Because you all totally care about my vacation.
So since Tuesday my mom and I have been in Cleveland!
Not gonna lie, going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was totally the point of the trip.
So we left Toronto at the godforsaken hellish hour of seven AM. Our first stop was at Tim Horton's, because we are the sort of Canadians that are only patriotic when we were leaving. We had planned to stop in Buffalo (because Buffalo backwards is Olaffub, as anyone who has been around me for an extended period of time probably knows), but it was only nine when we got there, so it wasn't worth it. The city of Buffalo is surrounded by a herd of fibreglass buffalo, which we found pretty cool. We didn't actually stop 'til we hit Erie, PA, where we ate lunch at a charming-but-overpriced little diner called the Zodiac.
Then we got to Cleveland, got hopelessly lost, and eventually found our hotel at two, which was actually right on schedule. With my mom and I, you basically plan for getting hopelessly lost. We went to Florida for a week once and spent the entire trip lost. Anyway, our hotel was fucking gorgeous. We had a really beautiful suite and all was well...
(Awful picture is awful.)
Until somehow this guy had a keycard that opened our door? Like, they had given out the same room number twice, or something? It was terrifying. I had just had a shower, so the Psycho scene was kind of playing in my head.
Then we walked around Cleveland in search of Lunch, which we eventually found at the Cadillac Lounge, which was covered in Rolling Stone covers from the eighties. Classy! There are apparently no vegetarians in Cleveland, because I had to eat fish at every restaurant. While we were wandering, we discovered the Cleveland equivalent to the Toronto Moose, which is GIANT PAINTED GUITARS:
(I look deranged in this picture.)
We also discovered the Cleveland Public Library, which, holy shit I could like LIVE THERE. Are all Public Libraries in the US so gigungous? It was like, six floors, each of which were twice the size of the nearest Public Library to my house. Also the Library had the most amazing circa-1925 Art Deco elevators. When I get my Library Science degree, that is the Library I want to work at, you guys.
We had a So Irish I Pee Green moment and found the An Gorta Mor (Potato "Famine") memorial (Meant to take a picture, but uh we forgot, I guess?) and Cleveland's oldest Irish pub, the Flat Iron, which has been there since 1910. (I am totally twenty-one, okay, totally.)
For dinner, we attempted to go to the House of Blues, got hopelessly lost again, walked around in a circle, got back to the hotel, gave up, and ordered pizza. That was Tuesday.
Wednesday, we went to the Hall of Fame, which is basically the coolest museum I have ever been in and I have been in a lot of museums. While we were waiting for the shuttle (our hotel had a complementary shuttle to anywhere within two miles! We only used it once, because we are big on walking, but it was cool!) we discovered our absolute favourite thing about our hotel (and since our hotel gave out free drinks, that is saying something):
This is a sign warning people not to carry concealed guns into the hotel. Is this a normal thing in America? Because to Canadians it is a little bit hilarious. Every time we saw this sign we burst into Don't Take Your Guns To Town.
Once we got to the Hall of Fame, I was really happy:
(I actually like this picture a lot.)
They only let you take pictures in the lobby, but we took a few of those:
(George Harrison memorial guitar. George is my favourite Beatle, okay.)
(Neil Young tribute guitar. It's rusted, because, see, Rust Never Sleeps.)
(And a Ramones guitar. Man, guitars are so much cooler than moose...)
(This is a mirrorball car. Suspended from the ceiling.)
(Jon Bon Jovi's motorcycle. We like Bon Jovi ironically okay.)
(I don't even remember whose guitar this is, it was just too amazing not to get a picture of.)
Not pictured: John Lennon's Sgt. Pepper jacket; Iggy Pop's hand-duct-taped shorts; Grace Slick's fringed vest; Neil Young's fringed jacket; Buddy Holly's high school diploma; the Fat Elvis jumpsuit; one of Elvis' thirteen purple Cadillacs; Jim Morrison's cub scout uniform; dresses belonging to Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, and Stevie Nicks; totally ridiculous articles of clothing belonging to David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger, and Keith Moon; SO MUCH MORE. (I definitely snickered inappropriately at the Valentine from tiny!Jim Morrison to his mother. Oedipus complex = comedy gold, I guess.)
There was a whole floor of Pink Floyd's The Wall, which impressed me even though The Wall is not actually my favourite Floyd album. (It's Wish You Were Here.)
And then two floors of Bruce Springsteen, which was also pretty cool! They had like... The original journal pages he wrote lyrics on, and the t-shirt and jeans from the cover of Born in the USA, and stuff.
