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GALA Festival Trip, Day 10 of 10
Jul. 15th, 2024 11:59 pmMONDAY
Woke up about six to use the bathroom. Gary texted me about quarter to seven to hurry up. I went back to sleep until Gary was done with his shower. We finished packing about 8:30 and chilled in the room till after 9:30, waiting for the rain to pass, then checked out of the hotel, stashed our luggage, and boarded the Free Ride bus driven by a student driver.
By ten we were seated at the Hen House for breakfast. On the way to our booth we passed Brian and Lori having breakfast with April, and spotted Steve Milloy at a nearby table before we sat down. Gary had yogurt and fruit, and I got the carnitas hash with eggs over easy and apple pico de gallo. The wait staff mostly wore T-shirts with the word "Hangry" on the front with the definition on the back.
After breakfast we purchased day passes for the bus and light rail, which are delivered on paper and apparently cannot be loaded on the Go Card like the weekly and monthly passes. We walked to the light rail station and I was expecting to head east or south on the train. Gary had planned to catch a bus on the other side of the station either to the Sculpture Garden or the Mill City Museum. We decided on the latter, and caught a bus to the newly refurbished 3rd Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River. We walked along the river bank and got some pictures of the river and bridges, then headed a block south to the museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed until Thursday and the adjacent Guthrie Theater was dark today. After trying and failing to find a downstream bridge to watch the river from, Gary plotted a course for the Sculpture Garden, but it began to rain moderately heavily and Gary got rather frustrated. He plotted a course for the Convention Center thinking that would be the most convenient place to access the Skyway. We took the 3 bus to the Federal office building and saw a couple ladies, one in a GALA Festival T-shirt and the other carrying a Festival water bottle just like mine with her luggage. We all caught the free 10 bus down Nicollet Mall; they left at the light rail station and presumably headed for the airport.
We left at the Hyatt, since Gary was ready to retrieve our bags and call for a Lyft early since our choices for things to do before our flight had diminished to nothing because of the weather and Monday closures. It occurred to me that we were both more thirsty than hungry, and what better place to pass the time than the bar at an Irish pub? So we caught the 11 bus two stops north to the Local, where we'd had dinner on Saturday when we arrived. We split an order of Chicken Shots, which are popcorn chicken bites tossed in a whiskey honey glaze. Gary had a Diet Pepsi and I had a couple pints of Strongbow. When we finished eating, Gary suggested we go, and the bartender (who was from Miami and had an interesting hairdo with a magenta stripe) overheard and asked if we'd like another round. I suggested to Gary we had plenty of time for that, and he agreed. The bartender was chatting with some other patrons and colleagues about how busy the place got over the weekend between Festival, the WNBA game with Caitlin Clark, and several televised events.
After we'd finished that round of drinks about two, I settled the bill and we proceeded into the bright sunshine, down 10th Street to Hennepin Avenue, to catch the bus to the Sculpture Garden after all. On the way I took a call from my oncologist's office to arrange for follow-up lab tests, and when we reached our bus stop, I called my dentist to make an urgent (but not emergency) appointment to see about the toothache. The bus arrived shortly afterward, and when we arrived we walked over a ramped boardwalk and down a long flight of stairs to reach the Sculpture Garden. We wandered around the exhibits and returned to the bus stop about 3:30. We ended up catching the 6 bus instead of the 4, which ended up taking the wrong fork in the road from what I was expecting. Had I stuck with it, though, it should have dropped us off at the same place due to a detour off Hennepin Avenue, but not knowing the reroute, I ended up getting off the bus as soon as it turned onto 24th Street because I knew the connection was nearby. We walked 4 to 6 blocks east on 24th to reach our planned transfer point which we'd used on the previous attempt. That settled, we arrived at the hotel around four without further incident. We retrieved our bags and sat briefly in the lobby so Gary could put his phone on the battery pack to charge, and then I called for a Lyft. I requested a larger vehicle because of the number of bags. The ride to the airport was smooth and uneventful despite the traffic.
