A Saturday For The Ages

6:34

6:40

6:52

6:53

It's overcast and foggy here at the lake, the naked tree limbs reaching up into the changing sky.  It's another unseasonable January morning, 39º, the high getting into the 50's.  We may do some planting of a mix of bulbs we purchased in November, thinking we still had time to plant. The lake is high but still frozen, almost overflowing the lip of the shoreline.  It's now 8:00 and I have witnessed the sky go through a number of transitions, from gray, to pink, to blue, and finally to a blinding sunrise.

6:58

8:04

Yesterday began in Euclid, with a great breakfast fixed by my brother-in-law, an enthusiastic and skilled short order chef.  It's one of the reasons we like to spend the night in Euclid.  It turned out to be a great morning on Lake Erie, as the sky cleared, turned blue, the air warmed up as we left.  When we are in the Cleveland area, we try to make one stop: Trader Joes.  No doubt lots of others had the same idea as the aisles in Joe's was packed with Saturday shoppers like us. We picked out our favorite cheeses, a case of wine, cashews, granola, chocolate bars, all the kinds of things we enjoy but cannot get here.  We then had a good hour before meeting a friend from college for lunch, so we went to Lucky Jeans and Evie found a couple of blouses she liked on sale.

Lunch With Our Finnish Friend, Vi

We then met Vi at the Manhattan Deli in Mentor and enjoyed a typical Jewish deli lunch, matzo ball soup and a corned beef sandwich. We had a good talk with Vi, a friend since college and we were one of the last of the lunch crowd to leave.  Just as we were paying, I noticed they had a Napoleon in the case, or as I call it, a Mille Feuille (a thousand leaves) which no one understands.  We could not pass it up, so we had it put in a box to take back to the lake for dessert.

We were home around 4:30, quickly unpacked the car, and were soon relaxed on our couches, with a plate of appetizers and a Manhattan, a good way to end a fun 24 hours in Cleveland.  We listened to the coverage of the amazing Women Marches, not only all of the the United States but the world.  It's what makes America great, our freedom to express our views.  Since we had a big breakfast and lunch, we decided on a light dinner, mushroom barley soup, a salad and a leftover corned beef sandwich, with a Napoleon for dessert.  Napoleons for dessert two nights in a row is almost too much of a good thing.  We watched a new Bill Maher last night, outrageous but right on as usual.  He is definitely a specific taste, loved by many, hated by many.  It was good to get into our own king size bed again.