Christina, Agnes, and Roger in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
For Labor Day weekend, Christina and I decided to fly out to Cleveland to cheer up our good friend Agnes. When Roger found out his weekend was also open, we decided we'd bring him along as the "surprise guest"! Indeed, Agnes was surprised!
For our first night, we came in around 8 o'clock, and Agnes took us through a quick driving tour of
Cleveland Clinic, Shaker Heights, and Lyndhurst. We settled on the cool Irish-styled pub
the Claddagh. We enjoyed some Guinness and cider and caught a few minutes of the
Cleveland Indians game on one of the big screens. I was still recovering from a hacking cough, so afterwards we stopped by the friendly pharmacy to pick up cough drops and NyQuil.
We retired to Agnes' one-bedroom apartment in Shaker Square. It's very nice with great doorway arches, a nice big window in the living room and original tile in the bath. Lots of character! We spent the rest of the evening mapping out the rest of the weekend, tossing around ideas like visiting Little Italy, University Circle, Cedar Point ... and of course, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!
Next morning, we had breakfast in
Shaker Square proper, which actually is more octagonal in shape. It's a nice gathering area filled with little shops, a movie theatre, and restaurants. We ate a hearty meal at
Yours Truly, and then headed out to catch the train, aka
the Rapid, to go downtown.
It was a beautiful day. The sun was out and the sky was clear, and Lake Erie, where the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was situated next too, was very blue! (See picture above)
The hall itself was pretty interesting. The building was designed by I.M. Pei and is very similar to the glass entrance to the Louvre. The first hallway in the museum is filled with several interactive machines that allow you to listen to different influential albums and songs from different decades. There were also costumes and memorabilia set up in glassed-in displays. One fun exhibit was Jimi Hendrix's childhood drawings (he liked drawing football games and airplanes). Alas, visitors were not allowed take pictures in the Hall itself. Overall it was maybe a B/B- museum. You didn't get to see plaques or anything about the inductees themselves. And the selection of artists representing more recent decades, and female and minority artists in general, were few. I was also kind of creeped out by the Tommy exhibit.
Later, we walked from the museum to the Flats, a once happening area in Cleveland, and hung out at
Shooters.
Christina and Genevieve pose in front of an unpainted Cadillac
Agnes was a more-than-gracious, especially when she still had a presentation to prepare for and the boards to study for. The next day, the three of us decided to let Agnes study and headed out on our own to explore
University Circle.
We found a very helpful tour guide in the bus driver of the Case Western shuttle. He pointed out Murray Hill (the entrance to Little Italy), the Botanical Garden, the Fine Arts Museum, and Symphony Hall, which another, much younger passenger pointed out was in the opening scenes of Air Force One.
We decided to get off at the
Western Reserve Historical Society/Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum. It was a pretty cool, unusual spot for us. The first floor had tons of models of cars from the turn of the century, up until the DeLorean. Roger was very camera happy! Apparently, at one point, Cleveland rivaled Detroit in the automaking industry. Attached to the Auto-Avaiation museum was an exhibit on Maurice Sendak. They had some neat stuff, like costumes so little people could dress up as their favorite Wild Thing, and a gigantic plastic bowl filled with foam "chicken soup and rice" for kids to jump around in.
Christina on Murray Hill
Later, feeling hungry, we went in search of food and stumbled upon Little Italy. A lot of shops were closed, due to the holiday, but we found a nice bistro on Mayfield and enjoyed a snack of pizzas.
Knowing Agnes would still be busy, we decided to catch the Rapid back downtown to watch "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" ...
Genevieve and Christina waiting for the train
... "Like ... a bag of sand!" That Steve Carrell is very funny!
We finally met up with Agnes around 7 o'clock. Our original plans to dine at Luchita's were thwarted - they were closed - so we settled on
Sushi on the Square. It was actually quite delicious!
To close out our trip, on Monday, we decided to take a walk through the
Nature Center at Shaker Lakes.
Christina, Agnes, and Genevieve looking for a waterfall
We went back to Legacy Village to fill our stomachs up with wraps and smoothies at
Tropical Smoothie Cafe before saying good-bye. Then the three us hopped on the Rapid one last time to head out to Cleveland Airport. A busy, but fun trip overall!
