Cleveland Rocks!

Day 1:

We made it to the Rock n Roll City around 3pm on Sunday. Although the weather was cold and snow was in the air, we had a fantastic time on our first day. We checked in to our hotel and headed off for downtown Cleveland. We had tickets for the Cavaliers/Heat game. (Stub Hub is the best! $6.75 tickets!!) The facility was very easy to get to from the interstate. Quicken Loans Arena is right next to Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field) where the Indians play. You could literally go from one game to the other in just steps. And I believe people were doing just that as an Indians game was ending as we got there. We went inside the Arena about an hour before tip-off. We wandered around, got some hot dogs and found our seats in “Loudville”. (aka the nosebleed section). We were up pretty high, but we could see everything just fine. I was amazed at all the activity that went on during the game. As Alex said after the game “We went to a festival and a basketball game broke out.” Yeah, it was pretty much insane the whole game. There was loud music, videos on the big screens, giveaways, dancing, fireworks, cheering, contests, and an occasional dunk by LeBron James. Actually, I believe he only had one dunk yesterday. I think his game was a little off. The Cavs won, but it was low-scoring for an NBA game. (84-76) I’m surprised they could concentrate with all the hoopla that was going on around them! After the game was the highlight of Alex’s day. They allowed kids to go down on the court and shoot a free throw. He loved it! And most of the adults watching were secretly wishing they were still kids so they could do it too…

After the game, we drove around town a little bit. Cleveland was a nice city from what we could tell at night. We found the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, which was right next to Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Great Lakes Science Center. I took a few night photos and then we headed back to the hotel to watch the Red Sox/Yankees game on ESPN. (Sox won.)


Day 2:

Monday was our first full day in the Cleveland area. We got up early, went to “Crocker Park” for breakfast and some shopping. This is a very neat area of Westlake, where we stayed, with fun trendy shops and restaurants. Then we went into the city to the Great Lakes Science Center and spent a couple of hours there. It was a huge Science Center, 3 stories of hands-on science activities and an Omni theatre. Alex LOVED it there. He ran from one display to another. After the Science Center, we wandered over to Cleveland Browns Stadium. We were scheduled to go on a 2pm tour of the Stadium, but there was some confusion, so we weren’t able to go. They did give Alex a Browns Yearbook because they felt badly that he wasn’t able to go on a tour. (Apparently not bad enough to give us a tour though!!) We headed downtown after that disappointment, and found a great parking spot, centrally located to the rest of the days’ activities.

We found a really neat indoor downtown mall, called The Arcade. It was from the late 1800s. The architecture was beautiful. We took lots of pictures then walked to The Tower Center. It was another, more modern mall in the downtown area. We had some much needed lunch before we headed over to Progressive Field for the Sox/Indians game.

We arrived at the game around 5pm. (Game time was 7:05) They let people in, but were only allowed to stay in certain areas. Which was fine, we got to see Pappelbon warming up in the Sox bullpen. We saw the Sox on the field taking batting practice. Progressive Field is a great ballpark. They have a neat area called “Heritage Park”, which is a small “Hall of Fame” area for former Indians. We wandered through that before we were allowed to go to our seats.

At 6:00, they blew a whistle and the entire ballpark officially opens. We found our grandstand bleacher seats, and got comfy. To say it was cold would be an understatement. The winter coats, blanket, gloves, scarves we brought did little to warm us. We moved down to the ‘homerun deck’ after the 6th inning and were just a few feet from where the Youkilis homerun ball landed. We were determined to stay for the whole game even though the feeling in our feet and hands left somewhere around the 3rd inning. We were so glad we stayed, it ended up being an awesome game. Manny (who is not well-liked in Cleveland) managed a 2-run game winning homerun. A perfect end to the game.



Day 3:

We slept late on day 3. We were exhausted! We woke with ambitions to attend the 2nd Red Sox game that evening. However, later we opted to watch the 2nd game from the warmth and comfort of our hotel room. We got as close as discussing ticket prices at the ticket window at the park. There were still plenty of seats for the game. But we decided to forego another cold night at the ballpark.

We did however go back to the ballpark in the afternoon. We took a tour of Progressive Field, which was definitely a highlight of the trip. I’ve never done a ballpark tour and it was such a fun thing for us. There were mostly Sox fans on our tour, which was great. We got to sit in the press box, the dug outs, walk on the field (not the grass, just the dirt!), the bullpen and pretty much everything else at the park. As we were on the field, a few of the Sox were warming up. (No Indians were however…) We walked right by Terry Francona. I told him we were Sox fans (as if it wasn’t obvious by our Boston hats…) and then he smiled at me as I took his photo.

We went back to our hotel for some rest before dinner and then watched the game from the hotel. Which is what we’re doing now. We head back home tomorrow. I forgot to bring my USB cable to upload the hundreds (Yes, hundreds!) of photos. Hopefully I’ll get them up tomorrow evening. All in all, it's been a great trip! Cleveland has been fun and we've crammed more in the last 3 days than I thought possible.