Thursday, May 02, 2013
The weather stays lovely and clear.. not too hot and no rain. We headed on our way to Cleveland.. a pretty clear run four hours from Charleston WVA. About two hours out, Peter noticed that we were going to pass right through Canton.. and the ProFootball Hall of Fame. Needless to say, a stop was quickly arranged. It is a very well run place.. not too big, but with lots of memorabelia from and about your favourite playes. And there were some very nice men who acted as volunteer guides. Can you imagine a better job for one's retired husband? We took a slight wrong turn and ended up in downtown Canton... pretty sad and empty so I am sure there are happy to have the museum to bring people there.
We did have lunch at a very pretty little local place and it was in a nice neighbourhood. The houses and the gardens looked just like a street in north Toronto. so all is not lost in Canton Ohio.
When we planned the trip we decided to stay right in downtown Cleveland, to be near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And so it was we drove up to the very lovely Renaissance Inn. This was a much more upmarket Marriot than we have been used to, a really lovely old hotel that has been lovingly restored. Downtown Cleveland has been restored, updated and looks very good indeed. We walked to the museum(open evenings on Thursday). It shares a huge waterfront site with the football stadium and a knock out looking Museum of science. Wonderful use of waterfront space.... They have built quite inventive ways of getting over the throughways.. including one through a multistory parking lot. The museum is a great.. loads of fun and as typical of the music it showcases verges on sensory overload. It was such a fun place to visit and I would love to go back.
We also dropped in to have a look at their new downtown casino. It is run by Caesars., and it quite large... huge numbers of slots of course. It has been placed in an old underused office building .. and there had been plenty of those. But here is the thing... there is no one really on the streets. No one lives downtown... we did not see one dwelling or condo between the hotel and the casino and museum.
We had a lovely time in the old fashioned bar/restaurant in the hotel.. reminded us of the Royal York and to be fair it seemed busy, as was the museum. The staff told me they have been quite busy, so I suspect Cleveland may be driving some of their economy with tourism. Not a bad way to go. We would definitely go back. Cleveland has always had one of the best symphonies in the U.S. and has just opened a new Museum of Modern Art which I would love to see.
And we had a good early morning walk all around the squares and streets of downtown. We love doing this when we travel. You can really get a feel of the city and we try to head out before breakfast to get in our walk. The streets started to fill up with people coming to work mostly by car from the suburbs. We did enjoy our lovely breakfast in the executive lounge(included!) before we left for our final drive home.
We did have lunch at a very pretty little local place and it was in a nice neighbourhood. The houses and the gardens looked just like a street in north Toronto. so all is not lost in Canton Ohio.
When we planned the trip we decided to stay right in downtown Cleveland, to be near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And so it was we drove up to the very lovely Renaissance Inn. This was a much more upmarket Marriot than we have been used to, a really lovely old hotel that has been lovingly restored. Downtown Cleveland has been restored, updated and looks very good indeed. We walked to the museum(open evenings on Thursday). It shares a huge waterfront site with the football stadium and a knock out looking Museum of science. Wonderful use of waterfront space.... They have built quite inventive ways of getting over the throughways.. including one through a multistory parking lot. The museum is a great.. loads of fun and as typical of the music it showcases verges on sensory overload. It was such a fun place to visit and I would love to go back.
We also dropped in to have a look at their new downtown casino. It is run by Caesars., and it quite large... huge numbers of slots of course. It has been placed in an old underused office building .. and there had been plenty of those. But here is the thing... there is no one really on the streets. No one lives downtown... we did not see one dwelling or condo between the hotel and the casino and museum.
We had a lovely time in the old fashioned bar/restaurant in the hotel.. reminded us of the Royal York and to be fair it seemed busy, as was the museum. The staff told me they have been quite busy, so I suspect Cleveland may be driving some of their economy with tourism. Not a bad way to go. We would definitely go back. Cleveland has always had one of the best symphonies in the U.S. and has just opened a new Museum of Modern Art which I would love to see.
And we had a good early morning walk all around the squares and streets of downtown. We love doing this when we travel. You can really get a feel of the city and we try to head out before breakfast to get in our walk. The streets started to fill up with people coming to work mostly by car from the suburbs. We did enjoy our lovely breakfast in the executive lounge(included!) before we left for our final drive home.
# posted by katie @ 2:39 PM 
