Cleveland. Cleveland? Cleveland! We came for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We ended up wandering the downtown and loving the buildings. It has a small town feeling, with down-to-earth, friendly people, yet it is quite expansive, with lots to offer.
We had visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame many years ago and thought it was one of the best museums ever. There were not only instruments and clothing from famous bands and singers, but lots of interactive screens with headphones for listening to musical styles and genres. Our favorite was one that featured a select song by a band or singer that you could listen to, followed by its earlier version (sometimes 50+ years) so that you could hear the song’s “grandmother” and how the current musician was influenced by either the style, or the exact song. It was quite fascinating, and we intended to spend more time at that exhibit. Sadly, none of the interactive displays are permitted to be used due to Covid. Since we had already seen everything else, and couldn’t “hear” what we most wanted to, we decided to skip it and see the downtown.
The first three pictures are of Lake Erie in early morning, at sunset, and just after sunset, taken from our hotel room. You can see FirstEnergy Stadium, lakefront home of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. After that are photos of buildings, ornamentations, statues, etc., of both an old, and a vibrant new, city. We loved it. We discovered a few breathtaking interiors that made us glad our plans changed! We had dinner at Zanzibar Soul Fusion, a Southern Cuisine restaurant with great food. We had salmon with watermelon BBQ sauce, and it was delicious. The bread served was Blueberry Cornbread, also very tasty.
We have discovered that midsize cities have a lot to offer. They are less pricey and a bit more cozy than the very large cities. They usually have a lot of color and fun in their decorations, as they don’t take themselves very seriously. The people in hotels and restaurants that we encountered are less busy, more inclined to talk, and more friendly. We had long conversations in our hotel with employees Ray and Clint about travel and how great it is to see the world, encouraging them to just “go for it” as far as trying to shape their lives and see their goals through. Whenever we can help steer or change people’s lives through our story of travel, we feel that we have accomplished something positive. But like in Chicago, we sorta/kinda hated to leave so soon….
