South bound and down.....

Monday morning we headed south to Novi (near Detroit) and stopped there so we could spend a little extra time with Susan's Uncle Pete. Anita and Rawland (Susan's cousin and husband) invited us over to their house, along with Uncle Pete, Mark/Joy (other cousin and husband) and Brynn/Josh (Gloria's daughter and husband who live in Detroit). Anita and Rawland's two daughters Dana and Kimberly were also there.

We had a very nice evening with all those folks and enjoyed something we hadn't tried before, a "corner" pizza. Apparently quite the rage in Detroit these days. It is a deep dish pizza that is made such that every piece is a "corner" piece. It was very good.

The pictures above are Anita and Rawland's house and the gardens in the back. Rawland has quite a green thumb, as you can see from the pictures. He has a fantastic vegetable garden with broccoli, peppers, beans, carrots, cucumbers, pumpkins, onions and peas, among other things. He and Anita also put in a beautiful perennial garden and a pond with frogs and goldfish that remind me of the English gardens we saw at all the bed and breakfast places we stayed in when we toured the UK a few years ago. Thank you Anita and Rawland for the hospitality!

For some reason, neither Susan nor I slept very well that night and we got up early to have breakfast with Mark and Joy before hitting the road. We had a great breakfast at a golf course that Mark frequents, said our goodbyes and took off.

Although it is not very far from Novi to Cleveland, we were both pretty tired when we got there. We checked in to a hotel which offers a package deal for visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You get the room, breakfast, two tickets to the hall and free parking. Pretty cool deal!

We grabbed the tickets and headed down to the hall. We spent about 4 hours there and it was very interesting. They have stage clothes, instruments, documents and album covers that tell the story of the careers of the movers and shakers in the rock and roll music business. It is all presented in chronological order from the beginning of rock and roll. It opens up with a lot of stories about the earlier influences from the genres of rythm and blues, jazz, gospel and folk music. Several musicians who have made large contributions are prominently featured. Elvis of course, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many others. Of course, there was a tribute to Michael Jackson and there was a special exhibit on Bruce Springsteen.

In the pictures above, I included a shot of Susan and I at the entrance to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After 4 hours walking around in the hall and reading all the displays, we were completed wiped out. We headed down to a cool little area of Cleveland called East 4th Street for a drink and dinner. We had a relaxing drink at Flanery's Irish Pub and then dinner at Lola's which is owned by television's Iron Chef Michael Symon. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep at 9:00pm.

I have included some pictures above of Flanery's, Lola's and East 4th Street area of Cleveland.