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Cincinnati Christmas, Day 0-1
Dec. 25th, 2018 11:59 pmCHRISTMAS EVE and CHRISTMAS DAY
We took the usual route to the airport, starting with the Everett Transit 8, Sound Transit 512, and Link light rail. The trip was unremarkable except for how few people were on the train. There was essentially no line at security so we went through in less than 10 minutes.
Dinner at the Seattle Tap Room was nice; I had a burger and fries, Gary had a turkey sandwich, and we each had an Angry Orchard Rosé. The cider is made from naturally red-fleshed apples and is somewhat sweeter than their usual variety. Our waiter, a kinda cute young otter-pup with a scraggly beard, suggested we might like a shot of liquor with our cider, but I declined based on past experience with Angry Balls (a shot of Fireball cinnamon whiskey in a pint of cider). After tasting the cider I thought it would be ruined by the whiskey, which opinion was shared by a couple of our friends from the Fireplace Bears on Facebook. We made our way to our gate nearby, and while our phones were charging, I picked up cough drops, a soda and a copy of Rolling Stone. As we waited, a particular young dude caught my eye as he was taking off a heavy outer shirt revealing a black T-shirt stretched out over his broad shoulders. He spent some time trying to stow the other shirt among the bags at his feet. I thought it curious that he was standing in front of the ladies' room; obviously he was waiting for someone.
Because I'd spent some miles on upgraded seats, we got to board just after first class and VIPs. The chief flight attendant was a tall young bear, with a thick but trim beard, named Amir. All the flight attendants seemed to know the two young dudes, one seated opposite me and the other in front of him, on the aisle. Amir in particular was very friendly with them. We were delayed briefly after pulling back from the gate but took off without incident. I got a little sleep on the flight with the help of the relaxing music channel. When we landed we had to wait a few minutes for paramedics to check on someone in the far back of the plane before we could disembark; it was the mother of a family whose father was a tall strapping dude. It took me a little longer than I wanted to collect my things and leave the plane, but I managed.
Rather than taking the train, we ended up walking through the tunnel from concourse A to concourse C via the people mover, and noticed a rain forest scene in the first tunnel and an Atlanta history exhibit in the second. We had breakfast croissant sandwiches at Atlanta Bread, and then walked to the end of the concourse to our gate for the second leg of the flight to Cincy. A military dude in civilian clothes (guessing by his backpack and the ink on his arms), his wife and their cat sat opposite us. Down the row from them was a huge balding bear with a long, thick beard in a gradient from dark brown at the roots to platinum blond at the tip, in a black Carhartt jacket with hi-vis stripes, jeans and boots.
On the flight we sat in front of a couple guys who were apparently off-duty pilots, since our very bearish co-pilot came back to chat with them. Also, a couple rows in front of Gary sat a cute young bear with a trim beard and a thick neck, wearing a Nike ball cap in black and white. I slept most of the hour-long flight. Our flight path took us just west of the College of Mt. St. Joseph just before landing.
We made our way through the airport to baggage claim and on to the Hertz lot via shuttle bus. Of the full-sized cars on offer, I first tried a Nissan Altima but had trouble finding the controls for the trunk and the tilt steering wheel, so I decided to skip that vehicle and pick up a Ford Escape which is a small SUV like our VUE.
From the airport we drove directly to Erin and J's for the family Christmas party, because it was closer to the airport and Colleen and Rab were already en route with Dad, the gifts and most of the food. Of course, Colleen forgot to inform Erin and J we were coming, so it came as a bit of a surprise when we arrived and J answered the doorbell. Our family tradition has been to have Italian food for Christmas dinner: spaghetti with meatballs and sausage in red sauce, lasagna and garlic bread. This started 39 years ago when we weren't sure when Colleen's firstborn would arrive (as it happened, Steve was born late on Christmas Day, minutes before midnight) and so an elaborate turkey with all the trimmings was out of the question. Eventually Colleen, Rab, and Dad arrived and we loaded the gifts and food into the house. Soon after, Matt and Tristan arrived and we had a really nice conversation with Tristan over dinner. Afterwards we tried a new form of Stealing Santa that involved rolling dice and passing wrapped gifts around without opening them, but that didn't work out, so we went back to the traditional Stealing Santa. Matt and Len got the waterproof Bluetooth speaker and FM radio combos we contributed, while Gary got a set of CorningWare and I got an Amazon Fire mini-tablet for reading e-books.
After a few rounds of goodbyes we headed to the hotel with a stop at Walgreens for some needed supplies. We settled in to watch Jeopardy! and Gary was fast asleep by the time the game was over. I stayed up briefly to finish my journal and follow "Gary's son" (LeBron James) as his Lakers squared off against Golden State (Warriors... come out to play-yay...). I fell asleep about nine.
