Cleveland Rocks!

At the end of our trip across Canada, we dropped into Ohio. Our main reason was to see an old friend of Frank’s but I had even bigger motivation. Cleveland is the location of the original house from “A Christmas Story” and I planned to take our annual Christmas card photo there. I didn’t expect much from Cleveland. I imagined it to be kind of dreary and depressed. Was I ever wrong!

We arrived at our downtown hotel in the middle of weekday and it was eerily quiet. Greater Cleveland has over 2 million people. 14,000 live downtown and over 100,000 work there. The super clean streets, flanked by a mix of modern and beautiful old buildings, were virtually empty. Once work got out, it was busier but never seemed too crowded.

Downtown Cleveland

Downtown Cleveland

The Drury Plaza Hotel is in the former Cleveland Board of Education building.

Originally built in 1931, it was recently opened after a stunning three-year $52-million renovation.

Just down the street from our hotel was the East 4th Street dining and entertainment area.

We ate at chef Michael Symon’s restaurant, Mabel’s BBQ.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rocks. It is well-worth a trip to Cleveland all by itself. Frank and I spent a full day here. It was informative, amazing and just so much fun!

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was designed by I.M. Pei and opened in 1995.

Seven floors of rock n’ roll!

We could have spent the entire day just listening to music!

The one and only Lady Gaga

Always a favorite

Loved Chrissie Hynde

We “joined the audience” to see a compilation of Inductee concerts.

A highlight for me was the special exhibit on the 50th anniversary of Rolling Stone magazine.

Re-creation of Rolling Stone publisher and co-founder Jann Wenner’s office

Tongue-in-cheek letter from Mick Jaggar allowing the magazine to “use the band’s name”

Lyrics for Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good”

And those covers!!!

Awesome gift shop : )

A Christmas Story

One of my favorite movies of all time is “A Christmas Story.” I watch it at least once every Christmas and it never fails to make me laugh. I was so excited to visit the original Ralphie’s house and incorporate the photos into our Christmas card. Could I get Frank to wear that pink bunny suit?!!!

You’ll shoot your eye out!

Frickin’ frackin’

Old Man’s “Major Award”

Randy’s snowsuit

I wanted to get Frank to pose in Ralphie’s bunny suit but no go . . .

but a little Photoshop did the trick for the Christmas card!

 

The end of a chapter

Thank you for joining us in Venturesome Vagabonds. Our second travel blog since we began our adventures has ended but our travels continue. Click here as we journey on in Traipsing Troubadours.