Cleveland: Heart of the Rust Belt and Birthplace of Rock and Roll

After we left the Christmas Story house, we decided to drive around a bit before heading to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I love old cities and seeing the real side of them. I really love taking photos of these sites, though I took these from the car window. The sky line from the run down side of town looks pretty nice. Deserted industry. Railroad bridge. Cleveland Indians stadium. Then we hauled it down the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Getting out of the car after parking several blocks away, we got our first hint that maybe this was a hot and sticky day that maybe wasn't the best for hauling a one and two year old away. It was stifling but Todd and I are the determined types (though we've since learned our lesson) so we plowed forward. The architecture of the outside was really cool. So when we got in, the line to BUY A TICKET was huge. We hesitated, but we were here so we decided to go with it. These cars were part of the lobby art...really cute. THE LINE! I stood in it while Todd waited with the kids. View from a lobby window while I was in line. We couldn't take photos inside, but this was in the lower lobby -the motorcycle used in Uptown Girl. Janis Joplin's car. Pretty cool. The museum was hot and CROWDED. Really crowded. We went through the main display floor and tried to see as much as possible. I saw some really cool Beatles stuff, lyrics written by Jim Morrison and Slash's hat to name a few things. But then Abbey started flipping out. I knew we should probably leave, but Todd really knew how long I had waited to go there, so he wasn't willing to give up for me and so once she calmed down we headed up to a special display of women's rock fashion full of neat stuff, including Lady Gaga's meat dress lol and Stevie Nicks' black gypsy dress. It was SO crowded and Abbey started flipping out again. It was so bad we couldn't even get her out of there. We finally took a hint and left. She was so exhausted, she fell asleep in the hot stroller. We got in the car, irritable and disgusted with the sweat and humidity that covered our bodies and decided to head home instead of stay another night and hit the zoo.

We stopped at a run down Burger King on the way home and the kids had the most fun they'd had running through the play area. Here's what I learned: there is plenty of time later in life to visit grown up stuff like museums. I decided I would not drag my toddlers to that stuff and I'd keep them in mind when traveling in the future. Despite the fact that the trip didn't go as planned, six months later, I can look back and appreciate what we did do. I still saw some neat stuff, but I should've listened to my mom instincts! And I love making memories...and seeing new things and doing anything with my family.