On My Mind – One Amazing Weekend – 9/23/2018

Having just finished reading and reviewing “Empire Of Silence” by Christopher Ruocchio:

http://booksofbrian.com/on-the-nightstand-empire-of-silence-9-20-2018/

I jumped right into a new release from one of my long time, Go To Authors – Glen Cook’s new Black Company novel – “Port Of Shadows”.  I haven’t made much progress though – not because of the book – which I’m thoroughly enjoying – but because the weekend took me in a far more important and enjoyable direction.

I honestly didn’t think we were going to be able to top the weekend we just had in Austin with old friends.  Sue and I came away from that one thinking that it was about as good as it gets.

http://booksofbrian.com/on-my-mind-going-home-9-17-2018/

It only took about 5 days to prove that wrong and I thought I’d put up a post to let you know what I think qualifies as just as good as Austin and even better than books.

Sue and I celebrated our wedding anniversary this weekend.  For the last few years, we’ve celebrated our day in the same way but decided – this year – that it was time to mix it up a bit.

As we were thinking through plans, we discovered that one of our favorite local restaurants  – a wonderful French brasserie called Cafe Pyrenees which had – very unfortunately – closed about a year ago due to escalating rents at their long time location – had started sponsoring Pop Up Dinners at out of the way locales.  This weekend – they were hosting a dinner at a location that we’d never heard of called McCrae Farms – a stable and riding center devoted to French Classical Dressage.  We had no idea what to expect but decided to give it a try and we’re so very glad we did.

Here’s a view as we drove up to the facility:

Ready to be surprised – we got out of the car and walked towards the building.  Things started perfectly – being met with a big hello and glasses of wine by several of the staff we’d gotten to know so well from nights past at the old restaurant.  After welcoming us, we were ushered deeper into the building and seated for the show – and here’s where it just became amazing.

We were treated to a classical French dressage exhibition – unlike anything I’d ever seen since the time my parents took us all to see the Lippizaner Stallions about 40 years ago.  I can’t tell you how much fun it was – not only did Sue and I get to celebrate another wonderful year – we had the chance to do it in a unique and amazing way.  Here are a few pictures from the evening – and I apologize in advance for the quality of the photography – I was using my phone in a dim exhibit hall without a flash:

If you look closely, you’ll notice that the rider – Jill McCrae – has a peregrine falcon on her wrist.  We learned that the birds and horses are trained together and will often appear together in both competitions and exhibitions.

Here’s another of Jill, her horse and the falcon.

And here’s two of Jill and her husband Jeff – a great couple who we had the pleasure of eating with once the show was over.

I knew nothing about Dressage until we had this dinner and I have to say – for anyone who loves horses – try to find a chance to see a show – it’s a pretty amazing display of shared skill between horse and rider.  Sue and I just loved it.

Once the show was over, we were moved into the stables, where the restaurant staff had set up a beautifel space for dinner.

We ate with Bandolero – who you’ll meet in the next photo – sorry about the closed eyes – anyone who knows me will tell you I’m photography challenged.

This is Bandolero with one of his buddies in the background – a very well behaved dinner companion.

From beginning to end, it was a perfect evening.  Thank you, Love Of My Life, for a wonderful night and another truly wonderful year.

If that wasn’t enough, we got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and drove down to West Lafayette so that we could spend Dad’s Day with our daughter, who’s in her Junior Year at Purdue.

We started at the Sorority House but headed out pretty quickly to the Stadium.  I know the burnt orange is out of place but please understand – the Horns were playing TCU yesterday and I just felt like I had to represent!  My wife and my step daughter were willing to make allowances.  🙂

Beautiful day at Ross-Ade Stadium and the band put on their normal amazing show!

….made that much better by popcorn, dawgs and beer!

…then made perfect by a Boilermaker win!!

 

 

We finished the day with an early dinner at Triple XXX – my first visit to an Indiana classic.  Yes – I did have the Duane Purvis All American – 1/4lb. chop steak, thick, creamy peanut butter, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle & onion on a toasty sesame bun – as featured on The Food Network – and finished with a root beer float made from the original Triple XXX Root Beer.

Thanks for a wonderful weekend CR.  We love you, you’re doing great work and I hope you know how exceptionally proud we are of you.

You’d probably be thinking that Sue and I – as we headed back to Chicago – were feeling pretty satisfied with our weekend – and you’d be so very right – with one small, tiny, unresolved item – the Texas game.  I was not going to call it a weekend until I’d made it over that hump and I spent the next 2.5 hours in the car – Sue was kind enough to drive us home – tracking the game on ESPN play-by-play.

Here’s the final blessing from an amazing weekend:

Oh yes they did – my Longhorns DID beat #17 ranked TCU – convincingly!!  Now that represents a perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Sue and I ended the day back at home, on the couch, watching an episode of The Crown – a show we’re loving – and reading – priceless!

It’s Sunday now and I’m starting to look ahead to the week at work – with all the normal, day to day challenges that can bring – but it doesn’t keep me from looking back – thinking of my wonderful wife and my amazing step daughter and all the fun we had – and being able to say to myself with complete conviction – that I am one lucky bug.

Now – time to get back to “Port Of Shadows” – I have a feeling that this one is going to make for a very fun review.

Hope you all have a great week!