Saturday 21 June 2014

A big day out...

Last week we decided to head to the part of town known as Aggieville. This is where the bars and a lot of restaurants are. We went in search of gelati, without an address, just the knowledge that it was there. We also had a mission: a friend had recommended that we go to Arby's because he liked the food and thought we might like it too.

Friday night the plan was to have a quick breakfast and head out before the day heated up. The best laid plans of mice and men... Fortunately the weather had been fairly mild, so when 10 am came around and we were still at home I wasn't too worried. Our route took us for a nice ~4 km (~2.5 mile) walk and after a little walking around, we made for Arby's. Hey! I'd just walked 4 km or more, in the sun, wearing a ~9 kg baby, and let's not forget the breastfeeding while walking.

Michael is getting good at taking group photos.
Michael's food photography isn't bad either.
















Hmmmm curly fries... That was a win: the food was good; the unsweetened iced tea was spot on; the toilet was clean, but lacked a change table (good thing Jimmy was still dry). While it's a long way for us to go for a meal when we don't have a car, we'll be happy to head to an Arby's when the opportunity presents itself. On to the next thing!

We walked around for a bit and went into the bike shop, Big Poppi Bicycle Co., where we found the hipsters of Manhattan... No really, the staff are all hipsters. It's also a local business, so is well worthy of support. They had a nice range of bicycles, but nothing we were really interested in, or that was within our price range (we have bicycles back in Australia, and as we're only here for a year we basically only need beater bikes*). They did have one of these for sale... we're pretty excited about the prospect of getting around with Jimmy in a bicycle trailer, but there's not much point getting one if we don't have a bicycle. So, we kept going. On to the Dusty Bookshelf!

This was both relaxing and torture... All those books... So little time to browse... So little time to read... They have a children's section and with toys on the floor I let Jimmy loose. He had been in the Manduca for a good while and his patience needed rewarding.


Jimmy was more interested in throwing the books around... Don't worry, I didn't let him damage any, and while I was looking after the books I found one book for Jimmy - an abridged, board book edition Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. I'll admit that it's an odd reduction, with some (important) details missed and others (not so important) included, but it has Miss Potter's pretty pictures and the tale of that naughty rabbit. Jimmy likes it, and I suspect that it'll be easy enough to leave behind, when we return to Australia.

The Dusty Bookshelf visited, it was time to move on to finding that gelato. We didn't have to go very far because just across the road was the Coldstone Creamery. There were some hard decisions to be made, mostly which flavour of icecream to have.

After having a few samples, we decided to have a big waffle cone, dipped in chocolate and Oreo crumbs, with 3 flavours of ice cream: mojito; blueberry pancake batter; and [something else that we don't remember the name of, but it was delicious and creamy].

The big waffle cones... (and more of Michael's food photography)
Our order... and the last of Michael's food photography for that weekend.

We enjoyed the ice cream, oh did we ever! It would almost have been worth skipping lunch and going straight for the Creamery, but it was probably best this way. (And yes, even Jimmy had tiny little tastes and while I felt a little guilt in giving my baby sugary food, it was better than the tantrum that would have ensued otherwise. And later I remembered that my parents weren't strict on no sugar, and the 3 of us turned out fine, so the mum-guilt disappeared.) After we polished off the ice cream, we walked around a little bit more, found a little park to give Jimmy a nappy change and let him crawl about for a bit. Then we walked home, pushing through sugar comas, but we made it**.

The whole adventure was a win, with a little sunburn (not for Jimmy), and aching feet (and back and hips for me, from all that baby wearing). It's a nice part of town, it's fairly close to the city park, which we need to get to, so we'll be heading out that way again, sometime before the summer is over.



*Beater bikes: these are the sort of bike that you don't worry about, the sort of bike that can spend all day in the snow, end up with a rusty chain and it's just an "oh well, better remember to look at that when I get home", they are the sort of bike that, when stolen, is just an inconvenience ("damn, oh well, looks like I might need to take the bus/get a lift/walk home"). People who spend over $2000-3000 on one bicycle are likely to have a beater bike that they're happy to lockup with other bikes for a few hours, so they don't have to worry about someone scratching the paintwork..

**If you come and visit us, we will most likely take you to the Creamery, but we'll be walking there and back, so bring some good walking shoes. No, really, walking ~8 km is necessary so that we can enjoy all that sugary, creamy goodness and not feel sick.

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