Things to Do in Middleburg Heights

Since 1985, Trolley Tours of Cleveland has shuttled more than one million riders around the city aboard its fleet of open-air, bright-red trolleys. Winding along an approximately 20-mile route, the city tour showcases some of Cleveland's most iconic sights, including the Victorian homes of Ohio City, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and downtown, where an eclectic mix of modern and historic architecture stretches skyward to amaze passersby and to high-five low-orbiting superheroes. Personable, professionally trained guides accompany the nationally known tour with Cleveland-centered facts and stories.

Aside from untangling urban avenues with informational junkets, Trolley Tours of Cleveland also makes its wheels available for conventions, weddings, and more, enabling businessmen and bridesmaids alike to avoid having to hitch rides on vigorously tossed bridal bouquets.

Great Lakes Theater’s rich history dates back to 1962, when an English professor and his traveling Shakespearean theater troupe finally found a home to regularly perform classic plays. Today, the theater continues its mission to ignite a passion for the performing arts throughout the community by revisting celebrated theatrical works for as as wide of an audience as possible. In its eight-month seasons, Great Lakes’ resident theater company stages an array of productions, including Shakespearean plays and Broadway classics, in its recently renovated theater, which was originally built in 1921. Inside, wide-eyed audiences marvel at the structure’s marriage of modern and vintage elements, such as state-of-the-art lighting equipment operated by technicians who only speak in iambic pentameter.

The nonprofit Cleveland Reads has been spreading literacy to children, youth, and families of Northeast Ohio through engaging projects and a dedicated network of tutors since 1987. Its ninth-annual fundraiser promises an elegant evening of all-you-can-drink wine sipping and beer swilling and catered fare of both the savory and sweet varieties for the business-casually adorned do-gooder. Network with your local mail carrier at the see-and-be-seen event or peruse the silent-auction offerings in hopes of stumbling on a porcelain Alf statue. A spirits table raffle offers you the opportunity to bring the party (in a bottle) back to your apartment while simultaneously supporting Cleveland Reads.

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Since 1983, families have spent their holidays around the television, watching A Christmas Story and joining in the triumphs and failures of 9-year-old Ralphie as he struggles to secure a Red Ryder BB gun from Santa's bag. But although the cult-classic film showed Ralphie living in Indiana, the house in which the movie took place rests in Cleveland—and is now a museum. When MSNBC interviewed lifelong fan and museum curator Brian Jones, they profiled the story of how he found the house on eBay and jumped at the chance to own it. Today, he’s turned it into a year-round place of pilgrimage for fans and the site of a yearly convention for Ralphies.

Jones’s restoration has returned rooms to exactly how they were in the film, letting guests gaze at the tinsel-strewn tree with its star falling off and explore the bathroom where Ralphie’s mouth was washed out with soap—a time-tested method for cavity prevention. Visitors can even attempt to hide like little Randy in the cabinet under the sink. After stopping by the BB-gun range in the backyard to practice their aim, fans head across the street to the museum. Here, original props such as the toys from the Higbee’s department-store window, Randy’s snowsuit, and Miss Shields’s classroom chalkboard join other memorabilia and hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos. Before leaving, guests drop into the gift shop to pick up a leg lamp just like the one Ralphie's old man cherished so dearly.

It is no secret that Cleveland native, autodidactic historian, and self-proclaimed people person Karl C. Johnson loves his city. After learning everything there is to know about the Sixth City's rich history, he decided to put his newfound knowledge to use by crafting his own distinctive tours that replace standard architectural jargon with vibrant yarns involving history, politics, and personal experiences. He leads his jaunts on segways, buses, limousines, or on foot. During segway tours, Karl gives his guests a choice in the amount of narration he performs, from moderately narrated tours that cover more ground to fully narrated tours that progress more slowly. If guests prefer to travel by bus or automobile, Karl will highlight specific areas of the city that his guests desire to see, such as Public Square or the rack where they hang the key to the city.