We arrived at the airport around quarter to five, checked our bags, took advantage of the premium security queue and were through security around five. We weren't far from the gate. I greeted a few other chorines, chatted with Craig, and bought us sodas. Everyone else was there for the previous flight, which started boarding a few minutes after we arrived. A couple raced to the gate and just barely made it onto the plane before the door closed. Once the gate area cleared out, we moved to sit closer to the gate, greeting Rick from the first tenors on the way. Cassidy, Leonard, and Cleveland joined us shortly afterward, followed by Paul. Both Cassidy and Rick preboarded since they needed crutches.
After we had boarded, I noticed Mike and Dave were seated two rows ahead of us across the aisle; the rest of our fellow chorines were in the main cabin. Pretty much as soon as we were airborne (about 8:30), the otherwise adorable baby seated in front of us started crying and continued with few interruptions much of the flight, although the pauses were longer after the first hour. I was pleased to find I was able to eat the small cup of almonds, cashews, and pretzels served with our ginger ale without aggravating my tooth. We were served our light dinner about 9:30 and done by ten. I managed to fall asleep for about the last hour of the flight.
When we landed, we had to wait on the apron for the departing plane to clear our gate. We used the bathroom, then headed for baggage claim, which was an absolute shitshow. Because of construction scaffolding, there was no room to maneuver around the crowd from multiple flights all arriving at the same time. Gary found me a seat and directed me to watch our carryon baggage. Eventually he found our bags piled up between two carousels to free up space for other flights. As he delivered the last bag to my location, he said, "Light rail. NOW." This wasn't like him and I could tell he was, frankly, pissed off. Complicating matters further, the light rail station was crawling with dudes in hard hats, the up escalator was out of service, and it looked like trains were operating on only one track to and from Angle Lake. But eventually we caught the northbound train destined for Lynnwood (although passengers were ushered from the train at Northgate as usual until the new section of track opens at the end of August). The last car of the train was nearly empty. We got another comfortable Lyft home from Northgate Station and got unpacked enough to get to sleep about one AM.
Woke up about six to use the bathroom. Gary texted me about quarter to seven to hurry up. I went back to sleep until Gary was done with his shower. We finished packing about 8:30 and chilled in the room till after 9:30, waiting for the rain to pass, then checked out of the hotel, stashed our luggage, and boarded the Free Ride bus driven by a student driver.
By ten we were seated at the Hen House for breakfast. On the way to our booth we passed Brian and Lori having breakfast with April, and spotted Steve Milloy at a nearby table before we sat down. Gary had yogurt and fruit, and I got the carnitas hash with eggs over easy and apple pico de gallo. The wait staff mostly wore T-shirts with the word "Hangry" on the front with the definition on the back.
After breakfast we purchased day passes for the bus and light rail, which are delivered on paper and apparently cannot be loaded on the Go Card like the weekly and monthly passes. We walked to the light rail station and I was expecting to head east or south on the train. Gary had planned to catch a bus on the other side of the station either to the Sculpture Garden or the Mill City Museum. We decided on the latter, and caught a bus to the newly refurbished 3rd Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River. We walked along the river bank and got some pictures of the river and bridges, then headed a block south to the museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed until Thursday and the adjacent Guthrie Theater was dark today. After trying and failing to find a downstream bridge to watch the river from, Gary plotted a course for the Sculpture Garden, but it began to rain moderately heavily and Gary got rather frustrated. He plotted a course for the Convention Center thinking that would be the most convenient place to access the Skyway. We took the 3 bus to the Federal office building and saw a couple ladies, one in a GALA Festival T-shirt and the other carrying a Festival water bottle just like mine with her luggage. We all caught the free 10 bus down Nicollet Mall; they left at the light rail station and presumably headed for the airport.
