Get up, go out, do it again
Where were we? Oh yes, outside The Rezzanine in whatever Pittsburgh suburb Bridgeville, Pennsylvania is. When Pinburgh was its original concern we often made a dinner trip to Condado Tacos, a build-your-own taco place an easy walk from the Anthrocon Convention Center. We were nowhere near that easy walk anymore and I think that location might have closed. I don't know. But Condado Tacos is a chain, with a smattering of locations. In fact, it looks like they've got several places in Detroit, one in Ann Arbor, two in Grand Rapids, and one in Kalamazoo, as if they're encroaching but still avoiding us particularly. But there was also one somewhere not too far, as the crow flies, from both our Rezzanine Parking Lot location and from our hotel.
So while student drivers came in, taking their innings parallel parking with a roughly 75 percent success rate, bunny_hugger fiddled with her quite small phone picking at options to build several different tacos for us to pick up. This was a process almost as frustrating as watching the parallel parking students, because her screen is even smaller than the minimum they designed for and at one point it looked like advancing to the next screen wiped out everything. In light of this, in part, I went for a simple order, getting three identical tacos, which I might not have done had I been at the restaurant.
Also getting to the restaurant: we forgot that it is impossible even for a crow to get around Pittsburgh as the crow flies. The ten(?) mile distance was something like 460 road miles and three false starts, including roads that don't seem like they could possibly be legitimate things. Also the taco place turned out to be built into a mall, with patio seating; had we known we'd probably have stayed there, eating outside, and bunny_hugger could have enjoyed some margaritas or something stronger and recover from the day. Instead we drove to our hotel --- see above comment about the crow flying --- and had to figure some way to reheat our cooled-off tacos in the room microwave without paper plates. (The wrappings were foil-lined.) Still good, but we should have gone for patio seating. Maybe next year, if we go and if we remember.
After that there was even more no point going to Kennywood or other attractions, so we stayed in, making an early night of it.
In the morning we slept in of course, getting everything out just far enough past check-out time they didn't have anyone staffing the front desk anymore. For lunch we figured to get something quick in town and went for the Sheetz that the highway exit sign claimed was a mile off. Again, though, the spaghetti roads of Pittsburgh made it a very difficult mile. Also at one point I was slow to start braking when the light turned. bunny_hugger chided that we'd have to tell the cop we ran the light because we were so excited to get to Sheetz, which would be ``the most Pittsburgh excuse ever''. I figured they'd let us off in that case.
Our plan was to drive back to bunny_hugger's parents, pick up Roger, and drive home, landing us ready for me to get to sleep ahead of an office day the next day. But, of course, there's a natural midway point to stop and stretch and get something to eat, and that's Cedar Point. We got there --- using the Chaussee, the old entrance they and the people who built McMansions along it wish we would stop using, but legitimately this was the shortest distance to the park --- about 3:30 and figured we had to leave by 6 pm to get to bunny_hugger's parents in a reasonable time. Mostly so we could get me home and in bed at a reasonable time. It has always been a challenge for us to leave Cedar Point or any other amusement park on time, but we could try.
And so we had a quite short visit on a quite busy day. We made the most important high points, of course, the three carousels and Blue Streak. We wanted to ride Iron Dragon but the queue sign claimed it was a 30 minute wait and sure enough, the queue was full; something clearly had gone wrong.
But also ... bunny_hugger needed some time to take her daily half-hour walk, and I proposed she do it then, while I took my ride on Windseeker and maybe also the Sky Ride sky chair that she won't go on. And so was my desire to finally ride this Windseeker satisfied. The ride did not stop or do anything mischievous on my ride, and it even had stirring, vaguely Holst-ish music playing as it rose to its full 301 feet. And I discovered that the cartoon cat who reaches for the mouse cars at the lift hill on Wild Mouse has a backside! But I did join the queue just as they were doing the safety checks for a cycle in front of me, meaning I had to wait the length of two ride cycles and that left me with not enough time to get a Sky Ride in. Maybe this fall.
We did not leave the park at 6:00. By my photo gallery we stopped doing things at ten minutes after six, and with stops just to buy fudge for bunny_hugger's parents and go to the bathroom we were off pretty near on time for us, and we were reunited and could look forward to another big travel experience in just a few days.
What became of that, I intend to tell you next week.
And now, to close out our Silver Bells photo experience.
Looking south at the State Tree. The skyscraper in the background is the Boji Tower, formerly the Olds Tower.
The complex mesh of trusses used to keep the tree stable. They should really look into getting one of those spike stands and drilling the center, like we do. Saves so much time.
Here the camera just gets lost in the nebula of lights.
Picure that both bunny_hugger and I take every year, of the capitol dome dwarfed by tree branches.
Looking north from the tree, at City Hall and the continued disassembly of the singers' stand and the reviewing stand and the broadcast booth.
And finally, looking east from the tree at the George Romney State Office Building, formerly the Jack Tar Hotel Lansing, formerly the Hotel Olds.
Trivia: Dr John Bowring, hired by British Prime Minister Earl Gray to work out a method to determine, not to mention balance, the nation's accounting, was also considered the most skilled linguist in Britain; it was claimed he could speak at least a hundred languages. Source: The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations, Jacob Soll. Also yes, that Earl Grey, of hot fame. Also yes, that John Bowring, as in the literary executor of Jeremy ``Take my head --- please! You know, for the public good!'' Bentham.
Currently Reading: Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, Kim Todd.