The Castillos Come to Town

Javier's parents came to visit.  They were here for some nice, but mostly not-so-nice, weather; though we were able to take some great day trips to Toledo and Detroit.

Tomas, Amanda, and "Cholo" Castillo in Toledo

"Jessie" Dahlias at the Toledo Botanical Garden

A quince biscuit pie I made from quinces handily lifted from the Botanical garden. (The quinces were on the ground, I didn't pick them.  Though, the moralizing doesn't matter: the pie was delicious.)

Tomas at the Detroit Institute of Art

In the DIA

In front of a Diego Rivera mural at the DIA, holding an iPad that has interactive apps to learn more about the mural: free and cool.

Goose crossing on Belle Isle

Chicago

Last weekend I Megabused it to Chicago to visit my dear friends M.G. and Eva.  I stayed with M.G., her boyfriend Matt, and their cat family in Oak Park.  The last dregs of summer warmed the air with the fiery bloom of autumn in the trees.

What a relaxing trip! I spent the evenings curled up on M.G.'s couch looking at Matt's awesome drawings, admiring their cats (Sebastian, or C-bass; Mama Cat, and her daughters Muffin and Lizzy), and laughing with M.G. and Matt--laughing a lot.   I love good laugh fests, and those two are pros.

On Saturday M.G. and I went to a feminist bookstore in Andersonville called Women and Children First to get  books signed by Jane Lynch. Once we made it to the end of the line we could see her (she is strikingly tall) and hear her talking.  She sounds exactly like she does on T.V. and in the Christopher Guest films.  She also cracks teasing, jovial jokes like some of her characters do.  She's from Chicago so some of her family members were hanging out, including two of her nephews, one a "ginger," as she called him, so I hoped she'd make a similar remark about my hair, but she didn't.

Of course food was a prime feature of my trip, including my first restaurant-style Mexican food since leaving Tucson, the yummy vegan "Aztec" salad at Native Foods ( a restaurant M.G. and other friends and I would frequent in Palm Springs when we attended  Redlands), and a yummy snack at an organic Algerian coffeehouse.

Since M.G. is in library school, as I call it, I also visited the libraries in Oak Park and at Dominican University. I give them all my stamp of approval.

I had a quick visit with Eva before heading back on the El to Union Station, and a frantic walk to the bus stop, fighting my way through (sadly not with) the Occupy Chicago protesters.

The visit reminded me how much I miss Chicago and how I wouldn't mind, may even love, to live there someday.

C-Bass posing in a costume and hording the catnip M.G.'s dad picked from his garden and sent home with us 

Jane Lynch  mid-joke

Matt, M.G., C-Bass, and Mama Cat

Me and M.G.

Crepes and mini-umbrellas at the Algerian coffee house

Baking Diary

Some yummy creations I've baked recently:

Peach and Almond Tart

Dill loaves

Split tin loaf

Plaited loaf

Detroit, a Boon

After our disappointing day in Cleveland, I was looking to reclaim the region.  We had a trip scheduled to Detroit last weekend for a friend's wedding, and to visit a friend of mine, Kyle, from Catalina HS who had, over the summer, moved back home to Michigan.

We dropped Paco off at Poco's Playhouse, where he was to be boarded Saturday night. I felt like an anxious parent dropping their kid off at camp for the first time.  After checking out his room (that's right, no kennel cage for my baby) and waving good-bye to him (he was being smelled over by the friendly pack of dogs also boarded that weekend), we headed off to Detroit and made it without a hitch! (Well, I forgot to get gas again, but on the freeway we found a station in under five minutes. Oh yeah, and I went the wrong way on a one-way street in Greektown, but there were no other cars).

Our hotel (reserved for wedding guests) was the Marrriot at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.  Squeezed between two towers, our floor-to-ceiling window had a spectacular view of the Detroit River and Windsor, Canada!

We met up with Kyle and found a chicken and waffle restaurant in what appeared to be an old bar which may have been a church before that.  We caught up on our lives in the Midwest and Kyle and I exchanged what word we had of former students and colleagues back in Tucson.

Then, the wedding: It was held at the beautiful Detroit Yacht Club on Belle Island.  It was a Freemason ceremony, which was a new experience for me.  My friend Farzin and her bridesmaids wore gorgeous saris.  The flower arrangements were stunning. (When I was in high school I started writing a short story about a wedding, which was really me just writing about my fantasy wedding.  I made it as far as the location--somewhere in the Santa Cruz Valley south of Tucson-- and a long description of all the flowers.  I didn't describe the gown, the guests, or even the groom.)

That night we went to a couple drinking establishments in downtown Detroit. The first one was very cool (old, small, with two middle-aged women running the bar), but a bit loud.  The second one I picked by peeking in to its window and declaring it was great, and it turned out to be just as I hoped.  It was cavernous with only a handful of patrons, a man playing the Blues on a guitar, and an 80-something year old Greek bartender who poured us shots of Root Beer liquor unprompted (and, admittedly, unwanted, but we accepted).  We met some friendly locals and a woman said I looked like Florence (of The Machines fame), which was a fabulous compliment. All in all, a good night.

The next morning, a bit haunted by our Cleveland trip, Javier and I raced through the parking garage thinking our car had been stolen (we forgot we had parked BELOW ground-level). After finally locating it, we ate a yummy breakfast in a hip diner by Wayne State and drove home to pick up the baby who, apparently, was now besties with a poodle and a beagle and was invited to return anytime.

Detroit Yacht Club

View from Belle Island to Detroit

Beautiful bride and our reception companions

Bride and groom

A stud

View from our hotel

Stunning flowers

 

Cleveland, a Bust

A couple weeks ago, Javier and I made a day trip to Cleveland.  It did not go as dreamy as I had hoped.  We got a late start; the Google maps I printed led us astray; I forgot to get gas so there was a tense 25 minutes on a small freeway as we willed a gas station into existence.  When we finally found one of our destinations, it was somewhat of a letdown.  A cool idea in theory, the Ingenuity Fest was held under a bridge that leads to downtown Cleveland.  The Fest hosted government, nonprofit, and merch tables; some technology/art projects like home-made video games,  kid-made remote-controlled cars and chairs built from scrap metal; fair food; and lots of deafening bands plugged in to the corners of the bridge's tunnels.  Perhaps scrappy because it was Sunday afternoon, my favorite part was not the content but the location, and Paco loved eating all the pizza crusts, hot dog buns, and whatever other food was dropped and ground in to the concrete.

The day was beautiful and we perked up when we ate some grub (Jamaican jerk chicken and a beer sampling from a local pub), but then it turned super sour.

We walked back to our car parked in a neighborhood that earlier in the afternoon had people strolling about, but at sunset it had tuned a bit sketchy.   I buckled Paco in to the backseat, not noticing that the front passenger window had been smashed.  Shattered. Busted. The window lay in slivers and shards on the floor and as a glittering, caved-in hunk of glass on the seat.   Javier kicked a fence. I called my dad and then the police.  Javier chauffeured us the 2 hours home, Paco and I in the backseat.

It turned out my insurance payed for the window.  The window-fixers in Toledo came to me. Nothing was stolen (our cds were rifled through but I guess the ruffians didn't like Tori Amos or Nigerian rock music).  It was a pleasant 70 degrees, not ten below with icy wind blowing in our faces.

Here are some photos to illustrate the day that wasn't quite ours:

Oh yeah, and a dumpster caught on fire.

Cleveland had its charms, like this little park by the water.

I think Tim Burton would be proud, or inspired.

Car sans window