There were a couple of spots in the museum where you could sit down and watch films. One of these was about songwriting, which was really interesting. The best part was one of the Ramones: "People always asked us why our songs are so short. They're actually long songs played extremely quickly."
There was also a film which was the highlights of all the induction ceremonies, which had me tearing up in places because I cry at everything. (Paul saying nice things about John! George accepting the award on behalf of the Beatles! Cream playing together for the first time in fifteen years! Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart being their usual asshole selves! I have such a soft spot for musician-drama. This is not a surprise to anyone, is it?)
Outside the Hall of Fame were a couple more guitars:
Then we walked around the city some more, taking pictures of some interesting sculptures in Downtown Cleveland:
(A giant rubber stamp that says "FREE". There was an explanatory plaque that did not in fact explain anything.)
(These are apparently supposed to look like seed pods.)
(This is a war memorial. The guy is rising from the flames of the world. But to us he looked like a merman hatching from an egg?)
Then we went shopping at the Tower City Centre, which is a mall inside a tower, where I acquired a) a new pair of converse (bright red this time) since the old ones are literally falling apart and b) a copy of Nation, finally! It was sold out all over Toronto Christmastime (when I had money) and now that it exists it is too expensive; books are so much cheaper in the States. Like, half the price.
We did eventually make it to the House of Blues Wednesday night, wherein I got a new fedora (100% wool. Not as good as real felt, but a hell of a lot cheaper.) I don't feel like myself without a fedora, so that was really good. A new hat was long overdue. I also had blackened salmon, which was the best fish I have ever had. The House of Blues was pretty fucking cool, I have to say.
Today we did comparatively less: Breakfast, quick swim at the hotel, checkout. We didn't stop 'til we hit New York, which is amazing for us because we usually stop like every hour and a half. Had lunch in Ripley, New York, notable for sharing a name with the world's most kick-ass movie heroine. The diner we went to was also notable for serving chocolate peanut butter pie, which I probably should not have eaten but I don't care, it was delicious. (Chocolate and peanut butter is my kryptonite. True fact.)
Then we... Crossed the border again? Got home? Oh, we stopped at another Tim's. Then we went home. I am (understandably?) pretty tired, at this point.
Not gonna lie, going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was totally the point of the trip.
So we left Toronto at the godforsaken hellish hour of seven AM. Our first stop was at Tim Horton's, because we are the sort of Canadians that are only patriotic when we were leaving. We had planned to stop in Buffalo (because Buffalo backwards is Olaffub, as anyone who has been around me for an extended period of time probably knows), but it was only nine when we got there, so it wasn't worth it. The city of Buffalo is surrounded by a herd of fibreglass buffalo, which we found pretty cool. We didn't actually stop 'til we hit Erie, PA, where we ate lunch at a charming-but-overpriced little diner called the Zodiac.
Then we got to Cleveland, got hopelessly lost, and eventually found our hotel at two, which was actually right on schedule. With my mom and I, you basically plan for getting hopelessly lost. We went to Florida for a week once and spent the entire trip lost. Anyway, our hotel was fucking gorgeous. We had a really beautiful suite and all was well...
(Awful picture is awful.)
Until somehow this guy had a keycard that opened our door? Like, they had given out the same room number twice, or something? It was terrifying. I had just had a shower, so the Psycho scene was kind of playing in my head.
Then we walked around Cleveland in search of Lunch, which we eventually found at the Cadillac Lounge, which was covered in Rolling Stone covers from the eighties. Classy! There are apparently no vegetarians in Cleveland, because I had to eat fish at every restaurant. While we were wandering, we discovered the Cleveland equivalent to the Toronto Moose, which is GIANT PAINTED GUITARS:
(I look deranged in this picture.)
We also discovered the Cleveland Public Library, which, holy shit I could like LIVE THERE. Are all Public Libraries in the US so gigungous? It was like, six floors, each of which were twice the size of the nearest Public Library to my house. Also the Library had the most amazing circa-1925 Art Deco elevators. When I get my Library Science degree, that is the Library I want to work at, you guys.
We had a So Irish I Pee Green moment and found the An Gorta Mor (Potato "Famine") memorial (Meant to take a picture, but uh we forgot, I guess?) and Cleveland's oldest Irish pub, the Flat Iron, which has been there since 1910. (I am totally twenty-one, okay, totally.)
