Our Urban Experience: Evening Two- We Relax and Do Happy Hour.

After Lunch, a large number of our cohort decided to go downtown and see the movie "Hotel Rwanda" at the movie theater in the 16th Street Mall. Lynn, Robert, Carolyn and I decided to walk around the Mall and see what there was to see. We walked from one end to another, stopping in a couple of shops and so forth, but mostly just enjoying each other's company. At the far end of the mall, we located a Starbucks. This seemed like a welcome place to stop. We pulled up some chairs and stayed for about 2-3 hours drinking lattes and coffee.

Then, we get hungry. Maggiano's Little Italy is a restaurant right next to the movie theater in the middle of the 16th Street Mall. They also have a happy hour. We make our way there. We order up some two dollar appetizers and some fancy martinis. Robert's tastes like lemondrops, Lynn's tastes like sour apples. I am talked into ordering a chocolate martini. This turns out to be a very expensive Black Russian, but tastes very good. Our group stays put for the next four hours, eating little tomato things and drinking martinis. (The picture was taken by our waitress. Note the Sour Apple Martini right up front. I am the guy in the front right.) I stop at one drink, as I have a headache. We do lots of talking, mostly about personal stuff. Each of us has an emotional breakthrough of some sort. At the end of the evening, we are pretty spent. We walk home, hungry for real food.

We decide to stop at a little place called "Famous Pizza" on the way to the Chalet. The pizza turns out to taste pretty good, but the place is a wreck, with crap thrown all over the back of the restaurant, ratty chairs, beat-up tables and a restroom in which I did not feel particularly safe. I am happy to leave and get back to the Chalet. Wednesday is to be the longest day of the week and we start very early, so we pack it in and get some much needed rest.