Cleveland

I think this is my first visit to Cleveland. I'm attending a conference called Content Marketing World. 

The conference provides some great information that gives me good ideas for improving the way we market our products at Henry Schein. 

I also get to meet some old friends. 

After the conference ends on Friday I have a few hours before my flight home, and I discover Kirtland is only 30 miles away. This is the Kirtland LDS temple, now operated by the Community of Christ church, which used to be called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

Newell K. Whitney invited Joseph Smith and Emma to stay here, in his very successful store, after they left Pennsylvania due to persecution. 

The Whitney store benefited from its proximity to the Erie Canal, so it had access to many products. Newell Whitney ended up donating his vast wealth to the church, leaving his store to his brother, and leaving for Missouri then Utah, where his family arrived penniless. 

Whitney was called as the church's bishop, and this room in his store held the first bishop's storehouse.

I think this is the table that the missionaries said was used by Joseph Smith. 

The School of the Prophets was upstairs. Many commandments and instructions now in the Doctrine and Covenants were revealed in the Newell K. Whitney store. 

This checkerboard uses slices of corn cobs as playing pieces. 

These are our guides on the tour. Sister Left, from Bountiful, has been on her mission 3-1/2 months. Sister Right, from Idaho Falls, has been out 2-1/2 days. (Sorry, I don't remember their names.)

The Whitney home is behind the store and is a testament to the Whitney's wealth. 

The Mormons built their own saw mill, because the locals weren't all that willing to help the many Mormons moving here, and building was going crazy to accommodate everyone, and the building of the first LDS temple. 

On the way back to Cleveland I stop at this busy little dive for lunch. 

The footlong hot dog with homemade chili is meh, but the pumpkin custard shake is to die for. 

Cleveland sits on Lake Erie. 

My feet have now been in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, and Lakes Michigan and Erie. I just have Superior, Ontario, and Huron to go. The Great Salt Lake doesn't count, but they've been in there, too. 

Lake Erie.