One of the worst buzzwords to emerge during the summer of 2008 was the dreadful “staycation.” For me, there was nothing “stay” about my “cation” last summer, considering that I logged well over 30,000 air miles jetting across the globe from Australia to Asia to Europe and back again to the U.S. of A.

This year, however, things are a little different. Which brings me to this installment of Sign of the Times; let’s call them a series of (mostly) One-tank Trips (in a nod to Neil Zurcher’s long-running series of the same name.)

Back in May I drew up a list of Buckeye state attractions I’d always wanted to visit but for some reason or other never did. So, the plan was to visit as many of these places as I could this summer. (Like, for instance, Amish country. I know, I know… what kind of Ohioan am I, right?)

First on the list (and closest to home), the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on the corner of E. 6th and Superior.

Anyone who’s spent time downtown has certainly noticed the Fed building. It’s one of the city’s most beautiful buildings and was modeled after the Medici-Riccardi palace in Florence (yes, those Medici).  The walls of the lobby are covered in marble from Siena, Italy and the vaulted and domed ceiling is simply breathtaking.

Built in 1923 during the Roaring 20s (when Cleveland was the 5th largest city in the country), the place has a fortress-like feel with security in every direction, including hundreds of security cameras inside and out and gun turretts at the base of the two statues on the west side of the building by the E. 6th St. entrance. Once you get past the metal detector at the uber-secured entrance, (which was added only after 9/11, when the public could still walk in and buy U.S. savings bonds at teller windows), you get a full view of the magnificent lobby.

Here are some photos from the Money Museum inside:

One view of the lobby

Part of the ceiling listing the 12 cities with Fed banks

Some of the ironwork in the lobby

Slang terms for money on a wall inside the museum

The money tree

Why does Jovan Jovanovic “Zmaj” look sad? Because he’s on a worthless 500 billion dinar note printed during the insane inflationary period in Yugoslavia in 1993-94 when the monthly inflation averaged more than 1,300%(!)