Dining

Saturday evening my (neighbor/friend) and I went out to dinner.  We are both fond of Mexican Cuisine, so of course that's where we went, a Mexican Restaurant.  We got there during happy hour, and got our drinks on the cheap.  She ordered a Strawberry Margarita, mine was Peach.  Our waitress/bartender wanted to know if we wanted the grande' size or regular.  I seriously contemplated the larger size, but in a moment of clarity went for the regular size.  I am sooo glad I did, that was the most huge Margarita I have ever seen.  Holy Mackerel!

We were going to order food from the happy hour menu, but I was starved, so ordered a huge tostada salad from the regular side of the menu.  It was nummy.

As we were leaving the restaurant, there was a charming young woman standing by the entrance handing out roses.  On the table next to her was a lovely basket filled with all sorts of girlie items being given away as a prize.  Did we want to enter the drawing?

My neighbor and I started laughing, because while we were eating we were discussing how we never won anything, because we never enter any contests.  We filled out the blank entries, and left.  On our way to the car my neighbor said "Now, we've going to get calls to host a home party for this particular 'girlie items' company."

I agreed, but added this particular young lady was going to be out of luck, because, I'm done throwing plastic kitchenware, jewelry, girlie lingerie, girlie pretty smelly stuff parties. 

Since it is still early my friend suggests we go for a walk to get rid of some of the mountain of calories we had just ingested.  We go to the Rose Gardens.  We had a hard time finding a parking place.  The more we had to wait for traffic to move, the more silly the whole thing became.  I started to laugh...the people leaving took their old sweet time.  There were strollers to store, old people to jostle into back seats and children to seat belt.

We were the third car stuck in line.  First car had its blinker on badly wanting the spot being vacated.  I'm sure my friend could not for the life of her figure out why I thought the whole thing was funny.

Remember my blog from yesterday.  I people watch...so this was a great experience to do that. 

There was the lady that kept getting in and out of a car's back seat, door open wide...was she coming or going?   There was the group of young black men, standing in a group.  They were wearing tuxedos, white shirts, bow ties, black pants, each with a pair of white suspenders.  I don't know where the jackets were.  However, standing with them was a nicely dressed woman holding a clip-board...she was obviously the wedding planner.  Soon, two more guys showed up and joined the group.

Back to the parking.  Eventually, the lady got into her back seat and closed the door.  Cars one and two in front of us got the two spaces available.  My neighbor and I inched along.  There were no more open spaces.  Except...across the street...where three spaces were available.  We were thrilled, and zipped into that parking lot.  UH-OH.  There was a sign saying this lot was for the Japanese Gardens patrons only.   Shoot.  We parked anyway.

The rose gardens were beautiful, shaded and cool, and very, very crowded.  Everyone walked at a leisurely pace, these gardens are a place where speed is never expected.  There are too many blooms to smell, and colors for the eye to digest. 

These gardens are a favorite for visitors to the city, especially folks from out of the country.  My neighbor said they should all wear signs around their necks so we would know what language they were speaking.  What a great idea. 

Folks were taking pictures, folks were walking their dogs, folks were pushing strollers.   There was a wedding taking place in the Shakespeare section of the gardens.  We tried to lean over a hedge to get a peek at the bride, but were afraid we might go head over tea-cup onto her and thought better of that. 

I spied a woman about my age strolling along by herself.  She was dressed in beige pedal pushers, and wore a bright orange, light-weight jacket and a jaunty matching bright orange hat, with a beige bow across the back.  She was a spectacular rose among the rest of us thorns.

It suddenly occurred to me I had not seen one single teenager.  There were plenty of older people, lots of couples...aaaah, young love, families with young children in strollers and wagons, but not one single teenager.  Strangely, that did not seem odd.

As we were leaving, we had to walk up a couple flights of stairs...I was not thrilled...I was full, I was old, I was not prepared for climbing.  Oh well, what the heck...heart attack here I come. 

At the top of the stairs sits some tennis courts, we took the walkway between them and come across two girls in dark green satin gowns, they were lovely.  As we walked by, they were taking pictures of each other smelling the beautiful flowers that grew along the path.  We both commented on how pretty they were.

Approaching our parking lot, my friend comments on whether our vehicle would still be there, perhaps it had been towed since we were illegally parked.  It was still there. I quickly snuck across  the aisle and gently touched a license plate on a car from Pennsylvania.  My neighbor, ever diligent, informed me I was lucky the car alarm didn't go off.  I had already thought of that...after the fact.  I was glad I had barely touched the plate.

We head for home...our conversation has turned to bathrooms, and how those margaritas had "gone right through us".  My neighbor says, "I thought about using the Women's Room at the gardens."  "Yeah, says I, but this time of day"...I visibly shudder.

Hurry, hurry, hurry.