Cleveland rocks...surprisingly?!?
Weekend get-away
This past weekend Jose and I headed down to Cleveland as an early Christmas present from my parents. (We needed to get out of the house as much as they wanted us gone for a few days). I had not really considered Cleveland as a tourist destination in the past but being there just two days has changed my mind. I would say it is well worth a a weekend trip. We made the incredibly boring three hour drive on Saturday morning via the mindless Ohio turnpike and headed first to the University Circle area (chock full of museums and cultural institutions and named for its vicinity to the Case Western campus).
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
After arriving, we first set our sights on The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We were able to walk through and enjoy both their permanent and temporary exhibits that focused on lots of different branches of science like astronomy, botany, archaelogy, zoology and paleontology. One of the first we visited was about the enormous and now extinct megalodon shark. This sea creature was so big that its diet regularly included whales. One of the best parts of the exhibit was walking through a life-sized recreation of the animal. I, for one, am glad that this predator only exists now on the Scifi channel and not in real life.
Another exhibit that we both enjoyed was seeing the dinosaurs. No matter how many times I see the skeletons of these big guys, I am always impressed, not only for their massive size but also for the painstaking work that scientists have done over the years to discover them, recreate them and make inferences about the lives they led.
I, of course, liked seeing the gems, geodes and crystals (though Jose not so much). The museum also has an outdoor section with native to Ohio animals, like foxes, birds of prey and deer. We looked for the Lucy exhibit but she is under construction (Lucy was the "missing link" skeleton found in the 1970´s in Ethiopia). All in all, we enjoyed our visit to the Museum of Natural History.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Next we walked over to the the Cleveland Museum of Art which is very close. I cannot say enough good things about this museum. First of all, it was free! Second of all, it is huge! We walked around for a couple of hours and probably didn´t see most of what they have on display. The collection has all different styles and kinds of art, ranging all throughout the world and history. (My favorites are always the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists).
The actual layout of the museum is very nice. There is a main, open gallery courtyard and then the exhibits are numbered and easy to follow around the outside of it. I can´t stand it when museums´rooms don´t seem to make sense and this one was very well organized in my opinion. I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this gem.
4th Street eats
That night after checking into our hotel and resting our weary feet, we headed out to eat on 4th Street which shuts down except for pedestrians and has a lot of restaurants and bars. We ate Mexican food and enjoyed the scene before walking around the area a bit. It had a nice atmosphere and plenty of people.
As we were exploring we entered the Hyatt Regency at the Arcade hotel (though we didn´t realize it was a hotel since it just looked like a cool-looking, covered, old shopping galleria). Inside it was beautiful and there was a wedding going on. The security guard let us walk around a bit. After creeping around for a while, we headed back to our hotel.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The next day we went to probably what is Cleveland´s most famous landmark: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At first we were skeptical since it isn´t cheap to get in, but I can say that it is worth the price of admission.
The museum is located right on Lake Erie and is close to the Cleveland Browns´stadium and the Great Lakes Science Center (neither of which we visited). We did, however, spend a few hours walking through the music exhibits. I enjoyed seeing the introductory video which explained how Rock and Roll came to be (as a result of the mixture of a lot of different musical genres and basically the boredom of the 1950s). They also have a ton of memorabilia from lots of different artists and groups. They organized it by cities of musical influence (think Detroit and Seattle for example) as well as by genre and time period. Big acts got their own focus of course and the biggest exhibit right now is about the Rolling Stones.
Sights yet to see
Had we had more time and money to spend there are a lot of things we didn´t get a chance to see in Cleveland but that we thought would be interesting after researching for this trip. Here is a list:
The Lake View Cemetery- has the James A. Garfield Monument as well as being the final resting place for John D. Rockafeller
Cleveland Botanical Garden
Severance Hall- where the Cleveland Orchestra plays
Little Italy- a neighborhood close the University Circle
Great Lakes Science Center
I am still somewhat surprised by how much Cleveland has to do and see for visitors. Though it has suffered its own economic difficulties in the past, Cleveland has a vibrancy that I would love to see in Detroit someday soon. I can´t believe that I lived so close for so long and never even considered visiting. It is worth it!
