Tuesday morning began early…4:00 am to be exact…as we prepared for our field trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The field trip was being offered through Gracie’s cyber school and last month she asked if we could go. Although we attend many outings sponsored by the kids’ schools we have never gone one of Gracie’s school trips simply because most are on the eastern side of Pennsylvania where the school is located. When we saw that a trip was planned for western PA we decided to sign up.
The Rock and Roll hall of fame is about two hours from our house (we sit on the PA/Ohio border) but due to the school’s policy of families not being allowed to drive themselves to outings we had to load up the car at 4:30 am and drive 1 1/2 hours east to catch a bus that would take us west, back past our home. 🙂 Although it was nonsensical I tried to look at it as an adventure for the kids. They were excited about riding on the bus. Rusty later told me that the bus ride was his favorite part of the field trip SO I guess that made up for the 3 extra hours of unnecessary driving. 🙂
We arrived at the hotel where we were meeting up with Gracie’s teachers and other school families. At 6:00 am and we filed onto the bus. It was a beautiful bus. It wasn’t the “school bus” ride I expected. The seats reclined, there were cup holders for drinks as well as TV screens for watching movies. After loading the bus the teachers handed out bottles of water and breakfast bars for us to enjoy while we watched a documentary that the teachers filmed on the history of Rock and Roll. The time flew as we watched the show and enjoyed our treats and before we knew it we were in Cleveland, Ohio.
As we rode through Cleveland, Ohio Gracie pointed out the theatre we were at only a year ago to watch the R5 concert. It was then I was very grateful to be on a bus. I remember the nightmare of trying to navigate Cleveland. 🙂
For the field trip everyone received t-shirts to wear with the school logo in honor of the two big end of the year field trips: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the west and Baltimore Aquarium out east.
After going over the schedule for the day we were set free to explore on our own.
It was an amazing museum and even though it wasn’t a place I probably would have visited on my own, we had a lot of fun and learned a lot.
“Music to me is like breathing- I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.” – Ray Charles
“Music is the soundtrack of your life” – Dick Clark
“To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable” – Ludwig Van Beethoven
“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.” – Leopold Stokowski
Gracie’s favorite part of the museum was the signature wall of Hall of Fame inductees. It was neat comparing the different artists’ signatures.
“Sometimes it is not the song that makes you emotional. It’s the people and things that come to mind when you hear it.”
It was a beautiful day of traveling down memory lane to the songs of my past as well as a creating new memories with my three oldest kids to enjoy in the future.