An Unexpected Delay OR This Post Was Looost! Stolen! Thieves!

Okay faithful and (I hope) forgiving blog readers, confession time:

I usually go on my adventures on the weekend. Yes, I've been known to go during the week, but mostly Saturday or Sunday is when I spread my wings and find something new.

And do you know how I spent last Saturday? With this guy.

Friend of mine shared a random awkward hug with him once.
True story.

So aside from my clever puns in the title, you'll have to suffer through a week with out my wit and clever picture captions. I know it's hard, but you have Christmas to distract you, right?

And for those of you who haven't seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I highly recommend it. I'll admit I had some trepidation when I saw they planned to make it into three movies, but I should have trusted that incredible hobbit.

By which I mean this guy:

"Jackson" is only his middle name.
His real last name is "of Bag End."

And lest Mr. Peter Jackson (of Bag End) be offended and strike me down where I standing with prettiest special effects lightning bolt I've ever seen, know that I admire the hell out of that guy, and thank him for making the incredible films he does.

And also know that he will always be the hippest Hobbit in Hobbiton.

Stay tuned next week for a non-cinematic adventure!

Parisian Retrospective OR Merry Christmas, Mssr. Brown!

 The astute reader may have noticed that we are currently approaching the end of the year. There's lots of tiny lights on trees, sappy songs playing everywhere, and a noticeable increase in the number of office parties.

But every year for the last three years, the end of the year has largely reminded me of one thing:

That on New Year's Eve, just as 2009 was turning into 2010, I married my wonderful and incredibly amazing wife. At a villa in the Roman countryside.

Which reminded me of the adventure we went on around said Italian wedding, and how that was long before this little blog was in existence.

So I bring you:

Christmas in Paris

My soon-to-be-wife only had a certain number of days she could take off, and only at a certain time. So instead of traveling to Paris after the wedding, we spent five days there before meeting with our families outside Rome. One of those days was, in fact, our first Christmas together.

But enough of my sappy-lovey-dovey ways, and onto the adventure!

We had booked a 1 bedroom apartment for the five days we were there, which was kind of awesome. This was the view outside our window:

Paris: Where even the alleys are picturesque.

To get there, we had to trudge up the most awesome set of Hitchcockian stairs I've every seen. Seriously, every single time it brought a smile to my face.

"Quick! Walk creepily down the stairs so all
we can see is your hand on the handrail!"
"Yes, sir,  Mr. Hitchcock!"

Just down the street was an incredibly tasty patisserie because, well, there's always an incredibly tasty patisserie down the street in Paris.

Just a bit of the way beyond that was a bridge to an island, an island which had a fairly well-known church:

10 points if you instantly recognized it from this photo.

Note the perfectly placed star in the center of the stained glass.
...I worked hard framing that shot correctly.

Notre Dame also has one of my favorite saint sculptures. If you look around the doorways, there are a whole bunch of saints carved into the stone.

One of them is St. Denis. It's the only one I can easily recognize. How do I know? Well, the story of St. Denis involves his head being chopped off, then he picked it up and walked a mile or something before falling down. Which is why he's easy to spot:

"Pardon moi, Mssr. Denis, but I think you dropped something..."
"Don't you worry, girl. It ain't no thing."

As we wandered the very stone and very drafty cathedral, we discovered one very large disadvantage of late December in Paris: It's frikkin cold. Seriously.

Maybe that's why Gaulish men grew such incredible mustaches...

But this was also a tremendous advantage: With the exception of the Eiffel Tower on Christmas Day (it was the only tourist attraction open that day), there really weren't huge crowds.

Side note: Enormous steel towers should not try to be sneaky.

Which meant we got to enjoy the landmarks like normal Parisians. Freezing our asses off.

Fortunately many museums were inside, including my favorite Parisian museum, Musee D'Orsay.

"Bonjour! Would you like some cheese, Pierre?"
"I hate cheese, François. Just like you hate wine."
"We're not very good French stereotypes, are we?"

And, of course, the Louvre, which draws every tourist in France into it by the sheer gravitational pull of the mass of artwork and relics inside.

A museum so big the walkway between buildings gets its own monument.

There are plenty of books and pictures about those two museums, so I won't rehash them here.

I will, however, show you this guy. The moment I saw him a phrase and voice popped into my head, which, of course, meant it instantly popped out of my mouth:

"You wan' sum hot chocolaaaat...?"

