On the Waterfront

 As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I decided to take a short walk from downtown Cleveland to the lakeshore at the East Ninth Street Pier, an area known as the North Coast Harbor.

A view of downtown Cleveland as I head toward the lake

You can see the City Hall, and behind it the Key Tower, the city's tallest building.

Located at the North Coast Harbor is an attraction which has put Cleveland on the tourist map, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Cleveland was chosen as the site for the Hall of Fame because it was a Cleveland disc jockey who first popularized the term "rock and roll" in the early 1950s.  The museum draws tourists to Cleveland from all over the country and other nations.  I had never been there until my cousins from England came for a visit and wanted to see it.

Behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a private marina.

A pedestrian drawbridge crosses the entrance to the marina, and it is raised whenever a pleasure craft enters or leaves the marina.

The pier is the home of a Cleveland tradition, the Goodtime cruise ship.  The boat takes visitors on sightseeing excursions along the Lake Erie shoreline and up the Cuyahoga River.  This is the third incarnation of the ship.  I can remember taking the original boat on a field trip when I was in elementary school.

Beyond the marina is a small lakefront park named after George Voinovich, mayor of Cleveland in the 1980s.

That is not the opposite shoreline that you see running across the horizon.  It is the break wall of Cleveland harbor.  Lake Erie is the tenth largest freshwater lake in the world, and you cannot see Canada, more than fifty miles away on the other side.

A new addition to the area (at least it wasn't here the last time I was here) is a restaurant which serves "modern Mexican" food... in other words, probably fancy, high-priced food that bears a slight resemblance to authentic Mexican cuisine.  

I considered giving it a try, but it was very crowded.  I asked how long the wait would be, and when the hostess said forty-five minutes, I thought, "Forget it.  I'll cook dinner when I get home."

Voinovich Park also has one of the "Cleveland script signs" that are located at various photogenic spots in the city.  I had to wait a little while to get of picture without people posing in front of it.

Permanently docked nearby is the William G. Mather, a Great Lakes ore freighter built in 1925.

The historic ship is now a museum.  I had never been there, so I decided to tour it.  That will be the topic of my next blog post.