Vaughan to Cleveland: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame weekend by chauffeured car

Cleveland, for the music and the games

Cleveland is the six-hour drive that Vaughan music families make for one building — I. M. Pei's glass pyramid on the lakefront that holds the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with the inductees' guitars and costumes, the Beatles' and the Rolling Stones' galleries, the Garage where the visitors play the instruments, and the Hall's own inductee ceremonies — and that Vaughan sports families make for three teams whose arenas sit within four blocks downtown: the Cavaliers at Rocket Arena, the Guardians at Progressive Field and the Browns at the stadium on the lake beside the Rock Hall. Around them is a city that has more than the family expects: the Cleveland Museum of Art, free and among the country's finest, in University Circle with the Natural History museum and the Botanical Garden beside it; the West Side Market's 1912 hall in Ohio City with the breweries around it; Playhouse Square's theatre district; Little Italy's Mayfield Road; and the Christmas Story House in Tremont, kept as the film left it. The This is Cleveland site has the city; the border guide has the Peace Bridge.

The road, along the lake

From Maple the 400 and the 407 to the QEW, the Peace Bridge, I-190 and I-90 west — Buffalo's suburbs, the Thruway's lake shore through the grape belt, Erie, Pennsylvania's forty-five miles of I-90, the Ohio line at Conneaut and the last hour past Ashtabula and Mentor into Cleveland's downtown from the east along the Shoreway — six hours by the estimate and six and a quarter with the booth and a stop at Erie. The Sprinter carries a family of five or a group of eight for a game; the Luxury SUV a family of four; Erie's Presque Isle is the summer stop on the way.

The Rock Hall

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's seven floors run from the roots — the blues, gospel and country galleries — through the Beatles, the Stones, Elvis, Hendrix and the Hall's inductees by decade, with the costumes, the handwritten lyrics, the guitars and the cars, the Power of Rock Experience's film in the Connor Theater, the Garage's drums and guitars for the visitors to play, and the Hall of Fame's signatures on the top floor's wall; three hours for a family, longer for a parent who lived it, and the museum's site sells the timed tickets that summer Saturdays need. The Rock Hall's lakefront plaza is between the Browns' stadium and the Great Lakes Science Center with the NASA Glenn visitor centre and the steamship William G. Mather beside it — the children's alternative while the parents finish the Stones.

University Circle: the art museum and the rest

Five miles east, University Circle is the museum district — the Cleveland Museum of Art's free galleries (the Armor Court, the Impressionists, the Asian collection, the ArtLens interactive gallery the children love), the Cleveland Museum of Natural History with its dinosaurs and planetarium, the Botanical Garden's glasshouses, the Western Reserve Historical Society's cars and Severance Hall, where the Cleveland Orchestra plays — with Little Italy's Mayfield Road at its edge for lunch at Mama Santa's or dinner at the tablecloth places Vaughan's Italian families judge. The Sprinter drops at the art museum's door and the district is walked; the museum's site has the hours and the free admission.

The games

Rocket Arena (the Cavaliers, October to April), Progressive Field (the Guardians, April to September) and the Browns' stadium (Sundays, September to January) sit downtown within a walk of the hotels, and a Vaughan group of eight books a game as the Saturday's centre — Cavaliers tickets for a marquee visitor bought in the autumn, a Guardians summer game in the cheap seats with the fireworks, a Browns Sunday against a division rival with the Muni Lot's tailgate as Cleveland's answer to Orchard Park. The teams' sites have the tickets and the Sprinter is in the Gateway garage.

West Side Market, Ohio City and the food

The West Side Market on Lorain Avenue is the 1912 market hall with a hundred vendors — the pierogi, the bratwurst, the Cambodian and Middle Eastern stalls, the produce arcade — and the Saturday morning before the Rock Hall; Ohio City around it has the Great Lakes Brewing Company's brewpub, the breweries on West 25th and the restaurants that made Cleveland a food city; Tremont's Sokolowski's University Inn and its cafeteria line was the Polish institution until it closed, and the neighbourhood's restaurants have taken up the role. Slyman's corned beef downtown at lunch is the sandwich the city argues about; the Sprinter's cooler carries the market's pierogi home within the CBSA's rules.

The Christmas Story House and Playhouse Square

The house at 3159 West 11th Street in Tremont where A Christmas Story was filmed is kept as the film's set — the leg lamp in the window, the Bumpus hounds' yard, the museum across the street with the props — and it is the December weekend's hour for a Vaughan family that watches the film each year; Playhouse Square's five restored theatres and the world's largest outdoor chandelier are the touring Broadway shows' Cleveland stop and the couple's evening, with the Playhouse Square site selling the tickets.

