Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Erie Canal, & Skidmore

Our day in Cleveland started with room service. If I knew this was going to be such a treat for Ma, I would have done it as often as I could. This treat for her was so luxurious. She felt like a queen (in her words) and dined on a cheese omelet, bacon, home fries, and coffee. This was the view from our window, not to bad.
From there we headed down to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The entrance was crowded with people and Michael Jackson music playing. We met a girl (who took our picture) who was originally from Cleveland, now living in Orlando, and back home visiting friends. She came to the Hall because she had heard that there was a tribute to Michael Jackson.
Upon entering, there was a guitar and glove exhibit in the main hall. As we stood there, we saw people take pictures and leave notes and some flowers. I had seen the news reports from the Apollo Theater in NY and had no idea that we would get to take part in a tribute.
After speaking to my uncle, we were told that we should plan for a couple of hours - I would revise that statement and tell you to leave a day - especially if you are into seeing it all. We spent close to 5 hours and only got through 2 floors and didn't do everything. Unfortunately the elevators were not working so getting from floor to floor for us was a bit of a hassle, but they were very kind to us and we were able to see a majority of the memorabilia. Due to the arrangements with many of the artists and their estates, you are unable to take photos, but the experience, of reading letters from fans, seeing hotel bills, original concert tickets, note books with lyrics, and other things that the artists wore or the instruments they played was so cool.
From there, we headed back to the hotel and were off for our 5 ride into NY.
Little did we know that our hotel was next to the Erie Canal. We stopped looked around and got Ma her 2nd Dunkin Donuts fix of the trip. Now for her this was ending the trip with a bang! She was so excited about her coffee and her "treat" that even with the offer of a breakfast and Dunkin's to go, she selected just the coffee and donuts.
As we rode through the Finger Lake area of NY, which is so picturesque, we were about 45 minutes away from Skidmore, my alma mater. Ma had asked at the beginning of the trip if we were going to go there and I didn't think anything about it, but after she asked a couple more times, I figured we should go.
We drove and walked around the campus and saw the new (to her) buildings. As we passed the "new" area of Case, we also passed a handful of students up there for the summer. When I told Ma that this was a new area - he looked at me like I was insane.
The rest of the ride home was pretty uneventful, minus the traffic we hit right after I-84 and the rain that we hit as we passed 95. We had the top down, so it was a race to get it up as fast as we could. As long as we went above 60 we couldn't feel the rain drops, but as soon as we slowed, we started getting wet.
We got home around 9:30 and took some time to settle in. My parents and sister surprised us with redone rooms in the whole house. We also took some much needed time letting Callie get used to "her people" being home. She greeted us at the door and tried her best to make sure that we were not out of her site and when we were in separate rooms, she ran back and forth in between us. And for those who were in on the bet - she is the same size as when she left - the grandparents liked to give treats too!

It was a wonderful trip and I have had fun recounting stories with friends already. Stay tuned for one more posting summarizing the trip! (i will upload photos tomorrow, this isn't playing nice)