Thread: "Cleveland Rocks!"

A Mini Trip Report
Sunday, July 2, 2006

I couldn’t begin to tell you how often we’ve planned this trip. For years we’ve talked about flying to CLE to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the Rock Hall to those in the know, as a day-trip. But when the time came we always found something else to do; like sleep in and not catch that early flight.

But finally, no more excuses!

With 7 daily Southwest flights from Chicago, a day-trip to Cleveland is incredibly easy - assuming you choose the right day with low flight loads. Sunday, July 2nd was such a day. For many here in the U.S. Sunday turned out to be right in the middle of a 4-day weekend, with Independence Day falling on Tuesday this year. Our early morning flight from MDW to CLE had a whopping 30 people on board a 137-seat Boeing 737; the return load was a little more than double that.

Upon arrival in CLE we walked to baggage claim and boarded the Rapid, Cleveland’s light passenger rail system. An all day, multi-ride pass costs just $3.50. It takes about 30 minutes from the airport to downtown. The ride was mostly uneventful except for an older man (who should have been medicated or institutionalized or both) that was trying to pick a fight with another passenger. Luckily he got off a couple of stops later but not before the engineer read him the ‘riot act’ over the intercom for all to hear. I could say something about ‘welcome to Cleveland’ but the same incident happens here in Chicago, too.

Upon arrival at downtown Cleveland’s Tower City station, the main hub for the light rail system, you board either the Waterfront Rapid Green or Blue South Harbor Line getting off at North Coast (the next to last stop). Exit the station, turn to the left and the Rock Hall is directly in front of you on the shores of Lake Erie.

Cleveland’s Tower City is a high-rise building home to Chase. It also has a shopping mall attached where Hard Rock Café has an outlet on the third floor. Before heading out to the museum we decided to get something to eat. It turned out to be the best decision we made all day! Apparently we hit it off with our waiter; Chicago is his favorite party town. He seemed impressed that we had flown in for the day just to visit the Rock Hall. After we ate our meal and paid our tab he and the manager surprised us with 2 free general admission tickets! Score!!! General admission to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is $20 per person! Our waiter got a nice tip!

The Rock Hall is filled with all kinds of memorabilia from the musical genre’s Blues beginnings in Chicago’s churches and south side gin joints to present day groups your kids or grandkids likely listen to. The Rock Hall can be done in less than a day. It took us about 3 hours to see it all. You could spend much more time if you stopped to listen, watch or read everything. We came away very impressed. The only negative comment I might have is about the lighting. Very bad! In many cases things aren’t lit as they should be and lighting is poorly placed, often times allowing shadows to be cast that partially obscure what you’re trying to see, but it’s definitely worth the trip!

Photos are not allowed inside the building, they make you leave your camera at coat check.

I may have to return to Cleveland one day soon. I have yet to answer one of life’s more intriguing questions: What are Cleves and why do they need land?

Hmmm, I wonder if Drew Carey knows?

www.rockhall.com
www.gcrta.org