Trust me. It's hilarious, really, even if it doesn't translate in written form. And I solemnly swear to any reader that if you meet me in person I will gladly demonstrate it.

But there was one museum that stuck with us. We saw this museum faintly on the map just around the corner from our apartment and were intrigued. So of course we ventured in, only to find that this museum was not for tourists. This was a museum of the French, for the French. As exemplified by all the informative plaques being only and proudly in French.

L'Informative!

To this day I'm not entirely sure what we saw there and why. Perhaps you might know:

The exhibition hallway ended here. That's all we know. 

Perhaps a bust of Unseen University's Librarian...?

This one we almost figured out. Some sort of diorama of a...
...something. It involved soldiers.

And it was awesome.

Just like other random things we spied around Paris:

Indiana Tex-Mex.
...Perhaps they just don't know our geography...?

...or they're just confused in general.

An awesome display of the wonderful things one can make with chocolate...

...Including this. Yes, it is, in fact, chocolate.

To bring it all back to Christmas (full-circle, yo!), I would like to share some nighttime pictures of the Champs Elysees:

Lights in the trees... how understated...

...Nevermind!

And because I didn't know where to put this, but really, really wanted to include it...

...I end with this photo:

Excuse me, but my film noir is calling:
"It was a foggy, cold day lit by the light of a lone lamppost.
...just like that dame was the only light in my life."

And now, gentle readers, I do, in fact, wan' sum hot chocolaaaaat...

Caffeine Thunder Stone OR This Cafe's Made in New York City!

Indie Indy Coffee Shops Series #2

Last weekend a friend of my wife's came into town. Her purpose? To visit both my wife and another friend who lives an hour or so away.

Rather than avoid the awkward situation of choosing one friend's familiar haunts over the other's, we all decided to meet halfway. In an area none of us knew well. Which is fair. After all, if we're all ignorant, that's still fair, right?

Well, I'm glad we did, because while looking for a place to gather and write, we found a wonderful gem, one which is a perfect companion to another coffee shop that's been waiting in the wings.

Because I've heard keeping your audience in suspense is a good thing, we'll save the gem for later.

Cornerstone Coffee House

Notice that "CoffeeHouse" is in much bigger words than "Cornerstone"
They clearly know their audience.

There is a full cafe and restaurant connected to this coffee shop. But being true connoisseurs of the bitter bean, we ignored such things like "food" and headed straight for the coffee.

Pictured: Coffee.
...and maybe other things, too.

The first thing I noticed about this place was... Okay, well, the coffee.

But the second thing I noticed was the diversification. The whole place looked prosperous, well-cared for, and nicely designed.

Which, due to pesky things like economic reality, takes money.

Let's face it: It's easy to run an independent coffee shop into the ground. It happens on a fairly regular basis. After all, usually the only products are low-margin things like coffee or muffins.

But Cornerstone countered (get it?) by putting in a bar. And a cafe. And still managing to create a comfy area to work and chill.

For working...

...For chilling.

I'll admit: At first the cafe-style decor worried me. People who run "restaurants-that-serve-coffee" can often get grumpy about people who buy hot bean water and sit for hours.

But not here. This is a true CoffeeHouse/Bar/Restaurant, and happily let us consume their tasty roasted cherry-pit tea for hours while writing a bit.

Which is why we took some home with us. Because it was tasty and they were awesome.

Also: How could we possibly resist that name?!?

SoHo Cafe

Now for the Mysterious Gem from my Mysterious Meeting with Mysterious Friends drinking Mysterious Beverages.

I refer to this wonderful establishment:

Far too cool for the strip mall it's in.
...Though the "Eat More Cake" shop next door is also cool.

After getting entirely misled by Yelp's address (Curse you, Technology!), we called them on our cell phones (Hooray for Technology!) and they very nicely gave us directions.

One is never sure what to expect when one enters an independent coffee shop, so you will of course understand the moment of pause when the entrance yielded this:

I almost wish they'd turn down the lights to
make it more creepy and atmospheric...
...almost.

But at the other end was a lovely little cafe area. There was a gelato bar, a neat coffee bar, a table, and a little lounge area in front of a fireplace.

How lovely!
Also: The Peanuts fan in me loved the "Psychiatric Help 5¢" sign.

It's hard to tell from this shot, but the menu items include Nutella Lattes. I don't think I need to say more.

One corner held a lovely amount of hip, neat merchandise, too!

Remember: Buying it from your Indie Coffee Shop makes it cooler!