This past weekend Jose and I headed down to Cleveland as an early Christmas present from my parents. (We needed to get out of the house as much as they wanted us gone for a few days). I had not really considered Cleveland as a tourist destination in the past but being there just two days has changed my mind. I would say it is well worth a a weekend trip. We made the incredibly boring three hour drive on Saturday morning via the mindless Ohio turnpike and headed first to the University Circle area (chock full of museums and cultural institutions and named for its vicinity to the Case Western campus).
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
After arriving, we first set our sights on The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We were able to walk through and enjoy both their permanent and temporary exhibits that focused on lots of different branches of science like astronomy, botany, archaelogy, zoology and paleontology. One of the first we visited was about the enormous and now extinct megalodon shark. This sea creature was so big that its diet regularly included whales. One of the best parts of the exhibit was walking through a life-sized recreation of the animal. I, for one, am glad that this predator only exists now on the Scifi channel and not in real life.
 |
| Megalodon jaws |
Another exhibit that we both enjoyed was seeing the dinosaurs. No matter how many times I see the skeletons of these big guys, I am always impressed, not only for their massive size but also for the painstaking work that scientists have done over the years to discover them, recreate them and make inferences about the lives they led.
I, of course, liked seeing the gems, geodes and crystals (though Jose not so much). The museum also has an outdoor section with native to Ohio animals, like foxes, birds of prey and deer. We looked for the Lucy exhibit but she is under construction (Lucy was the "missing link" skeleton found in the 1970´s in Ethiopia). All in all, we enjoyed our visit to the Museum of Natural History.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Next we walked over to the the Cleveland Museum of Art which is very close. I cannot say enough good things about this museum. First of all, it was free! Second of all, it is huge! We walked around for a couple of hours and probably didn´t see most of what they have on display. The collection has all different styles and kinds of art, ranging all throughout the world and history. (My favorites are always the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists).
The actual layout of the museum is very nice. There is a main, open gallery courtyard and then the exhibits are numbered and easy to follow around the outside of it. I can´t stand it when museums´rooms don´t seem to make sense and this one was very well organized in my opinion. I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this gem.
4th Street eats
That night after checking into our hotel and resting our weary feet, we headed out to eat on 4th Street which shuts down except for pedestrians and has a lot of restaurants and bars. We ate Mexican food and enjoyed the scene before walking around the area a bit. It had a nice atmosphere and plenty of people.
As we were exploring we entered the Hyatt Regency at the Arcade hotel (though we didn´t realize it was a hotel since it just looked like a cool-looking, covered, old shopping galleria). Inside it was beautiful and there was a wedding going on. The security guard let us walk around a bit. After creeping around for a while, we headed back to our hotel.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The next day we went to probably what is Cleveland´s most famous landmark: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At first we were skeptical since it isn´t cheap to get in, but I can say that it is worth the price of admission.
The museum is located right on Lake Erie and is close to the Cleveland Browns´stadium and the Great Lakes Science Center (neither of which we visited). We did, however, spend a few hours walking through the music exhibits. I enjoyed seeing the introductory video which explained how Rock and Roll came to be (as a result of the mixture of a lot of different musical genres and basically the boredom of the 1950s). They also have a ton of memorabilia from lots of different artists and groups. They organized it by cities of musical influence (think Detroit and Seattle for example) as well as by genre and time period. Big acts got their own focus of course and the biggest exhibit right now is about the Rolling Stones.
Sights yet to see
Had we had more time and money to spend there are a lot of things we didn´t get a chance to see in Cleveland but that we thought would be interesting after researching for this trip. Here is a list:
The Lake View Cemetery- has the James A. Garfield Monument as well as being the final resting place for John D. Rockafeller
Cleveland Botanical Garden
Severance Hall- where the Cleveland Orchestra plays
Little Italy- a neighborhood close the University Circle
Great Lakes Science Center
I am still somewhat surprised by how much Cleveland has to do and see for visitors. Though it has suffered its own economic difficulties in the past, Cleveland has a vibrancy that I would love to see in Detroit someday soon. I can´t believe that I lived so close for so long and never even considered visiting. It is worth it!
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