For dinner, we attempted to go to the House of Blues, got hopelessly lost again, walked around in a circle, got back to the hotel, gave up, and ordered pizza. That was Tuesday.
Wednesday, we went to the Hall of Fame, which is basically the coolest museum I have ever been in and I have been in a lot of museums. While we were waiting for the shuttle (our hotel had a complementary shuttle to anywhere within two miles! We only used it once, because we are big on walking, but it was cool!) we discovered our absolute favourite thing about our hotel (and since our hotel gave out free drinks, that is saying something):
This is a sign warning people not to carry concealed guns into the hotel. Is this a normal thing in America? Because to Canadians it is a little bit hilarious. Every time we saw this sign we burst into Don't Take Your Guns To Town.
Once we got to the Hall of Fame, I was really happy:
(I actually like this picture a lot.)
They only let you take pictures in the lobby, but we took a few of those:
(George Harrison memorial guitar. George is my favourite Beatle, okay.)
(Neil Young tribute guitar. It's rusted, because, see, Rust Never Sleeps.)
(And a Ramones guitar. Man, guitars are so much cooler than moose...)
(This is a mirrorball car. Suspended from the ceiling.)
(Jon Bon Jovi's motorcycle. We like Bon Jovi ironically okay.)
(I don't even remember whose guitar this is, it was just too amazing not to get a picture of.)
Not pictured: John Lennon's Sgt. Pepper jacket; Iggy Pop's hand-duct-taped shorts; Grace Slick's fringed vest; Neil Young's fringed jacket; Buddy Holly's high school diploma; the Fat Elvis jumpsuit; one of Elvis' thirteen purple Cadillacs; Jim Morrison's cub scout uniform; dresses belonging to Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, and Stevie Nicks; totally ridiculous articles of clothing belonging to David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger, and Keith Moon; SO MUCH MORE. (I definitely snickered inappropriately at the Valentine from tiny!Jim Morrison to his mother. Oedipus complex = comedy gold, I guess.)
There was a whole floor of Pink Floyd's The Wall, which impressed me even though The Wall is not actually my favourite Floyd album. (It's Wish You Were Here.)
And then two floors of Bruce Springsteen, which was also pretty cool! They had like... The original journal pages he wrote lyrics on, and the t-shirt and jeans from the cover of Born in the USA, and stuff.
There were a couple of spots in the museum where you could sit down and watch films. One of these was about songwriting, which was really interesting. The best part was one of the Ramones: "People always asked us why our songs are so short. They're actually long songs played extremely quickly."
There was also a film which was the highlights of all the induction ceremonies, which had me tearing up in places because I cry at everything. (Paul saying nice things about John! George accepting the award on behalf of the Beatles! Cream playing together for the first time in fifteen years! Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart being their usual asshole selves! I have such a soft spot for musician-drama. This is not a surprise to anyone, is it?)
Outside the Hall of Fame were a couple more guitars:
Then we walked around the city some more, taking pictures of some interesting sculptures in Downtown Cleveland:
(A giant rubber stamp that says "FREE". There was an explanatory plaque that did not in fact explain anything.)
(These are apparently supposed to look like seed pods.)
(This is a war memorial. The guy is rising from the flames of the world. But to us he looked like a merman hatching from an egg?)
Then we went shopping at the Tower City Centre, which is a mall inside a tower, where I acquired a) a new pair of converse (bright red this time) since the old ones are literally falling apart and b) a copy of Nation, finally! It was sold out all over Toronto Christmastime (when I had money) and now that it exists it is too expensive; books are so much cheaper in the States. Like, half the price.
We did eventually make it to the House of Blues Wednesday night, wherein I got a new fedora (100% wool. Not as good as real felt, but a hell of a lot cheaper.) I don't feel like myself without a fedora, so that was really good. A new hat was long overdue. I also had blackened salmon, which was the best fish I have ever had. The House of Blues was pretty fucking cool, I have to say.
Today we did comparatively less: Breakfast, quick swim at the hotel, checkout. We didn't stop 'til we hit New York, which is amazing for us because we usually stop like every hour and a half. Had lunch in Ripley, New York, notable for sharing a name with the world's most kick-ass movie heroine. The diner we went to was also notable for serving chocolate peanut butter pie, which I probably should not have eaten but I don't care, it was delicious. (Chocolate and peanut butter is my kryptonite. True fact.)
Then we... Crossed the border again? Got home? Oh, we stopped at another Tim's. Then we went home. I am (understandably?) pretty tired, at this point.