But there were five of us, and not a lot of apparent seating. The menu looked tasty enough, so we figured we could sit outside (where there was plenty of seating). We could at least get lunch, but not hang out.

Then I noticed this:

Gallery, you say...?
Seating, you say...?

Which suddenly made me love this place. Allow me to demonstrate:

Why, there's PLENTY of room!

From BOTH angles! And a wall of art!

Art, crafts, and neat things lined the walls. The tables had plenty of space and there were plenty of them. It was very much like being in a hip, artsy New York shop!

With a couple key differences:

1)There was room for people.

2)The people who worked there were really, really nice.

Seriously. They kindly brought our food to our table instead of just calling it out at the counter. They chatted and joked with me, and when I came back the next day instantly recognized me.

Being a regular at many shops, I've often gotten that treatment, but not usually on the first day.

And you read that correctly: The next day. We thought about switching it up, but honestly we all liked the place so much that we gravitated there the next day almost without saying.

And to top all of it off, this coffee shop came with it's own informative plaque. And we know how much I love informative plaques...

Informative!

Oh, and their dried-backed-crushed-steeped seed drink?

Very tasty, indeed.

Nobly Jumping into Christmas OR Gonna Be a Cold Time in the Olde Town Tonight!

Like many good-sized cities in the midwest, Noblesville, Indiana has a couple large shopping centers with restaurant chains, clothing chains, and, you guessed it, grocery chains.

And yes, I totally go there to buy things.

But I also drive right by them and head down the narrower, bumpier streets to Ye Olde Historic Downtown Noblesville.

With a town hall befitting the prefix"Ye Olde"

On this square and the streets around it there are no chain shops. Just a bunch of restaurants, shoppes, a coffee shop, a few bars, etcetera, etcetera.

The square is built in the old town style, with a town hall in the center and a street running around the edges.

Because no one rubs shoulders with the town hall!

Astute readers will notice the pictures are taken at night, which is a departure from my normal style of daytime photos.

It's because I'm getting the jump on enjoying Christmas and beating December to the punch.

The calm, peaceful kind of beating to the punch.

On this particular night the cold and weekday-ness had driven many people away from the streets of the town square, giving me a wonderful time to take photos, enjoy the serenity, and freeze my buttocks off.

Also marvel at the slightly creepy decorations.
...What is it about Christmas and slightly creepy decorations?

The square put on a good show, the old-school buildings peacefully basking in the glow.

Well, the judicial center loomed in the shadows...
...but judicial centers do that.

But the other buildings cooperated, and I spent some time enjoying the calm.

Even I think this looks to smooth to be real...
...and I was there.

Antique buildings with antique shoppes selling antiques.
...How meta.

And, of course, like all Historic Squares there was the kitsch.

Behold! I bring you tidings of great kitsch!

But even the kitsch was kept to a low tasteful key, and the light decorations followed suite.

I have a particular fondness for light arrangements, and I found these picturesquely impressive.

No captions here. Just enjoy the lights.

And, because it's an old town square at Christmas, there's the requisite Santa corner.

The "shed" is clearly an entrance to a top secret underground toy factory.

There was even an informative plaque! In this case, it informed me how incredibly busy Santa is this time of year.

Informative!
Also: "Make it quick, kid, Santa's due at a mall in ten minutes!"

But that's okay. Because if he wasn't there, you could always leave him a letter in his personal mailbox. As a kid this be pretty frikkin awesome to use.

Especially since with the volume of mail he gets this mailbox
must surely be some sort of top secret teleportation device.

One of the hardest adjustments I have every year is finding that moment when I fully enter into the spirit of the season. When I was a kid it started with my mother playing Christmas Carols. When I was older it started when I began performing Christmas songs, in college it started when I came home for Christmas break...

...But I'm all grown up now (so they tell me), and since I have no kids yet, Christmas pretty much starts whenever I get around to getting into the spirit of the thing.

And honestly? A quick visit to a quiet town square that night was enough. My heart was warmed despite my fingers being frozen, far more than several days of Christmas carols in chain stores could ever do.

(Though I will admit that chain stores have central heating...)

So thanks, Noblesville Historic Downtown, for reminding me of Christmas with the right blend of class and kitsch.

Pictured: Class.

And also for reminding me that in every setting, there is always a place to embrace the tackiness.

Pictured: Glowing hot pink and creepy mannequin.
I'm not saying it's tacky, but...
...Okay, maybe a little.

Bring it on, Christmas.