![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ohio Halloween trip, 7 of 9
Nov. 2nd, 2023 11:59 pmTHURSDAY
Apparently it was Gary's turn to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I woke up briefly and went back to sleep without checking the time. I rose with my 7:15 alarm and took too long in the bathroom, so I decided to defer my shower till after breakfast and woke Gary around 8:15. We went downstairs about 8:30 for breakfast, then sat in the lobby and returned to the room by ten. I finished my coffee and Gary read his book.
About 10:30 I showered briefly and dressed for the pool, arriving about 10:45 and finishing both sets of ten laps by 11:30. I dried off, surfed briefly, then returned to the room to plan the afternoon. Our only commitment for the day was dinner with James and Shib at six, for which I wanted to be close to downtown already to avoid rush-hour traffic on the Interstates.
I asked Gary whether he preferred the Taft Museum of Art or the William Howard Taft boyhood home museum. He chose the latter, so I plotted a course on Maps and we left the hotel around 12:30 for lunch and the visit to the museum. We parked in a lot behind the house and its visitor center and followed the sidewalk to the side of the house. The visitor center was closed for renovation so we were directed by signs to the front of the house. We were met at the front door by an older woman in a US Park Service uniform, who recommended we go downstairs to view a video. The ranger who was working downstairs was a nice-looking younger black dude. He greeted us as we entered and started the video when we told him we were ready. After the video we returned to the main floor, then after viewing the back rooms, ascended to the second floor to see the exhibits there. After making the rounds of the second floor, we returned again to the main floor and resumed where we'd left off, finishing in what appeared to be a drawing room, with a piano covered in sheet music and many artworks on the walls. We exited the house the way we had come, then crossed the street to get exterior photos of the house and visitor center. On the way back we had to re-enter the grounds the way we'd come, since the sidewalk between the house and the visitor center was blocked off.
We returned to the car around three and decided, since we had three more hours before dinner, to visit the zoo specifically to see Fiona the hippo. On the way there, a very nice-looking young dude with a thick beard and high-visibility clothes crossed the street in front of us as we were stopped in traffic. We arrived around 3:30 and Gary observed the zoo would close at five. So we concentrated on the Africa segment of the park, which had the hippos at the far end.
When the zoo closed at five, we drove to a parking lot across the street from the restaurant, then walked around the corner to see the old firehouse and the construction work on St. Francis deSales church. We arrived at the restaurant at twenty minutes to six and requested a table for four. James and Shib arrived just before six. Gary, Shib, and I had ramen soup while James had katsu, a dish which resembles a slice of layer cake except the middle layer is a piece of breaded chicken or pork. Over dinner we discussed our trip so far and James and Shib's recent travels to India. We left the restaurant around 7:30 and walked a few doors up the street to Hello Honey ice cream shop, and we continued the conversation there over interesting flavors of ice cream. I had a scoop each of Thai Tea and Honey Lavender, and especially liked the former. We crossed the street back to the lot where we'd parked and went our separate ways about eight.
When we got back to the hotel, a bunch of hot construction dudes were headed to the lobby lounge; Gary reminded me, "No.", as we entered the elevator. I got ice and changed into more comfortable clothes, and started on my journal. Noticing Gary was nodding off, I decided I'd better get tickets for the hockey game before the price went up. I managed to purchase the tickets using the Ticketmaster web site, but couldn't get the app to sign in and flew into a blind, screaming rage 🤬 until Gary managed to talk me down. After deleting and reinstalling the app, I managed to authenticate but utterly failed to transfer Gary's ticket to him using the app. I finally gave up and used the website to transfer the ticket. Exhausted, I ended up nodding off while Gary tuned in the Kraken game on Internet radio with our favorite announcer, Everett Fitzhugh. About quarter after midnight I prepared for bed so I could listen to the rest of the Kraken game before falling asleep. Around 12:30, the game concluded with a 4-2 Kraken win over the Nashville Predators.
Apparently it was Gary's turn to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. I woke up briefly and went back to sleep without checking the time. I rose with my 7:15 alarm and took too long in the bathroom, so I decided to defer my shower till after breakfast and woke Gary around 8:15. We went downstairs about 8:30 for breakfast, then sat in the lobby and returned to the room by ten. I finished my coffee and Gary read his book.
About 10:30 I showered briefly and dressed for the pool, arriving about 10:45 and finishing both sets of ten laps by 11:30. I dried off, surfed briefly, then returned to the room to plan the afternoon. Our only commitment for the day was dinner with James and Shib at six, for which I wanted to be close to downtown already to avoid rush-hour traffic on the Interstates.
I asked Gary whether he preferred the Taft Museum of Art or the William Howard Taft boyhood home museum. He chose the latter, so I plotted a course on Maps and we left the hotel around 12:30 for lunch and the visit to the museum. We parked in a lot behind the house and its visitor center and followed the sidewalk to the side of the house. The visitor center was closed for renovation so we were directed by signs to the front of the house. We were met at the front door by an older woman in a US Park Service uniform, who recommended we go downstairs to view a video. The ranger who was working downstairs was a nice-looking younger black dude. He greeted us as we entered and started the video when we told him we were ready. After the video we returned to the main floor, then after viewing the back rooms, ascended to the second floor to see the exhibits there. After making the rounds of the second floor, we returned again to the main floor and resumed where we'd left off, finishing in what appeared to be a drawing room, with a piano covered in sheet music and many artworks on the walls. We exited the house the way we had come, then crossed the street to get exterior photos of the house and visitor center. On the way back we had to re-enter the grounds the way we'd come, since the sidewalk between the house and the visitor center was blocked off.
We returned to the car around three and decided, since we had three more hours before dinner, to visit the zoo specifically to see Fiona the hippo. On the way there, a very nice-looking young dude with a thick beard and high-visibility clothes crossed the street in front of us as we were stopped in traffic. We arrived around 3:30 and Gary observed the zoo would close at five. So we concentrated on the Africa segment of the park, which had the hippos at the far end.
When the zoo closed at five, we drove to a parking lot across the street from the restaurant, then walked around the corner to see the old firehouse and the construction work on St. Francis deSales church. We arrived at the restaurant at twenty minutes to six and requested a table for four. James and Shib arrived just before six. Gary, Shib, and I had ramen soup while James had katsu, a dish which resembles a slice of layer cake except the middle layer is a piece of breaded chicken or pork. Over dinner we discussed our trip so far and James and Shib's recent travels to India. We left the restaurant around 7:30 and walked a few doors up the street to Hello Honey ice cream shop, and we continued the conversation there over interesting flavors of ice cream. I had a scoop each of Thai Tea and Honey Lavender, and especially liked the former. We crossed the street back to the lot where we'd parked and went our separate ways about eight.
When we got back to the hotel, a bunch of hot construction dudes were headed to the lobby lounge; Gary reminded me, "No.", as we entered the elevator. I got ice and changed into more comfortable clothes, and started on my journal. Noticing Gary was nodding off, I decided I'd better get tickets for the hockey game before the price went up. I managed to purchase the tickets using the Ticketmaster web site, but couldn't get the app to sign in and flew into a blind, screaming rage 🤬 until Gary managed to talk me down. After deleting and reinstalling the app, I managed to authenticate but utterly failed to transfer Gary's ticket to him using the app. I finally gave up and used the website to transfer the ticket. Exhausted, I ended up nodding off while Gary tuned in the Kraken game on Internet radio with our favorite announcer, Everett Fitzhugh. About quarter after midnight I prepared for bed so I could listen to the rest of the Kraken game before falling asleep. Around 12:30, the game concluded with a 4-2 Kraken win over the Nashville Predators.