Wednesday, May 28One thing I forgot to mention about our game at Wrigley: Just before the game, in celebration of Memorial Day, a bald eagle named Challenger was released and soared over the ballpark, coming to his trainer who was waiting on the pitcher’s mound. It was a beautiful and moving moment.
On to Cleveland: We headed over to Progressive field around 10:30 for a 12:05 start. Have I mentioned that some of us like to get to the ballparks an hour or two before each game to get a feel for the place, tour around the park, check out the food and other vendors, watch batting practice, etc? There was a school program on weather being held at the park with many thousands of children. Some stayed for the game afterwards. The park has been rated the best in the league and has many unique and interesting features. Our seats were behind home plate so we had a great view of the game. Another exciting game with two home runs and lots of hits and good plays. The White Sox won, 6-5. The crowd was pretty tame compared with our games in Chicago, maybe partly because it was a daytime game. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, however the temp was around 50 and there was a frigid wind from Lake Erie, so perhaps that kept the amount of alcohol consumption down. Usually we try to avoid the sun at the ballparks, but today we anxiously waited as it crept our way and by about 1:00 we were feeling much warmer.
After the game we rocked and rolled our way through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Wow!!! What a place! The museum is housed in this gorgeous modern structure right on Lake Erie. There are 7 levels of exhibits. Some of us could easily have spent an entire day there. They covered music from the early blues, jazz, hip hop eras right up to the present. They had exhibits of everything from Jim Morrison's report cards and Cub Scout shirt to Janis Joplin’s Porsche and a Cadillac Elvis bought for his manager. Plus many outfits from different performers- Elvis’ spandex, rhinestone encrusted pantsuits, suits the Temptations wore, clothes different people wore at Woodstock, etc. We were speechless! There were kiosks all over to listen to different artist’s tunes and hear biographies about them. They have a film of all the Hall of Fame inductees with short video and still clips, and, of course, their music.
Brian was somewhat disturbed to discover I love Roy Orbison. We thought of Susie Noy when we saw the David Bowie exhibit. Nancy would swoon over all the Elvis stuff. Allison would love the Chuck Barry video. It is worth a trip to Cleveland just to go to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Museum if you have any interest in music.
We finished the evening with dinner at the Hard Rock Café, just to keep the mood alive! The hotel shuttle picked us up after dinner ( a nice service) and gave us a tour of the renovated areas in downtown Cleveland.
Cleveland is deserted at night (although it seemed quite safe) in contrast to Chicago which was always bustling. The shuttle driver said that people work in Cleveland but live predominantly in the burbs and that this was a typical level of activity for a weekday night.
Tomorrow we are off to Baltimore to see the Orioles and Red Sox. Go Sox!!
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