Our HIGH temperature for Sunday! (not taking wind chill into account)
About 8 years ago, I bought myself, what I thought would be the ultimate down sleeping bag in South Africa. This sleeping bag is rated to -15C! Well, if I had been outside with that sleeping bag (day or night) to protect me from the elements, I would most probably have died from hypothermia! Yes, it's that cold! When we woke up this morning, the temperature outside was -18C, but the wind chill dropped the mercury 10 degrees lower to -28C!!! It is reportedly the coldest weather Cleveland has seen in over a decade! Imagine a climate where the weather outside is colder than your freezer inside! Another scary statistic for you to digest, is that the difference between the temperature outside, and the temperature our apartment is, is approximately 50 degrees Celsius!!! But more about the temperature later...
The weekend got off to a good start on Friday, when my department held its first annual 10 pin bowling tournament. We all headed off to a bowling alley in Downtown Cleveland, where we had a couple of games lined up for us, with some excellent food to go along with it. I was proud of my achievements as I managed to turn in two 3 digit scores (albeit in the very low end - it was still 3 digits nonetheless!)
On Saturday I took my CR-V in for a service. After dropping my car off, we went to the Rocky River Nature Center. This is a fantastic place for small children to run around, as they have a number of child-friendly exhibits, and a huge fireplace in the middle of it! Nathan loved running around and playing with the various exhibits, while I took in the beauty of the Rocky River valley! The center over looked the Rocky River, which was frozen over in most places, and the only the fastest flowing sections of the river still in liquid form! Stunning! On our way back home, we drove past the Lake Erie shoreline, and Liesel and I saw icebergs that had formed on the horizon! That evening, we went to eat out at our local Max and Erma's restaurant. Nathan loved his macaroni and cheese, while Liesel and I enjoyed their hamburgers! For dessert, we order 6 chocolate chip cookies that are brought directly from the oven to your table! They were piping hot and still on the baking tray! There is no better way to end off a day that peaked at -10C, than to have steaming hot, deliciously soft cookies infused with molten chocolate, melt in your mouth! Life is good!
On Sunday, with the temperatures around -20C, we headed to church! Liesel has a bottle of water in her car, and since about 5 days ago, the water inside the bottle has been frozen solid! Only after driving around for a couple of hours, with the heater on, does it start to melt again! This afternoon, I took Nathan, and we headed down to the beach! We were both dressed warmly (I am even wearing long johns voluntarily) because we were going to see whether the lake is freezing yet. To our amazement, what used to be sand and the warm water that we used to swim in, has now been replaced by snow and snow dunes! Then the first 50 meters of water is frozen solid! It was unbelievable. Nathan and I actually walked down the steps onto the "beach" (read snow) and had a look at it close up! But after only spending about 2 minutes down there, I could feel the start of frostbite nipping on our open faces (the only parts of our body that were exposed to the weather)! So I quickly whisked Nathan back to the car where we could thaw out again in the heated air! 
Below is a picture of Lake Erie in summer, just for comparison!
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