eastowners

Sorry I didn’t post this earlier, but I didn’t really go through our crazy weekend for all you cats.

We started out Friday by getting a babysitter for Clare and went to see Brian Vander Ark perform and Schuler’s bookstore. It was a great show. He played his entire new album beginning to end, acoustic, with a guy playing upright bass for some of the tunes. It was -very- nice. We got his new disc signed. I was unbelievably geeked. BVA is just one of those guys… he’s a real honest-to-goodness rock star in my mind, especially since I lived in EL just prior to and during the Verve Pipe Villians days. TVP was still playing at some of the local bars just prior to “hitting it big” and I remember seeing them at Rick’s in EL, then about two months later, they were on MTV and playing big arena shows. It had to have made their heads spin.

After BVA, we went to Billy’s for a quick drink and saw some local guys called Root Doctor put some jams down. They are really excellent. I look forward to seeing them again.

Anyway… on Saturday, we headed to the folks’. My Grandparents Watson celebrated their 60th wedding anniversay! Man… I hope I live that long, not to mention still being with the same person. Hats off and all that! Saturday eve, Dan and Karyn hung around with us while we created fiery mayhem in the fire pit at the folks’. A little beer was consumed and most of the bottles were melted in the fire. I don’t remember melting glass in a campfire before, but it -is- possible.

Sunday we got up early to see the Tut exhibit in Chi-town with our good friend from Colorado, Beeko & Jackie. The exhibit, while better than the usual permanent one, was a pretty big let-down. They had really no large artifacts, no coffin, and mostly just Tut’s jewelry and minor stuff. It was worth the trip, but certainly did not give a good sense of the wonderous treasures of Tut’s tomb.

After the lackluster exhibit, we headed to Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, a Spanish Tapas restaurant located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. The food was excellent to say the least. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. I dare say this place is better than Grand Rapids’ San Chez (a very sad thing for me to say because San Chez is one of my favourites). We had a good selection off of the menu and Char and I had a cup of white aparagus soup that was beyond excellent. The sangria was top-notch… probably the best I’ve ever had.

After this, we drove back to Niles, stopped by the folks’ to say hello, dropped Beeko and Jackie off, picked up Clare, and headed back to GR. It was quite a weekend.