Homer's Travels: The Best Man And Matron Of Honor Cometh ... And Visit-eth

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Best Man And Matron Of Honor Cometh ... And Visit-eth

Just as soon as the GodSon left, his parents the Best Man (BM) and Matron of Honor (MoH) arrived. Thursday night was filled with chatting and Olympics.
On Friday we had a relatively late start and went downtown and had lunch at King Fongs. We enjoyed the food and talked about the decor of the place and many other things.

Next stop was the nearby Simmons-Boardman Transportation Bookstore. The BM is interested in trains and this bookstore specializes in trains. I'd seen it a few weeks ago when I walked around downtown and thought it might be interesting. It turned out to be underwhelming. We walked around briefly before heading off to our next stop without having bought anything.

The next stop was the Joslyn Art Museum. The BM and MoH are interested in European art. The Wife and I had seem most of the pieces last April but it was still interesting to wander around. My interest in art is still a little ... weak.

We left the museum and drove by a mural that is being painted nearby. The mural will be the largest art piece in the city and one of the largest in the country. The cool thing is that one of the dancers in the mural is the Wife's niece. The artist saw her in a dance class at Creighton and asked if she could model for the mural. Very cool.

Our day ended with a stop at the Upstream Brewing Company for some drinks and appetizers. The toasted garlic break with mozzarella and marinara was particularly tasty. I downed a few locally brewed root beers while the Wife, BM, and MoH sampled the beers. The MoH was impressed that there sampler had 11 different beers almost twice as many as your average brewpub. A lot of beer was consumed. A lot. The BM and MoH were nice and bought us two Upstream glasses for our collection and a loaf of chocolate banana bread freshly baked at the Upstream.

The first full day of their visit ended with more beer at our place, delicious Chocolate Banana Bread, and Olympics.


On Saturday we went to the Strategic Air & Space Museum. The Wife and I had just been there a few days earlier with the GodSon. The GodSon and BM have many interests in common and the MoH has the patience to let him indulge those interests. I decided to take a few more pictures this time and you can see them here. This is Air Force Week and our house is under the flight path of nearby offutt Air Force Base. We saw a U-2 spy plane and a B-2 Stealth Bomber fly overhead. The bomber was particularly cool.

On the way back to Omaha we decided to investigate what looked like a glass barn on a hill overlooking I-80. We'd seen the wood and glass structure when we were out with the GodSon but hadn't stopped. This time we found the proper exit and it turned out that the glass barn was actually a chapel of the Holy Family Shrine. The place was pretty neat. The visitors center was underground and the whole place was heated and cooled using geothermal wells. There were channels in the walkways for water to flow from the chapel to the visitors center (no water was flowing when we were there). The surrounding land was landscaped with native flowers and prairie grasses that attracted all sorts of butterflies, grasshoppers, and cicadas. At times all the insect sounds were kinda spooky load. I took a few pictures here as well.

We got back home relatively early and we all scattered around the house to take naps - you know you're getting old when a mid afternoon nap is required. I layed down and listed to a This American Life episode to help me relax. After we all were rested and refreshed we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for an early birthday celebration for the MoH. We ate entirely too much food with appetizers and main courses. We ended up ordering our desserts to go. For those that are curious I have included a picture of the desserts. Clockwise from the lower right: Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake, Warm Apple Crisp, Snickers® Bar Chunks and Cheesecake, and Caramel Pecan Turtle Cheesecake.

We got home, watched some Olympics, then ate our desserts as we watched Obama and McCain on a CNN Political Forum (we'd recorded it on our DVR). After watching the candidates we discussed politics. There were times when, if a stranger had walked in, he would have thought we hated each other but the fact is we enjoy a good political argument every now and then and we always seem to have one when we get together. We all agreed that McCain had done better during the forum discussions but that the forum didn't change any of our minds. I've added a little electoral vote prediction gadget to the sidebar for those who are interested in following the polls.

Our discussion and desserts finally pooped out around 3:00 AM. Yes ... three in the freaking morning. (Actually I'll be pooping out the desserts for a little while longer I imagine.) We all felt like bloated balloons and I know that I felt like I was going to explode. The sad part is, after getting up sometime after 9:00 AM this morning, I still felt all bloaty and disgusting. Usually that feeling goes away after sleeping. The Wife is feeling the same. We are both slowly recovering.
The BM and MoH headed home this morning and we've been just laying around groaning, complaining, and sleeping off all the crap that we've stuffed in our mouths for the last week. I think I'll have to watch what I eat for a while. I'm sure my triglycerides are through the roof.

The BM and MoH are the last visitors for a while. We're planning to visit them in early October to celebrate the Wife's birthday. I hear the celebration may involve paintball. Can't wait!

9 comments:

  1. Each time I read BM I have to remind myself that it means Best Man and not the other...
    *snicker*

    Those desserts are drool worthy.

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  2. Still enjoying the travelogue. And yes, the desserts do look awfully tasty. But, really, did we need the bathroom info? I think not...

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  3. JaG: The Wife snickers at that too. I've ask the Best man is he wanted me to change his name but he said he like it. Also, the name fits with out potty humor ;-)

    GH: Yeah, I guess that was a little too much information. I always seem to go just a little too far.

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  4. I don't think you go to far, I enjoy your potty humor and honesty. You dare to say what we are all thinking. hehe

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  5. MoH: I'm not sure other people appreciate the level of my potty humor as you do but thanks anyway. ;-)

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  6. GH should be fine with that poop humour considering the wax candles joke in his Craig CD.

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  7. JaG: Are you saying that GH's public and private stand on poop humor are different. What a cheeky fellow.

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  8. I do seem to remember much laughter in the truck in regards to the poop.

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  9. JaG: Ah! So if public and private poop humor thresholds are different.

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