It was raining Thursday morning as I was writing my previous post. When it was finished, I didn't know what to do with the rest of my day. I wanted to get the truck and go out exploring, but I also didn't want to do that. I'm not used to driving the truck, and the streets were wet. It seemed like a gamble. Besides that, I hadn't slept well the night before, and I had a headache and a stuffy nose to boot. Instead of going out, I dug my Kindle out of my bag, put the "Do Not Disturb" tag on the outside door handle, climbed back in bed, and picked up where I'd left off in my book.
Four hours later, The Husband startled me awake when he came back to the room after the lunch break. He said the seminar gang was going out for dinner. The reservation was for six o'clock. When he left the room for the afternoon seminar session, I showered and put on some comfy clothes, and spent the rest of the afternoon doing genealogy research online. Later that evening, I wasn't thrilled to put on "real" clothes and go out to dinner, but I did it. We ate at a place called "Hennan's," and the food was good, and I enjoyed the company and was glad I'd gone.
Back at the hotel, The Husband had another short meeting to attend. Instead of going up to our rooem, I waited for him in the lobby. While I waited, the fire alarm went off again. "Do not use the elevators." It was 10 p.m. I thanked my luck that I was on the ground floor and didn't have to go down 10 flights of stairs. The firetrucks came again. After about 10 minutes, they sounded the "all clear," and the hotel guests who'd hoofed it down umpteen flights of steps came pouring back into the lobby from all sides. Half of them were still breathing hard from their descent. Nobody was happy. One elderly lady plopped down in the chair next to mine and fanned her face with her hand. She said, "I'd like to take this jacket off, but I didn't take the time to put on a bra!" I laughed and suggested she should just go for it, and she did.
Thankfully, the fire alarm did not go off again. But I did not sleep well for the third night in a row.
The seminar was over Friday at noon, but we'd booked the hotel room for one more night. We drove across the river in search of a restaurant owned by my cousin's daughter. Finding the place was a nightmare. Traffic was bumper to bumper. I was mapping us with my phone as The Husband drove, and the little dot that was US was right on the address, and still we couldn't find it. Nor could we find a place to park. Every parking lot in the vicinity had signs warning us against parking there if we didn't want to be towed. We finally found a pay lot a few blocks from the dot on the map, and looked for the place on foot. Still, we couldn't find the place. Eventually, we poked our head in a shop and asked where the restaurant was. The entrance was on the BACK SIDE of the building, and was shaded under the back stairs of the shop above it.
The restaurant, Cashew, is a vegan restaurant. The special of the day was a mediterranean grilled cheese sandwich, with spinach, olives, tomatoes, and onions, served with tomato basil soup - right up my alley. It was very good. We bought two vegan cupcakes to go, and then ventured into the shops up and down the street. After that, we drove up to Signal Mountain.
On our way back to the hotel, we killed some time at an antique store. Spent a whopping $10 on two wall-mount guitar holders.
It was almost dinnertime by the time we got back to the hotel. We spent some time doing the routine: "What do you want for dinner?" "I don't know, what do YOU want?" Eventually, we settled on going up to the hotel bar. Two sandwiches, two beers, and two gin & tonics cost a fortune.
I was straight-up ready to go home. We were out of there by 9 a.m., made it home around 3 p.m. I desperately wanted a nap, but resisted.
I slept alllllll night last night, at home in my own bed.
It's good to be home!
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