Akron Life July 2023

READERS’ PICKS

Whether it’s creating a bloody mary loaded with crab legs and a slider, dreaming up a luxurious pop-up picnic or juggling flaming clubs and walking on stilts, these locals go all out. Add excitement to your summer with 190 plus winners, including your picks.

BEST THING TO HAPPEN IN GREATER AKRON (LAST 12 MONTHS) 1. House Three Thirty 2. Hall of Fame Village 3. Downtown Akron renovations National Park 2. F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm 3. Cuyahoga River BEST REASON FOR WAITING IN LINE 1. Luigi’s Restaurant 2. Blossom Music Center 3. The Blue Door Cafe & Bakery BEST CORN MAZE 1. Szalay’s Farm & Market 2. Ramseyer Farms 3. Maize Valley Winery BEST NATURAL WONDER 1. Cuyahoga Valley

BEST MUSEUM 1. Akron Art Museum 2. Maps Air Museum 3. Stan Hywet

Hall & Gardens

BEST ART GALLERY 1. Don Drumm Studios & Gallery 2. Summit Artspace 3. Zeber-Martell Gallery and Studio BEST ARTIST 1. Don Drumm 2. Sharon Frank Mazgaj 3. Ron White BEST JAZZ MUSICIAN 1. Sausalito 2. Theron Brown 3. Dan Wilson BEST FREE EVENT 1. Rock the Lock, Lock 3 2. Downtown@

BEST PANORAMIC VIEW HEAVEN BOUND ASCENSIONS You experience everything all at once.

Dusk, Akron Art Museum

hour. Passengers can see up to 60 miles away, including the Cleveland and Akron skylines and Kent State University. But the valleys, lakes, riv ers, streams and wildlife are most majestic. Welser sometimes flies pas sengers past Chagrin Falls’ waterfall or West Branch State Park’s lake, and they gaze at the balloon’s reflection in the water. Sometimes he dips down so passengers can pluck leaves from trees. Upon landing, passengers enjoy a Champagne toast. People have flown to propose, celebrate anniversaries or check off their bucket lists, including a spry 100-year-old man, and are stunned by the adventure. “They realize how much fun it was feeling like a bird up in the air,” Welser says. heavenboundballoonrides.com

From Heaven Bound Ascensions’ hot air balloon, you might see otters and beavers in the Cuyahoga River, red foxes and deer running through the forest, the expansive Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. blimp hangar at Wingfoot Lake State Park and picturesque ponds near charming farmhouses. You are in perfect harmony with the panorama surrounding you, and it’s all more beautiful from the sky. “It’s like all of the sudden you’re tak ing in the whole world,” says Denny Welser, a licensed aeronaut who has done about 4,000 flights and is president of the Tallmadge-based company. Up to six passengers and a pilot launch from the Kent-Ravenna area. The balloon floats with the wind at about 1,000 feet for about an

3. Falls

Downtown Fridays, Cuyahoga Falls

BEST CHARITY EVENT 1. Butterfly Gala, Stewart’s

BEST LIVE MUSIC VENUE 1. Blossom 2. Jilly’s Music Room 3. Lock 3

Caring Place

Music Center

2. Pawsibility

Ball, Humane Society of

Summit County 3. Red Tie

BEST LIVE THEATER COMPANY 1. Weathervane Playhouse 2. Porthouse Theatre 3. Ohio Shakespeare Festival

Affair, Ronald McDonald House

BEST WAY TO IMPROVE THE 330

1. Safety 2. Roads 3. More Jobs

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JULY 2023 | akronlife.com