Weekend Outing

Emily and I had a nice outing. We drove to Toledo mid afternoon on Saturday and checked into our motel. If you ever have a need to stay over in Toledo, try the new Hampton Inn and Suites on 795 at I75. This is the nicest Hampton we have every used. The rooms are large and nicely decorated. The beds are particularly plush and very comfortable. Emily does not like the design of the bathrooms which have the vanity in a niche of the room. The stool and tub/shower are in a separate room. It makes it impossible for one person to get up without waking the rest of the group. But this little quirk doesn't take away from the rest of the benefits--including a staff that seems very well trained and exceedingly polite.

Another advantage is location. It is only 10 minutes to downtown on I75 and a similar time to Levis Commons. We went there and looked around briefly, then had dinner at a Greek restaurant. We thought it was going to be Italian, but no--and Emily had a tough time finding something on the menu to eat. She finally decided on a pizza which was made on flat bread and had a lot of tomato slices--in summer it likely is scrumptious but winter tomatoes leave something to be desired. I had the best Greek salad that I have ever tasted--followed by stuffed cabbage rolls. So I was happy.

The TSO concert featured Sax Fourth Avenue which has a Defiance connection, having performed local several times and having one member who is a Defiance High School Band teacher. They played Phillip Glass, thankfully not as minimalist as I had anticipated. Though there were moments when you wished he would move on. Their encore was a greater success and they received an enthusiastic Toledo standing ovation. I suspect many in the audience didn't realize that saxophones could make music other than big band standards! With a young guest conductor, the orchestra's rendition of Scheherazade was the best I had ever heard. It was carefully crafted and balanced and soloist were superb. In all, we both enjoyed the performance.

Sunday morning we were up early as usual. Old folks don't sleep late even when they are in a nice bed away from home. So we passed on the free breakfast and went to Bobby E's just south of our location. A three egg omelet hit the spot. We lounged some, read USA Today and watched Sunday morning on CBS. After a quick stop at Sam's Club for some supplies, we got back to Defiance around noon. It was a nice break from what we do here on a day to day basis and I am so glad we decided to do it.