Weekend in Cleveland

Todd & I left for Cleveland early Friday afternoon to visit Emily & her boyfriend, Mark. After a quick lunch of soup & bread bowls at Panera, we were on our way. We got to Cleveland around 3:00pm and headed straight to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Todd had been once before awhile ago but this was my 1st trip there. I wasn't really sure what to expect and to be honest, I thought I'd be bored within 20 minutes. Much to my surprise, it was actually the exact opposite! It was pretty amazing how much memorabilia they had. We also liked the fact that there was music constantly playing so it wasn't like your typical museum.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

My favorite part was all the costumes and outfits they had from various musicians, including John Lennon's jacket from the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, Jim Morrison's cub scout shirt, one of Tina Turner's dresses, and of course Michael Jackson's sequined glove. Other memorabilia they had were numerous guitars, instruments, and original copies of handwritten lyrics. They also had a neat exhibit about the history of audio technology starting with the phonograph and ending with the iPod. We also saw the special exhibit featuring Bruce Springsteen. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame closed at 5:30pm so at that point we headed to Emily's apartment to clean up before dinner.

*Note--there's no photography allowed in the museum which is why I don't have any pics.

Emily, Mark, Todd, and I went to Little Italy and had dinner at Michelangelo's. It was delicious--great Italian food & wine! Todd ordered escargot for an appetizer so we both got to try that for the first time. Not sure I would order it again though.

Todd trying his escargot

After dinner we went to the Chocolate Cafe for drinks. We started with shooters made in chocolate cups--it doesn't get any better than that! We then had a few martinis before going back to Mark's apartment (Mark lives directly above Em in their building, which is how they met). Our evening ended shortly after midnight.

Mark, Em and I

Todd & I

Saturday morning Em, Mark, Maddie (Em's dog), and I went for an easy 3 mi run before Em & I went to the gym to attempt the Spartacus workout. After trying it last week, I had to torture her with it too. We went through it 3 times but only for 30 seconds on each exercise instead of 1 minute. I'll post the exact workout in the next couple days to see if anyone of you can do the whole thing.

We ended our trip to Cleveland with breakfast & shopping at the West Side Market with Em & Mark. This place was awesome! We had crepes & hot chocolate for breakfast (pear & caramel for Todd, dark chocolate & strawberry for me) and then wandered around all the vendors, buying food along the way.

Our crepes

Todd & I ended up with eggplant parmesan pierogies, hummus, pitas, ciabatta rolls & smoked turkey for paninis today, fresh pineapple chunks, cucumbers, and bell peppers for my black bean & veggie burritos I'm making this week. Em & Mark bought a bunch of groceries too, including some fish.

The guy gutting their fish

The prices for the most part were super cheap, especially the fresh fruit & veggies. I got fresh cut pineapple chunks for $1.99 that would normally cost me $5.99 at Whole Foods!

One of the many fruit & veggie stands

After a great 24 hours in Cleveland, Todd & I headed back to Columbus Saturday afternoon so I could get home to babysit. Yes, I still babysit but in my defense, I don't know where else I'd get paid good money to play Wii and watch a movie, ya know?

We don't have much planned for day. Hopefully just relaxing, maybe watching a movie, and making paninis for dinner.