You know what’s funny? Going through your phone on Monday morning and finding a photo from Saturday night you don’t even remember taking. That’s the sign of a great weekend!
The photo wasn’t even of me. It was Tara, dancing in front of a mural in Art Alley after dark. She may have paid for that carefree moment the next day with a killer hangover, but she looked pretty happy when I snapped the pic.
No hangover for this guy. Then again, I never seem to get them. Which my wife just loves about me.
(By loves, I mean the opposite of loves. She can’t stand that I am bright, chipper, and full of boundless energy when she’s queasy and her head feels like a grenade just went off inside it.) And she’s the young one!
It had been a while since we’d had a night out on the town. Usually, we hole up in the basement, with records and cards. We’d been planning to do this a month ago but a snowstorm derailed those plans. Well, there was no snow on Saturday—just wind (shocker), so we headed downtown about 1:30. Our first stop was St. Joes Antique Mall, where I kicked off my quest to turn a DVD shelf into a display for cool vintage bar paraphernalia. I found a few items that fit the bill.
It always amazes me just how much time we spend in St. Joes. Nearly two hours had elapsed before we left. With 21,000 square feet of treasure spread over two floors, it’s no wonder.
After dropping off our purchases in the car, we crossed the street to browse the bins at Black Hills Vinyl. Even though our record collection is rapidly approaching 800, we still managed to find a handful of albums to buy. They’re mostly new releases at this point, though we did score a cool picture disk pressing of Electric Light Orchestra’s Out of the Blue.
We’re still on the hunt for Boston’s debut album. Rivergirl blew my mind last month when she shared a post about how the spaceship on the cover of that album is an upside-down guitar. I’d been a Boston fan for decades and never noticed that! Tara hadn’t either. Once you see it, you’ll wonder how you ever missed it before.
I was also blown away to discover that we don’t have that album in our collection. We do have their second album, Don’t Look Back. And, whaddaya know?
Man. Inverted guitars have been hidden right beneath our noses for decades. Who knew?
I have more than a feeling we’re going to be scooping up a copy of their first album sooner rather than later.
Next, we hit up Paddy O’Neill’s, our favorite Irish pub. Filled the virtual jukebox with a solid mix of indie, alternative, and ‘80s pop, and kicked it for a couple of hours with cocktails and pretzel sticks. Then we stopped into Pour 54, a self-serve taphouse where you swipe an electronic wristband next to the keg of your choice to fill your glass. There are, well, 54 selections from which to choose, and you can pour as little as a sip or as much as your glass can hold. Cool, innovative concept. We grabbed a cribbage board and played a game while enjoying live music and beer.
The dancing-in-the-alley happened after we left.
All in all, it was a great night out and a much-needed break from the regular routine.
Next up: the regular routine. Stay tuned!
Mark My Words 
The sign of a great weekend indeed! I never noticed that about the upside down guitar UFOs. Cool!
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Even if it took a little while to remember all the details!
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No clue about the hidden-ish guitar but I can see it now! Love that album.
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Me, too. I guess I only ever owned the CD. Gotta fix that oversight!
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Pretty cool about the guitar! Do the kegs somehow know if you only poured a sip vs a full glass and charge you accordingly? You’ve talked about this place before, which made me look up a similar place nearby. I’d forgotten I need to put going there on my list!
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They do know…it’s magic! It’s all calculated electronically down to a fraction of an ounce. Pretty high tech for Rapid City, SD.
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It took me a while to see the upside down guitars but, once you do, you wonder how on earth you’d missed them. It sounds like a hugely fun time out. I got one of those queasy stomach hangovers recently, after – and I kid you not – just 1 pint of Italian beer. I rarely drink beer, but now I refuse to risk even the occasional cold one. I rarely get bad hangovers, only the seriously slow & stupid ones. Himself, despite being my younger, has always hangovered (?is there such a word) badly, so I fear I may be suffering biteback from karma due to my past smugness. Heed my warning! 😀
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I like to say I’ve aged in reverse. I never even went into a bar until I met Tara. I acted like an old man back then, whereas today, I’m more like a college student sometimes, ha.
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How fun! We have an antique mall about a half hour away and it’s soooo easy to spend hours there. But honestly, not much I’d ever buy! More like, I remember having that in our house in the 1970’s!
Never noticed the UFO guitar before!
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One of my favorite pastimes in Portland was visiting antique/vintage stores. There were so many there, it was easy to kill an entire day inside.
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The fact that you rave about a dancing Tara picture and then fail to produce it is the epitome of cruel. Please relinquish your blogging card by the end of business day.
Atomic Cocktails? Most excellent!
How can you have 800 albums and not have Boston’s first? This does not compute.
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I thought about it, but decided to err on the side of caution and not embarrass my wife publicly. Some would call that a smart move!
I’ve got the second and third Boston albums. Always just assumed I had the first! Don’t worry, I’ll fix that ASAP.
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Meant to say… we had one of those self serve tap rooms. I loved it! Which is why they closed it.
😩
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Man, what a bummer. Seems like a great business model to me: low overhead, high profit. But what do I know about running a bar?
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That does sound like a nice weekend. It’s good to get out. (Our outings seem to involve youth soccer games, which is not quite the same, somehow…)
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There’s a lot to be said for having an empty nest! Aside from the whole being older thing…
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I had that album and never knew that was a guitar. I was probably drinking too many atomic cocktails to see clearly!
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Ha, yep! That’ll make every album cover look a little blurry.
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I love when you can do something out of the regular routine!
I’m also shocked about the guitars being upside down, I had no clue! We would be terrible detectives.
Yeah, it’s pretty crappy about you never having a hangover.
You should start faking it to make your wife feel better.
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Either that or drink twice as much to even the odds!
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For what it’s worth, I have that Boston album on vinyl, along with another 100 or so that haven’t seen a turntable in many, many years. Too bad you’re not a little closer, you could have a look.
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Oh, man…no kidding. Wish I’d known this when I lived there!
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Well, maybe if you ever find yourself out this way again we can chat…
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15-2, 15-4, and a pair is 6. Who won?
Speaking of Rivergirl, I think her husband would love that antiques mall.
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I won!
I thought of Rivergirl’s husband, too. There’s plenty of worthless junk there that I’m sure he’d be excited to take home and annoy her with.
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