We took the usual route to the airport, starting with the Everett Transit 8, Sound Transit 512, and Link light rail. The trip was unremarkable except for how few people were on the train. There was essentially no line at security so we went through in less than 10 minutes.
Dinner at the Seattle Tap Room was nice; I had a burger and fries, Gary had a turkey sandwich, and we each had an Angry Orchard Rosé. The cider is made from naturally red-fleshed apples and is somewhat sweeter than their usual variety. Our waiter, a kinda cute young otter-pup with a scraggly beard, suggested we might like a shot of liquor with our cider, but I declined based on past experience with Angry Balls (a shot of Fireball cinnamon whiskey in a pint of cider). After tasting the cider I thought it would be ruined by the whiskey, which opinion was shared by a couple of our friends from the Fireplace Bears on Facebook. We made our way to our gate nearby, and while our phones were charging, I picked up cough drops, a soda and a copy of Rolling Stone. As we waited, a particular young dude caught my eye as he was taking off a heavy outer shirt revealing a black T-shirt stretched out over his broad shoulders. He spent some time trying to stow the other shirt among the bags at his feet. I thought it curious that he was standing in front of the ladies' room; obviously he was waiting for someone.
Because I'd spent some miles on upgraded seats, we got to board just after first class and VIPs. The chief flight attendant was a tall young bear, with a thick but trim beard, named Amir. All the flight attendants seemed to know the two young dudes, one seated opposite me and the other in front of him, on the aisle. Amir in particular was very friendly with them. We were delayed briefly after pulling back from the gate but took off without incident. I got a little sleep on the flight with the help of the relaxing music channel. When we landed we had to wait a few minutes for paramedics to check on someone in the far back of the plane before we could disembark; it was the mother of a family whose father was a tall strapping dude. It took me a little longer than I wanted to collect my things and leave the plane, but I managed.
Rather than taking the train, we ended up walking through the tunnel from concourse A to concourse C via the people mover, and noticed a rain forest scene in the first tunnel and an Atlanta history exhibit in the second. We had breakfast croissant sandwiches at Atlanta Bread, and then walked to the end of the concourse to our gate for the second leg of the flight to Cincy. A military dude in civilian clothes (guessing by his backpack and the ink on his arms), his wife and their cat sat opposite us. Down the row from them was a huge balding bear with a long, thick beard in a gradient from dark brown at the roots to platinum blond at the tip, in a black Carhartt jacket with hi-vis stripes, jeans and boots.
On the flight we sat in front of a couple guys who were apparently off-duty pilots, since our very bearish co-pilot came back to chat with them. Also, a couple rows in front of Gary sat a cute young bear with a trim beard and a thick neck, wearing a Nike ball cap in black and white. I slept most of the hour-long flight. Our flight path took us just west of the College of Mt. St. Joseph just before landing.
We made our way through the airport to baggage claim and on to the Hertz lot via shuttle bus. Of the full-sized cars on offer, I first tried a Nissan Altima but had trouble finding the controls for the trunk and the tilt steering wheel, so I decided to skip that vehicle and pick up a Ford Escape which is a small SUV like our VUE.
From the airport we drove directly to Erin and J's for the family Christmas party, because it was closer to the airport and Colleen and Rab were already en route with Dad, the gifts and most of the food. Of course, Colleen forgot to inform Erin and J we were coming, so it came as a bit of a surprise when we arrived and J answered the doorbell. Our family tradition has been to have Italian food for Christmas dinner: spaghetti with meatballs and sausage in red sauce, lasagna and garlic bread. This started 39 years ago when we weren't sure when Colleen's firstborn would arrive (as it happened, Steve was born late on Christmas Day, minutes before midnight) and so an elaborate turkey with all the trimmings was out of the question. Eventually Colleen, Rab, and Dad arrived and we loaded the gifts and food into the house. Soon after, Matt and Tristan arrived and we had a really nice conversation with Tristan over dinner. Afterwards we tried a new form of Stealing Santa that involved rolling dice and passing wrapped gifts around without opening them, but that didn't work out, so we went back to the traditional Stealing Santa. Matt and Len got the waterproof Bluetooth speaker and FM radio combos we contributed, while Gary got a set of CorningWare and I got an Amazon Fire mini-tablet for reading e-books.
After a few rounds of goodbyes we headed to the hotel with a stop at Walgreens for some needed supplies. We settled in to watch Jeopardy! and Gary was fast asleep by the time the game was over. I stayed up briefly to finish my journal and follow "Gary's son" (LeBron James) as his Lakers squared off against Golden State (Warriors... come out to play-yay...). I fell asleep about nine.