Cleveland Rocks?

Welcome to day 4 of our vacation. There are a lot of photos so if the text decides not to keep up, keep scrolling down for all of the pictures. As I was doing this I eventually got the hang of it, but I'm not gonna go back and change it, AGAIN! Maybe the next post will be better! The wonders of technology.

I woke up this morning and heard weird creaking sounds coming from our windows. I couldn't figure out what it was so I got up and went over and peered out of the curtains. I was surprised to see spiders on the outside of the windows but that wasn't what was making the sound. I realized that it was the sound of the building moving! Kinda scary, but I guess the architects and engineers factor this in when they build such tall buildings. The sun streamed into our window-it was a truly magical moment. I am more used to being impressed by the beauty of nature, not urban sprawl-but it was quite impressive.

We eventually got on our way towards Cleveland. We stopped and had a late breakfast at IHOP. It was very good-not much can beat that place for your basic good breakfast. We decided to bypass Toledo and head toward Sandusky, Ohio. Lindy thought that she remembered Doris Day's character in "That Touch of Mink" being from there and when I googled it, sure enough. 

The main reason was to try and get to see some of the shoreline of Lake Erie. After looking at the map, we decided our best bet would be to go to Port Clinton instead. We got there and it was kind of a run-down resort town and found the beach. The water was kind of grey-green and when we walked out to the water, we realized that even though the beach was sandy, the shoreline was mud-nasty mud! So we went on to Sandusky. On the map it looked like you crossed a fairly large body of water to get there, but Lindy didn't even realize we were crossing it when we were, so it wasn't as impressive as we thought it would be. After more research, we decided that Sandusky would be worth bypassing as there was only one beach and that was private and it looked like another Wisconsin Dells kind of place. I realize that many people love the Dells, but we are not too crazy about those kind of places so we set our GPS to get straight to Cleveland.

We arrived at our hotel about 3:00. It was the Hyatt Regency in the Arcade. The Arcade was the first indoor shopping mall built in 1890. It is really neat with the Victorian iron work and conservatory style roof. Our room looked right out over the shopping area.  

We decided to get the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame done as it was open 'til 9:00. We decided to walk as it didn't look too far. As soon as we got there we went straight up to the 5th floor to see if DJ Dusty Street was there, but alas, her show was already done for the day.

We were both curious to see what she looked like. I thought she would look like Marianne Faithfull and Lindy thought Shirley Evans. We spent quite a bit of time there. They had a special exhibit on Bruce Springsteen which was quite interesting. His Oscar for the song Philadelphia was there and many of his original manuscripts to songs he wrote. There were also guitars and clothes. He had lent much of this to the Museum for this display. There was a lot of stuff to see and eventually it got a bit mind boggling but there were others whose minds were more boggled. The man who took our tickets tried to give the stubs back to someone else. He said, "Sorry, it's been a long day". Lindy said, "you gotta quit smokin' your lunch".   I couldn't believe she said that because I was thinking the same thing. Then later on, there was this really old man who asked where the food was even though he had walked right past it. Later we saw him in the gift shop slowly floating by.
I was expecting to take lots of pictures but videos and photos were expressly forbidden. We did manage to sneak one of Keith Richard's custom-made pinball machine that played 4 different Rolling Stones songs. As we were getting done, I realized that I had not seen Janis Joplin's Porsche. Come to find out, it had been moved-but no was sure where to. Second major disappointment! The information had mentioned this and when we said that to one staff member she said, "Well, that's why everybody is asking about it".

After another hour in the gift shop it was time to bid adieu to our Museum experience. Because the way back was uphill, I elected to take a cab back to our hotel. Once we got back we asked the concierge if there was any place good to eat within walking distance. He directed us to 4th Street which was right out the back door of the Arcade. 

It was a block long cobblestone street lined with restaurants-all different kinds. We decided to eat at La Strada-a Mediterranean restaurant. When we got inside we noticed a movie playing on the wall of the restaurant. It was Fellini's "La Strada" so that was pretty cool. 

I had to take a picture of it right away because I knew Andy would get a kick out of it as he is a Fellini fan. We had great food (forgot to take pictures!). We had eggplant three ways for an appetizer. Linda had a flatbread pizza and I had scallops with a fennel puree for sauce and a fennel, orange, and hazelnut salad. 

Linda also noticed a wine tapper set up that she's going to have Ann order one for her classroom next fall. When our waitress brought our entrees, I asked her to recommend a glass of wine and had her bring it. We waited and waited and all of a sudden the restaurant got really busy. Well, by the time she brought the wine, I was nearly finished so I asked her to take it off the bill. 

When she brought the bill she brought a plate of strawberries and melon with Triple Sec sprinkled over them because she felt so bad. They were really good. We started to go out of the restaurant and realized that it was raining like crazy. Now we knew why the restaurant had gotten busy because the people sitting outside had scrambled in to get out of the rain. It wasn't long before it let up. On our way out I had to take a picture of the restaurant next to ours for our darling great-niece Lola. It is actually one of three restaurants ran by Iron Chef Michael Symon.

OK, I think I wrote enough tonight-sorry. Stay tuned for Pittsburgh tomorrow!