We left at the Hyatt, since Gary was ready to retrieve our bags and call for a Lyft early since our choices for things to do before our flight had diminished to nothing because of the weather and Monday closures. It occurred to me that we were both more thirsty than hungry, and what better place to pass the time than the bar at an Irish pub? So we caught the 11 bus two stops north to the Local, where we'd had dinner on Saturday when we arrived. We split an order of Chicken Shots, which are popcorn chicken bites tossed in a whiskey honey glaze. Gary had a Diet Pepsi and I had a couple pints of Strongbow. When we finished eating, Gary suggested we go, and the bartender (who was from Miami and had an interesting hairdo with a magenta stripe) overheard and asked if we'd like another round. I suggested to Gary we had plenty of time for that, and he agreed. The bartender was chatting with some other patrons and colleagues about how busy the place got over the weekend between Festival, the WNBA game with Caitlin Clark, and several televised events.
After we'd finished that round of drinks about two, I settled the bill and we proceeded into the bright sunshine, down 10th Street to Hennepin Avenue, to catch the bus to the Sculpture Garden after all. On the way I took a call from my oncologist's office to arrange for follow-up lab tests, and when we reached our bus stop, I called my dentist to make an urgent (but not emergency) appointment to see about the toothache. The bus arrived shortly afterward, and when we arrived we walked over a ramped boardwalk and down a long flight of stairs to reach the Sculpture Garden. We wandered around the exhibits and returned to the bus stop about 3:30. We ended up catching the 6 bus instead of the 4, which ended up taking the wrong fork in the road from what I was expecting. Had I stuck with it, though, it should have dropped us off at the same place due to a detour off Hennepin Avenue, but not knowing the reroute, I ended up getting off the bus as soon as it turned onto 24th Street because I knew the connection was nearby. We walked 4 to 6 blocks east on 24th to reach our planned transfer point which we'd used on the previous attempt. That settled, we arrived at the hotel around four without further incident. We retrieved our bags and sat briefly in the lobby so Gary could put his phone on the battery pack to charge, and then I called for a Lyft. I requested a larger vehicle because of the number of bags. The ride to the airport was smooth and uneventful despite the traffic.
We arrived at the airport around quarter to five, checked our bags, took advantage of the premium security queue and were through security around five. We weren't far from the gate. I greeted a few other chorines, chatted with Craig, and bought us sodas. Everyone else was there for the previous flight, which started boarding a few minutes after we arrived. A couple raced to the gate and just barely made it onto the plane before the door closed. Once the gate area cleared out, we moved to sit closer to the gate, greeting Rick from the first tenors on the way. Cassidy, Leonard, and Cleveland joined us shortly afterward, followed by Paul. Both Cassidy and Rick preboarded since they needed crutches.
After we had boarded, I noticed Mike and Dave were seated two rows ahead of us across the aisle; the rest of our fellow chorines were in the main cabin. Pretty much as soon as we were airborne (about 8:30), the otherwise adorable baby seated in front of us started crying and continued with few interruptions much of the flight, although the pauses were longer after the first hour. I was pleased to find I was able to eat the small cup of almonds, cashews, and pretzels served with our ginger ale without aggravating my tooth. We were served our light dinner about 9:30 and done by ten. I managed to fall asleep for about the last hour of the flight.
When we landed, we had to wait on the apron for the departing plane to clear our gate. We used the bathroom, then headed for baggage claim, which was an absolute shitshow. Because of construction scaffolding, there was no room to maneuver around the crowd from multiple flights all arriving at the same time. Gary found me a seat and directed me to watch our carryon baggage. Eventually he found our bags piled up between two carousels to free up space for other flights. As he delivered the last bag to my location, he said, "Light rail. NOW." This wasn't like him and I could tell he was, frankly, pissed off. Complicating matters further, the light rail station was crawling with dudes in hard hats, the up escalator was out of service, and it looked like trains were operating on only one track to and from Angle Lake. But eventually we caught the northbound train destined for Lynnwood (although passengers were ushered from the train at Northgate as usual until the new section of track opens at the end of August). The last car of the train was nearly empty. We got another comfortable Lyft home from Northgate Station and got unpacked enough to get to sleep about one AM.