Hope everyone is having a great spring now that is has warmed up!
Despite being a resident of Ohio for a half century, I have never really spent any time in Cleveland outside of a few moments for work. With music long being a passion something on my list was to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I am someone who appreciates music but should not create it; not play an instrument and definitely not sing. (this is my little gift to the world đ)
Time really flies, opening almost 30 years ago, it was always âI will get to it one of these daysâ. It is probably similar to how only 15% of the Statue of Liberty visitors are NY residents. I am trying to be more mindful of doing things that are on my list that are easily within reach but I keep putting it off.
So this year when it was time for the Lady and I to pick something for our birthday week, we decided to make a two day trip to Cleveland. With having April birthdays, the weather is always a curious thing, you never quite know what you are going to get. Cleveland seemed like a safe bet, it is close enough so that travel was easy and we could find a place to stay downtown with out too much hassle.
So off we went, nice and smooth road trip, well that was until we got to Columbus. What are you all doing up there? The traffic was insane. I have spent plenty of time in big cities driving but this rivaled the busiest of them. Luckily my navigation brain kicked in (thanks Dad) and I jumped off the interstate and took back roads to get around the city. A small detour cost us a bit of time but made for an easier drive and was fun to see how much things have changed. Seeing the sprawl that has happened is just incredible.
The weather on our main walking around day, was sunny with blue skies, but as you can imagine with a city on a lake, there was a breeze, and that made it pretty cold. We persevered though and made our way out to the R&R Hall of Fame.
You purchase your tickets for the R&R hall of fame ahead of time online and select your time slot to enter. Once you walk inside, your QR code is scanned, a wrist band is slapped on and then you are directed where to start your journey. There are seven floors, oddly zero through six, it was surprising there were so many levels, and as you would guess from the picture of the building the levels get smaller as you go up.
My first moment of awe was the exhibit of photographs from Baron Wolman. While you might not know his name, you will surely recognize his work. As the chief photographer for Rolling Stone, the photos are iconic. While you are allowed to take non-flash photography, you really canât capture the exhibits in a photographs. I took some photos but they just donât do it justice.
So many of these items are familiar, you have seen them in videos, photos, concerts, and magazines. Seeing them in person was rather interesting, the thing that surprised me was that most of these musicians were very thin and short. I am tall, so most are short to me, but I think I always viewed them as larger than life. We seem them on stages, magazines and TV, you donât get much context for size. While this really doesnât matter, it was something that stood out to me.
I didnât take many photos inside, but I was excited to see the Pink Floyd tour replica of The Wall, designed to mirror the July 21, 1990 Berlin performance. Here is the âTeacherâ character from the rock opera.
After we finished up with the Hall of Fame, which took much longer than I expected, we were heading to lunch. Since we were right by the lake, I had to go down to the water, wind be damned. The park at the lake is the Voinovich Bicentennial Park where this little guy posed for me and waited patiently for me to take the photo. I also took a moment to grab a photo of the iconic Cleveland script with a panorama of the Cleveland sky line.
While we had previously picked out a place to eat lunch, the trip down to the lake we stumbled upon the Nuevo Modern Mexican & Tequila Bar. A quick look at the menu and it was an easy decision to see we should ditch our plans and eat here. Outside of it being a bit pricey, the food and the margaritas were fantastic. If you ever find yourself there I recommend stopping in for a meal.
After lunch we were going to stop by the Arcade before going back to the hotel but we took turn down a different road to get away from the wind and came across the Free Stamp. A 35 ton sculpture, 49 feet long, 28 feet high. Created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Brugge. You can read more about it here.
And this is where our little road trip ends, a bit of rest and warmth was needed before heading out to our dinner plans and then returning home the next day. I canât wait to go back and spend some more time in Cleveland and explore more of the city and amazing architecture, I will just plan for warmer weather!
I am always looking for fun road trips that are only a few hours away, if you have any suggestions for places to visit around Ohio or the neighboring states I would love to hear them!
Thank you for sharing hour story! Maybe an idea to look out for a good spot to watch next years solar eclips?