Road Trip: Day 3

Today took us to downtown Cleveland (we are about 30 miles from downtown) to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Great Lakes Science Center (a kids science museum).

A was very excited about the Hall of Fame, as was I. I didn't realize it was also the day of Michael Jackson's memorial (which they were simulcasting), but that didn't cause too much hullabaloo. Seeing him as a young boy with the Jackson 5 was really very poignant though. A was interested for the first 20 minutes and then the overwhelming amount of artifacts became boring very quickly. I don't know if it was because I was with a 7 year old, but I also became kind of bored. Now we didn't get to see the movies (they all had "mature themes"), but there are only so many costumes, album covers and photos I can look at. The things I really thought were cool were the handwritten music and lyrics by the musicians. There was a Bruce Springsteen exhibit, which was well, more artifacts. I wish they had done more for kids (seems to me it wouldn't be hard to do, show them some mixing, dubbing, put them on stage, etc.....). Anyway after an hour and 20 minutes or so, we moved on to lunch. And the museum store. There was a great gift store, I must admit. I think I may have missed a lot, I felt like I saw big chunks of certain times/musicians and none of some others. Maybe it will make more sense when I see it without kids.

The Great Lakes Science Center was right next door. The most interesting part was the "phenomena" exhibit which was a whole bunch of hands on demos/experiments for kids, like different ways of generating electricity, or using magnets, or manipulating light. It was a little crazy in there (it's one big open space and there were several camp groups there) (one little boy tried to rip something out of A's hands while we were figuring out how it worked...reading directions, imagine that!. I told him we were using it, and A just looked like a deer in the headlights!) She liked the museum and thought it was fun.

Then of course we had a snack. We sat outside at a bench on Lake Erie. It was a gorgeous day.
Back at the hotel we had a swim, I'm amazed at A's ability to create a whole game/story in her head and play quietly by herself in the pool. When she's around G I don't see as much of her "quiet" side.

A has a definite idea that when we are at a hotel we shouldn't have to leave at the end of the day for dinner. So tonight it was room service, but really service from a restaurant that the hotel uses as room service -- actually much better than most room service. A is watching a movie on the DVD player as I type this. She will surely get tired eventually, right?

We aren't sure what we are doing tomorrow. A is pushing for a mall. I'm pushing for Cuyahoga National Park (they have a scenic railroad, a canal towpath and a historic village and farm). Guess where I think we'll end up?

Until tomorrow!