Monday, April 22, 2019

Easter weekend

It was a quiet four-day weekend for me.  I walked the dogs at sunrise and then gardened in the warmth.  It was our first hot weekend, with more to come.

I had no hikes planned during this mini-holiday.  Instead, I started the monumental task of cleaning out the garage.  It's been long neglected.  The cats use the garage as their sanctuary, away from the loud, clumsy dogs, and gave me the stink eye the entire time I came in to do a cleaning session.  It's going to take me the rest of this month to go through everything.  Time to cull the stuff.

I walked the dogs early on Saturday since I knew it would be the only time I could that day. The highlight of the weekend was going to Tucson on Saturday afternoon for a dinner and play at the Arizona Theatre Company.   I won two tickets from Yelp-Tucson thanks to my helpful reviews. Kevin declined to go with me ("It's way past my bedtime!") so I went with Steve, who knows how to have a good time without spending much, and I like that.  We left town at 3pm, got to Tuscon by 4pm, and immediately went to two selected brewpubs to taste their beer.  We wanted to knock out a few more brewpubs while in town.

It turns out there are five brewpubs in downtown Tucson, all within walking distance of each other.  Three of them,  Thunder Canyon, Puebla Vida and Ten55, are within three blocks of each other.  We had already been to Thunder Canyon last year, so this time we tried the other two.  We parked on Ochoa Street, three blocks north of the theatre, and walked.  This was new territory to me and even I was momentarily disoriented using my GoogleMaps.  Would my Honda be safe here?  I was a block away from the main streets.

It was already in the upper 80s when we got to the Old Pueblo, so entering the cool taproom of Puebla Vida brewpub was refreshing.  It's a small space, but three napping dogs were taking advantage of the cool air inside.  We sat at the counter and each had one pint.  The Hefeweizen I had was one of the best in town.  Steve's dark German lager, Hecate, was less impressive.  Service and ambiance was nice, and I do want to go back and try other beers.

Ten55 was our second brewpub, located just around the corner from Puebla Vida on Congress.  This place brews on the premise and also serves a variety of sausages.  We ordered a currywurst with chimicurri sauce on top.  The sausage didn't taste much like curry to me, but we both liked the taste of the chimicurri spices.

The rest of the evening was well timed.  We showed up at the box office at 6pm to pick up our tickets, had our dinner at Janos at the Temple which is located in the same building as the theatre, and then went inside at 7:20pm to watch the play, which started promptly at 7:30pm.  Our meal was filling, but the meats were on the dry side.  I enjoyed some of the gourmet salads more.

The play, "Things I know to be True" is an Australian play written by Andrew Bovall.  All the actors came from the MilwaukeeRep theatre, where this play premiered in March.  The play was well-acted, but the themes were quite depressing; it's not a play I'd recommend to anyone with family issues as it covers infidelity, control, parental disappointment, death.

We got back to our area after 10pm.  IT was a long day for me, but I enjoyed my time in Tucson.  I like that town and its low-desert aromas we don't get here in Sierra Vista because of our higher elevation.  It's a different world in Tucson.  I wish it weren't so far away, though.  Sometimes I want to be in a big city without having to drive 90 minutes to be in one.


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