On Thursday afternoon we drove to Baltimore to have an Italian dinner at Amiccis in Little Italy in Baltimore. While eating dinner we received several text messages from Southwest that our 9:15 p.m. flight to Cleveland was delayed. We walked around the Baltimore Harbor area and stopped into Whole Foods to pick up snacks for the weekend. Then we drove from Baltimore to BWI. Why were we flying out of BWI and not PHL? We were unable to find non-stop direct flights for both of us out of Philly for a total $136. Our one hour flight ended up being delayed by 40 minutes, but we had planned to sleep when we arrived in Cleveland. The flight delay did not effect our weekend plans.

We stayed at the Sheraton Cleveland Airport hotel for two nights. Our first night was a great value at a cash and points rate of 1,600 Starwood points plus $30. After tax our total was $37.88. The second night was a weekend rate of $79 w/tax $94.84. The hotel is located a couple of minutes from the airport and provides a free shuttle 24 hours a day with only few minute wait for our all of our rides. This is a basic Sheraton hotel with a friendly helpful staff. There is a club lounge open for breakfast and evening snacks with a view of the control tower and airport runway.

The hotel shuttle makes a stop at the rapid transit that takes you from the airport to downtown Cleveland.

We planned to spend most of the day in Cleveland at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The museum is located adjacent to Lake Erie about a 15 minute walk from the train station. Free bus service is provided with a train ticket, but since it was a beautiful sunny day we preferred to walk to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We paid $39 for entrance fees for the two of us and spent 5 hours of pure enjoyment at the Roll and Roll Hall of Fame. There are so many artifacts that brought back wonderful memories to my husband and I. The museum has 6 floors with the lower level being the largest. We watched music videos, selected music to listen to together and walked around admiring the clothes many of our favorite performers wore to concerts we enjoyed years ago. What a great trip down memory lane. We left the museum and walked to a restaurant near by for lunch. After lunch we went back to the museum and spent a couple more hours enjoying the music and the history of the legends of rock and roll.

We walked around downtown Cleveland and had a snack of strawberries and melted chocolate served warm in a martini glass at the Chocolate Bar restaurant during happy hour for $4.95. We brought back sushi and snacks to eat at the hotel. We shopped at the train station before taking the train back to the airport to catch the shuttle to the Sheraton.

The next morning my husband had time to eat a quick breakfast at the club lounge and we took the shuttle back to the airport for our 7:30 a.m. flight to BWI. We parked at the long term lot and paid $16 for two days of parking. The shuttle to and from the airport was clean, pleasant and efficient. From the airport we drove to Bethesda, Md and checked into the Hyatt at 10:30 in the morning. Our rate was $98.10 with tax $110.86 plus $12 to park for 24 hours. Parking on the street is free on Sundays, so we moved our car out of the parking lot before the next 24 hour period began. This Hyatt hotel is nothing special, but the metro station is accessible from the parking lot elevators and a few blocks away are wonderful shops and restaurants. We picked up fresh salads at Sweet Green and took the Metro to the national baseball game in Washington, D.C. It was very crowed because of delays for system maintenance and there was a hockey game with a start time within a half an hour of the baseball game. It took us almost an hour from the hotel to the ballpark. It should have taken less than 30 minutes.

We met our sons to see the Phillies play at National Stadium. Our team lost the game badly, but my younger son enjoyed checking out this new baseball park. We spent the evening walking in Bethesda and having dinner and desert together. My sons had gelato and I went back to Sweet Green for frozen yogurt topped with fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.

The next morning we ate outside and had bagel sandwiches from Bethesda Bagels with hot beverages from Quartermine Coffee. Breakfast was very tasty and cost under $25 for the four of us.

The people in Bethesda were very friendly and we enjoyed the outdoor farmers market on Sunday morning at the corner of Arlington and Old Georgetown. Before leaving we Bethesda we stopped into Georgetown Cupcake and purchased an assortment of the best cupcakes to take home. My family and I had a wonderfully busy weekend in Baltimore, Cleveland, Bethesda and Washington, D.C.