Stop 23: Cleveland, OH

Brian and I left Chicago with a different feeling in our stomachs…Cleveland would be the last stop on our whirlwind tour of the US, and while we were happy that we’d be home to see our friends and family again, we couldn’t help but be a little sad too.

We arrived in Cleveland after about 6 hours of monotonous driving, and after hastily parking the car, we hurried off to the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. It was close to 7 o’clock when we entered and we knew we were pushing it for time since the museum would be closing at 9. Our time within the museum, however, was well spent, and we weren’t disappointed.

Everything from on-stage outfits of the Jackson 5, to sheets of notebook paper scrawled with the original lyrics of the Beach Boys was on display. I thought it was interesting that most of the musicians who wrote the lyrics had very girly handwriting! And both, Brian and I were particularly intrigued by the costumes and how small all the musician’s figures had been! You wouldn’t believe how tiny Madonna was! Even the men had been Brian’s height, if not shorter, and skinnier than most pre-pubescent girls! We figured they probably had drugs to thank for that.

Anyway, in order to be inducted to the Hall of Fame, twenty years must have passed since recording your first record. Current inductees include Elvis, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Elton John, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, The Ramones, U2, The Clash, and AC/DC, and the list goes on and on.

By the time 9 o’clock rolled around, we had made it to the final exhibit: a special on The Doors and Jim Morrison. We had looked around for maybe 10 minutes when the guards practically chased us out of the museum. Lucky for us though, the store didn’t close until 10! We took our time looking around the store to buy gifts and souvenirs, but before we had known it, 10 o’clock had rolled around and the guards were kicking us out of there too! With our purchases in hand, we set off back to the hotel, but not before taking some fun pictures outside of the museum with the colorfully decorated guitar statues!

By this point it was already 10:30, and the only restaurant open in town was a blues bar called Fat Fish Blue. As we stepped into the restaurant it was like we'd "apparated" (Harry Potter code for: left one place and appeared in another place) back to Beale Street in Memphis. The atmosphere was great, the music was entertaining, and the food was tasty. Overall, it was a great way to spend our last night of the trip.

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