Where We Went

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’m not gonna lie: I was super impressed with the Rock Hall. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Josh and I decided to go because 1. Honestly why not?, and 2. We could do a ticket combo with the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Rock Hall required a timed entry, so we chose 10:00 a.m. when it opened for the day. In order to beat a large group of students inside, we walked inside a few minutes early. The staff recommends starting on level 0, which is the ground level, and working your way up through the hall. It’s so much bigger than it looks from the outside. 

• Level 0: Highlights rock’s earliest artists to new musicians of today; featured exhibits called “Holla if Ya Hear Me: Hip Hip at 50,” “Soak Up The Sun: Sheryl Crow,” and Revolutionary Women in Music; Pioneers of Rock including Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Wanda Jackson; multiple cities that sparked shifts in rock and roll (like Memphis, Detroit, San Francisco, London, etc.); The Rolling Stones; some of rock’s most recent chart-topping artists; and music of Cleveland and the midwest.
• Level 1: This is the main entrance, cafe, and gift shop.
• Level 2: This floor is called “The Garage” and consists of five main areas where visitors can pick up instruments (drums, guitars, bass, and keyboards) and play. Josh and I aren’t even remotely musically talented, so we didn’t try our hand at the guitars.
• Level 3: This level is where all of the inductees’ names/plaques are in what’s called the “Signature Gallery.” We also went to a short movie called “Power of Rock Experience” in the theater. 
• Level 4: Here was the Pink Floyd tour replica of The Wall, designed to mirror the Berlin performance in 1990. I, as a Pink Floyd fan, thought this was awesome.
• Level 5: This level had a lot of rock and roll memorabilia from a bunch of different artists and bands. Also! Big surprise! They had stuff from Taylor Swift including THE cardigan from the “cardigan” music video.
• Level 6: This wasn’t opened yet; they were working on a new Bon Jovi exhibit that just opened on June 8.

Once we were done with all of the levels, Josh and I hit up the gift shop; we both got t-shirts, and Josh got something for his dad while I got a magnet and postcard for myself. 

Voinovich Bicentennial Park. This park was a short walk from the Rock Hall, and we went to see another Cleveland script sign.

Edgewater Park. The park is part of Lake Erie, so this was both of our first times seeing a Great Lake in person. Our plan was to just walk around, and we ended up going out on the boardwalk, and met a cute puppy named Ollie. He was such a little nugget. There was another Cleveland script sign at the park, but it would have been a 20-minute walk for us; we opted to drive 5 minutes instead to get pictures.

What We Ate + Drank

Breakfast: made at the Airbnb. Nothing fancy: scrambled eggs, toasted English muffins, yogurt, and fruit.

Dinner: Collision Bend Brewing Company. We sat outside on the patio, although in the sun, but the view of the Cuyahoga River was worth it. One thing we weren’t expecting was how ruthless the seagulls were. One landed on an empty table down the patio from us, picking at a plate where the empty table hadn’t been cleared yet. There were two older couples at the table next to us, and one of the guys kept egging the seagull on. Josh and I both got flights and split loaded french fries and a giant pretzel. On our way out, I bought a t-shirt for myself to bring home.

BrewDog. We called an audible and decided to go get more flights at BrewDog. When I was originally looking at breweries for dinner during planning, it was a toss-up between Collision Bend and BrewDog. Josh wanted Collision Bend, so we went there for dinner, but we were like three minutes from BrewDog so why not? We got flights and hung out there for a while just talking.

Other Notes

Vacation means there are no rules, so I’m glad we ended up going to two breweries that night. It gave us more time to relax and just talk with each other. And I’m really glad we decided to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—it was really cool and it would have been an awesome place to bring my dad.