The weekend, in shape

Friday at 11 from Maple, the Peace Bridge at 12:40, Erie at 3:15 for a Presque Isle hour or a coffee, the downtown hotel by 5:45, dinner in Little Italy; Saturday the West Side Market at nine, the Rock Hall at 11 for three hours, the Science Center for the children while the parents finish, the game at seven; Sunday the art museum at ten, the Natural History museum or the Botanical Garden, the Christmas Story House in season, the Sprinter at 2:30, Erie at 4, the Peace Bridge at 7:15 with the 48-hour exemption on the Rock Hall's shop, Maple by 9. Two nights, the Sprinter as a return with a Saturday on daily hire, one number in the booking engine, and the travel desk holding the hotel.

What the chauffeur replaces

Six hours each way along the lake through three states; the Peace Bridge as the driver; the downtown garages on a game night; University Circle's lots; and the Sunday drive home with the children asleep from Erie and the parents arguing about the Rock Hall's omissions. For a couple the flight is an option — Cleveland is a short hop from Pearson — and the site says so; for a family of five or a group of eight for a game it is the Sprinter's one fare.

Seasons

Summer for the Guardians, the lakefront and Presque Isle on the way; autumn for the Browns and the Muni Lot; winter for the Cavaliers, the Christmas Story House and Playhouse Square's season; the Rock Hall's induction week in the autumn of the years it is held in Cleveland; the lake-effect snow on I-90 through Erie is the winter road's variable and the chauffeur's watch.

Pairing it

Cleveland pairs with Erie and Presque Isle on the road, with Cedar Point an hour west for the family that adds the coaster capital, with Pittsburgh two hours southeast for a two-city weekend, and with Grove City's outlets for the parent who shops on the way home.

The Rock Hall, in order, for a family of five

From the downtown hotel at 10:45 on foot — the Rock Hall is a ten-minute walk from the Gateway hotels along East 9th to the lakefront: the timed entry at 11, the Power of Rock film first because the queue grows, the Level 0 roots galleries with the parents' commentary, the Beatles' and Stones' cases, the Hendrix guitar, the Garage at 12:30 where the twelve-year-old plays a drum kit for twenty minutes, the inductees' wall on the top floor, the shop at 1:45 with the T-shirts to the Sprinter at the plaza; the Great Lakes Science Center next door from two for the children while one parent goes back for the Springsteen exhibit; the William G. Mather steamship's deck at 3:30; the lakefront walk to the stadium; the game at seven. The museum's site has the timed tickets and the Garage's hours.

The Cleveland Metroparks and Edgewater

Cleveland's Emerald Necklace of Metroparks rings the city, and Edgewater Park's beach on the lake two miles west of downtown — the sand, the pier, the skyline view at sunset, the Edgewater Live concerts on summer Thursdays — is the family's evening hour before dinner in Ohio City; the Rocky River Reservation's trails and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's rainforest building in Old Brooklyn are the Sunday alternatives for a family with young children who have done the Rock Hall's Garage and want a morning outdoors. The Metroparks' site has the zoo's hours and the beach's swim advisories.

Costs, plainly

The Cleveland weekend is a return with a Saturday on daily hire in the booking engine; the hotel, the Rock Hall's tickets and the game are the family's own, the art museum is free, and the 48-hour exemption covers the shop and the market's pierogi. Against the fare are six hours each way along the lake through three states as a driver, the Peace Bridge, the downtown garages on a game night and the Sunday drive home; a couple flies from Pearson, and a family of five or a group of eight for a Cavaliers game books the Sprinter for one fare with Presque Isle on the way.

Little Italy, for Vaughan's families

Mayfield Road's Little Italy at University Circle's edge is the neighbourhood the Italian stonecutters who built Lake View Cemetery's monuments settled in the 1890s, and it keeps the trattorias, the bakeries — Presti's and Corbo's for the cassata — Holy Rosary church and the Feast of the Assumption in mid-August, when the street closes for four days of processions and stands; Vaughan's Italian families make it the Saturday dinner and, for an August weekend, the reason for the dates. Lake View Cemetery beside it holds Garfield's monument and the Wade Chapel's Tiffany window, the Sunday's quiet half hour.

Booking it

Book a return from your Vaughan address with a Saturday on daily hire, or a daily hire for the weekend; tell us the Rock Hall's day, the game, the hotel, the seats and every passenger's citizenship for the bridge, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Cleveland weekend