?" because mom it's for the kids...

dazzling and running

Friday night: Dazzling the District

Search the Instagram #dazzleCLE and you will see more photos from passionate and proud Clevelanders (all 17,000 of us) who waited anxiously on Friday night to see the GE chandelier finally light up in all its glory.

Costume envy; chandelier selfie fail

How many polar vortexes can this last?

Saturday night: Lfyting all over

I'm not new to Uber and how I love to use it in other cities when I'm visiting friends and about three weeks ago, all my dreams came true when both services launched in town. Riders unite! Upon signing up, I was granted 15 free rides for the next two weeks.

Three things about these rides:
1) You have to fist bump.
2) They have CANDY in their cars. This.... I can get behind.
3) You will never call a taxi again.

Sabrina was the best!

Sunday: running the bridges

The 1/2 marathon is only two weeks away so I need to get in all the running I can at this point. I'll take anything - a mile or two - to try to speed up my time to accomplish my goal of a 2 hour 1/2, shaving 8 minutes off my time last year. I can do it, I can do it......

60 degree late afternoon calls for a run and impromptu concrete box jumps