Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Since we are programed to wake early even if we are on vacation, we were out the door today early and on the road by 7 am.  The route to Cleveland couldn’t be easier, we went straight up I-79 for five hours and we were there!  Along the way we passed some interesting towns that have a history with the canal system or in the early settlement of the region.  When we come this way again we plan to stop along the way and visit more.

Elvis' gold suit

We were in the parking lot next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before noon and had the sandwiches and snacks that we had packed for our lunch.  Parking seemed a little high at $10 for the day but we wanted to be sure that we were in a safe place.  Later we saw parking for $7-8 but we were pleased with where we were.  We had purchased our tickets online which was a little more expensive than buying them at the door but we didn’t want to have to wait in a line.  However, when we arrived we saw that there really was no line and we could have easily bought the tickets there.  We still think it is a good idea to buy tickets in advance.

Jimi Hendrix' suit

We had been wanting to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a number of years but there always seemed to be something going on that prevented it.  We were really happy to be able to go this year.  We took a lot of time at the displays and exhibits.  The first displays were on the 2015 inductees then there were cases of artifacts and displays that are generally organized by genre or era of music.  We spent a lot of time in the early period with the displays from blues, jazz, rockabilly and other rock and roll influences.  We also enjoyed the displays on the early rock icons like Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke and Little Richard.  We spent the most time in the sections devoted to the rock of the 1960s and 70s.  There were cases for Motown, San Francisco and LA music that we enjoyed a lot.  This was the music of our high school and college years.

Ringo Starr's drum kit

Scattered through the museum were screens showing biographies or documentaries of notable groups like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones or of trends in music like the Memphis sound.  There were also a number of touch screen kiosks with things like One Hit Wonders and Songs and Most Influenced Rock.  We stopped at each of these and enjoyed reading the information.  At a theater area there was an hour long presentation of all inductees since 1986, the first year of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  The movie provided a sample of many of the performers’ music as well as photos or video.  Some of the inductees were producers or writers and were shown still images. 

Mary on the cover of Rolling Stone

We found that we didn’t agree with all of the inductees since many seemed to either have only a few hits or didn’t have a major influence on the direction of the music.  However, groups that were hugely popular in the 1970s like The Doobie Brothers, Steve Miller Band and Chicago were not in the Hall of Fame.  We just couldn’t understand how The Stooges (not Moe, Larry and Curly) were in but not Michael McDonald or John Denver.

We finished our visit on the top two floors of the museum which are for the traveling exhibits which is now the photography of Herb Ritts.  He photographed many of the best known rock artists for magazine covers like Rolling Stone and others.  He also did album covers and posters.  His most frequent subjects are Madonna, Tina Turner and David Bowie, however, he had many photos of Elton John, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and many, many others.

It was after 5 pm by the time we had completed our visit.  We could have spent more time there but we saw most of what we had come to see.  We passed quickly through exhibits on music genre that do not especially interest us.  There were some great items on display like one of Ringo Starr’s drum kits and guitars owned by Mother Maybelle Carter, Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger.  There were also displays of George Harrison’s grade school swimming certificate and Jim Morrison’s Cub Scout uniform that were of less interest to us.  Although some bands that would be considered “Southern Rock”, like the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd were inducted in the Hall of Fame, there were no displays for that genre.

Since we didn’t want to drive to the Days Inn Cleveland Airport at rush hour, we walked along the lake shore for a bit after leaving the museum.  The GPS guided us for the 20 minute drive to the motel and although traffic was heavy, it moved well and we arrived without incident.  After checking in to the motel, we did a search for highly rated restaurants nearby and came up with an Italian place called Bucci’s.  It was only a quarter mile from our motel.  I was getting all ready for some chicken Parmesan with Gary Bucci but we learned that this location has closed.  The next highest rated was Maya Mexican Restaurant with is about 2 miles away.  When we arrived, the restaurant was busy but we didn’t have to wait for a table.  Mary had a beef tips enchilada and burrito combo and I had chili rellenos which were good but had too much melted white cheese.  Everything was tasty but not much different than we get at any local Mexican restaurant.  Since we had eaten a small lunch and had built up a hunger, we had no trouble enjoying the meal.  We have had Mayan food and this place definitely did not offer Mayan cuisine but was more of a typical Mexican restaurant.  It was neither especially good nor bad but the service and prices were good and we were satisfied with our meals.

We came back to the motel and crashed with responding to the day’s emails then reading a little before bed time.  We plan to visit the Cleveland Zoo on Thursday and are especially excited about the rain forest exhibit.