My Collection

Let's talk collections for a minute. I'm not much of a collector of anything, to be honest, I hate clutter, but there is one thing that I have been collecting throughout the years, and that is Hard Rock Cafe pins.

The tradition started on our trip to Europe when I was in middle school,  maybe going into high school, let's just say for arguments sake when I was around 13 or 14. On our trip, my Dad took my brother and I around Paris for the day, I'm pretty sure at the time we didn't want to go with my Mom to the museums or churches (wherever she was going, I can't remember all the specifics). But my Dad took us around Paris for the day, he took us to the famous cemetery in Paris where Jim Morrison was buried, and I'm not quite sure where else but we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and I got a pin while we were there.

That was where the collection started, every trip after then I'd ask my Dad to take me to the Hard Rock where we were going to get a new pin. It was a great way to get a small simple souvenir from the places we visited. Of course not every city or country has one, but I have to say for the most part, most of the trips I've been on they've had a hard rock cafe there. It's been so much fun collecting them throughout the years, I've already amassed quite a collection. My Dad had helped me put them all on a cork board so I could display them but last year for Christmas my in-laws bought me the official pin case so now I can display them proudly in a larger, and nicer case.

It's been such a fun thing to collect, and now it has turned into "our" collection. Whenever Mike goes on a trip without me, he always tries to bring me home a pin, and those are memories of his trips as well. I now have over 50 pins, although a few are repeats of the same city but it's fun to remember each trip. Here's the list of cities that I have pins from

The old school pins I collected throughout my childhood that my Dad helped me "saw off the back of the pin" so I could glue them down flat on my board. Now they make nice push pin ones, much better for collecting

Childhood Pins  

1. Fort Lauderdale
2. Key West (x2)
3. London 
4. New York 
5. Boston (x2)
6. St. Thomas
7. Washington, DC
8. Myrtle Beach
9. Newport Beach
10. Orlando (x2)
11. Paris (x2)
12. Miami 
13. Los Angeles 
14. San Francisco
15. Hollywood 
16. Las Vegas
17. Atlantic City
18. Aspen 
19. **Toronto Skydome
20. **Edmonton
21. **Hong Kong

Pins that Mike & I have gotten together

1. Maui 
2. Honolulu 
3. *London 
4. *Paris 
5. *New York 
6. *Hollywood, Florida
7. *San Francisco 
8. *Miami 
9.  *Nassau, Bahamas 
10. Yankee Stadium

Pins that Mike has gotten for the collection 

1. Houston
2. Toronto 
3. New Orleans 
4. Dublin 

My continued collection of pins (nice new push pin ones) 

1. Rome
2. Barcelona
3. Munich
4. Cozumel 
5. *St. Thomas
6. *Nassau, Bahamas 
7. Baltimore 
8. Nashville
9. *Hollywood, Florida
10. Couture Pins (x2)

*Duplicate entires of cities 

** Were given to me as gifts from people that knew I collected them