Welcome to sosAssociates.com - - Promoting the Cleveland and Akron Areas, and More!

CMA 36th Annual Chalk Festival After the Rain | Despite the fact that I missed seeing the pre-rain chalk drawings by just a few minutes, I still found the artwork most enjoyable, along with the festive environment of the Fine Arts Garden. I heard a fellow attendee of the event state that the brief rainfall brought a “soft focus” to the chalk artwork! That was an astute observation.

Cleveland Zoo's Asian Lantern Festival 2025 | It was fun seeing the lanterns at the time when daylight melts into evening darkness, and the lights become more brilliant. It was great that the festival was much larger than we expected. We enjoyed the event, and expect that we will go again in the future.

Exploring NH, VT, and the USS Enterprise! | We had not vacationed in New Hampshire since 1997, so when Stuart finished a month-long backpacking trip in southern New Hampshire, Julie joined him for an August 17-23, 2025, vacation in New Hampshire, Vermont, and on the USS Enterprise. We put this blog post together to share some of what we explored during this trip.

Colorado 2025: Rocky Mtns, Estes Park & Denver | Due to our other travels, we had to delay writing this blog post, but we enjoyed putting it together as our way of remembering the good times we had in Colorado in June 2025. We are sharing our photos and trip observations with you here to encourage you to explore the places we visited in Colorado.

March 2025 Akron ArtWalk: Four Art Venues | I have read about past Akron ArtWalks for many years, and I am so glad I finally attended for the first time in 2025. The four venues I visited included Summit Artspace, Art x Love, Akron Soul Train, and Akron Art Museum. I hope that this blog post gets you motivated to get out to visit these art venues

Enjoy Sylvia Munodawafa Art & Ride Carousel | I made a point of visiting University Circle Artist-In-Residence Sylvia Munodawafa's exhibition, and then, since it was right across the street, I rode the Euclid Beach Park Grand Carousel. I also saw the new University Circle Community Room.

sosAssociates.com Blogiversary: Thirteen | It is hard to believe that today, March 8, 2025, I am celebrating thirteen years of creating my sosAssociates.com blog. Last year, I wrote about expected change, but this year, I don't know what to expect. I do anticipate many good times ahead. I want to say thank you to the people responsible for all the great things I was able to do in 2024 and so far in 2025.

February 2025: Eight Cleveland Area Galleries | I put together this blog post to share some of what I saw while visiting eight area galleries in February 2025. There is a variety of artwork presented, which will appeal to the different tastes of different people. I hope this encourages you to visit those galleries that have items of interest to you.

Celebrating MLK Day 2025 at University Circle | On Monday, January 20, 2025, my wife and co-blogger, Julie, volunteered at the Euclid Beach Park Grand Carousel at the Cleveland History Center, while my son, Michael, and I spent Martin Luther King, Jr., Day 2025 visiting four of the museums in University Circle. I want to thank these museums for welcoming the community every year to visit. Michael and I had a great time.

Complete 12 Extra Trails: 2024 Trail Challenge | I had already "met the challenge" back in February, but decided to end the year by completing the rest of the land-based trails. I now have completed every single land-based trail listed for the Cleveland Metroparks Trail Challenge 2024!!! That is a total of 27 trails in all 18 of the Cleveland Metroparks reservations listed for the 2024 challenge!

2024 Holiday Lighting: UC, Akron, CLE, Nela | As I have done in the past, I wanted to create this blog post to share my photos from the holiday lights in the area, but this year there were two big differences: Unlike past years, I attended the official lighting ceremonies at four locations!! A second difference is that I also attended two arts venues the same evenings as two of the lighting ceremonies.

“CMA Picasso and Paper” Preview & Curator Tour | I was fortunate to attend the Cleveland Museum of Art's preview of their new Picasso and Paper exhibition. Cleveland is one of very few places in the world where this exhibition will be shown. I enjoyed the preview, and wrote this blog post to encourage others to see the Picasso and Paper exhibition.