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Thursday, August 5, 2010

Rock and Roll and a Lakeside Stroll, CLE


Cleveland has always gotten knocked around, forever having to live down the years of "Dennis the Menace" (Dennis Kucinich) as mayor and the Cuyahoga River being so polluted that it actually caught fire. There is even a funny Youtube video that was made about the city, (Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video) and Randy Newman wrote a song about the river fire (Burn On).
Today, on a warm, sunny August day I had an opportunity to walk around the downtown area. It has been a busy summer for us and I have been flying way too much. When I get home tomorrow, I will have been working six days in a row. So I welcomed the nineteen hour layover in CLE. We stay down town about a fifteen minute walk from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I discovered a vibrant, clean and attractive city. Lots of modern buildings intermingled with well preserved older ones. There were flower beds and clean sidewalks, and I only encountered one panhandler.
The breeze coming off of Lake Erie and the mid eighties temperature was a welcome respite from the scorching 102 degrees of Memphis, where our flight originated. I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was buzzing with people. It was great and I would encourage anyone to go (especially those my age). I walked by Voinovich Park on the shore of the lake and relaxed in the cool breeze. The city scape view from there is beautiful and impressive. You could spend a whole day in that area alone, visiting the Great Lakes Science Center and The William G. Mather Museum, a retired 1925 Great Lakes Freighter permanently docked and open to visitors during the warm months, which is key to coming to any city located on any of the Great Lakes. The last time I was in Cleveland was January. I didn't step outside of the hotel at that time.
So enjoy the self effacing humor of Cleveland dwellers, but know that it is really a nice place to visit, at least in the summer.

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