Saturday, 03-Aug-2024, through… Well, at least a year.
I’ve hit a bit of a roadblock here, dear readers.
I arrived in Dublin on 03-Aug. I stepped off the plane, got a cab, stepped into an AirBnB, and… felt… something. A sense of calm? Of pending tumult? Excitement and optimism and… it was like standing at the crest of a huge mountain pass – pride at making it through the pass and to the crest, awe at the vast world ahead, and a bit of apprehension at the path still yet to walk.
The first few days in Dublin were amazing, overwhelming, and exciting. I had the entire country ahead of me, and really only one goal in mind – finding an apartment. Before I started into that, though, I took some time to relax a bit. I wandered, revisited some of the spots that I’d last seen when I toured Dublin in March of 2023, and found a few interesting spots for a few interesting meals.
I edited photos, blogged a bit, read a bit, and even reached out to people a bit. I found shops, and started making up a list of the various places I’d want to visit in town – gyms, etc…
In short – I planted myself, and started to prepare to grow some roots.
Ohh man… how long has it been since I’ve been to a concert?
Not… huh. Not actually that long, I guess? Looking back at the archives (yay having a searchable diary!), it looks like I went to a punk show back in March. So… four months? That’s not actually that bad, really. Maybe… maybe, just maybe, things are starting to get a little bit better?
We’ll see. But for now, they were excellent. Loud music, beautifully comfortable desert air, and a gorgeous sun setting behind the stage. I could get used to evenings like this, no lie.
I’d driven out to Bend earlier in the day, taking my time to enjoy the drive while listening to music and letting my mind wander. It was great – I’d taken the Southern route to the desert, instead of going North past Mount Hood, so the scenery was a little bit different than normal. The top was down, the AC was on (hey, it was literally 106 degrees, hush), and I had approximately a gallon of sunscreen on.
The drive was lovely.
I arrived at my AirBnB, checked in, took some time to cool off… and headed into town for the show. Easy peasy. Maybe even lemon squeezy, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The concert itself was great – not quite as angry as I was expecting (and hoping for, truth be told) but… we do what we can, you know? The music was great, I had an amazing time, and I’m absolutely ecstatic that I was able to go!
Unfortunately, the show did end a bit earlier than expected… Remember, Rise Against is a political band, sort of like a slightly tamer version of Rage Against the Machine in my mind. Their songs are about issues in the world, and what could be. About respecting people, and breaking down barricades between us.
The mosh pit took that a bit too literally, and broke down the barricade in front of the stage.
Yeah. They took 30min trying to fix it, before giving up and telling us they weren’t allowed to play any more angry songs… not that the previous songs were excessively angry, but… you know. So they played an acoustic song (one of my favorites, actually), and then signed off for the night.
But it was near the end of the set anyways, so not too much music was lost I guess. A bummer, to be sure, but not the worst in the world.
That evening, I lay on the picnic table outside the place I’d rented, and watched the stars. I took a lovely bath in the claw-foot tub, and I took the chance to finish reading my book.
It’s been ages since my friends and I’ve had a good old fashioned get together.
COVID, living on the West Coast, tons of little things have delayed or denied getting to get together and catch up. But now, we’ve got a good reason to get together – one of the best reasons of all, in fact! A wedding! And what comes before a wedding? The bachelor party, of course!
Dillon had asked me to be his Best Man for the wedding in November, which of course meant planning and throwing the bachelor party itself – with much help from many people, a plan was crafted and a timeline put in place. A location chosen, a guest list compiled, and a date chosen.
Plane tickets were bought, rentals secured, and reservations called in. Now, all that remained was the best part of the process – sitting back and having an amazing weekend!!!
Saturday, 02-October-2021
Saturday dawned early… And if I’m being frank here, far earlier that I really thought would be possible for someone who just flew across the country, and doesn’t like waking up early on the best of days.
But you know what? Nothing helps me out of bed like the prospect of a day of friends and fun – and that goes double when I’m in a new place… Like, for example, an awesome new cabin by an absolutely gorgeous lake!
Which is all to say – I woke up early, met up with the other early risers, and got breakfast started with enough rest-time to step out onto the lake and greet the beautifully cool East Coast morning that I’ve missed so much. I don’t really know how to describe it, but… there’s something about the smell of the air on the East Coast that miss. It’s… more crisp? Maybe?
Anyways, It was lovely, and breakfast was absolutely delicious. Eggs, Bacon, Muffins, coffee… all of those critical things, up to and including good cheer and excitement.
The plan for the day was to get a short hike in, do a bit of kayaking, and then head into town for a bit of a bar crawl. Nothing crazy, of course, since we’re all old men at this point, but enough that we could relive a bit of glory days while also satiating our refined taste palettes. Yes. Fancy adults. Mmhmm.
Our hike started us off down a small side street, then took us across the highway on a lovely little highway overpass pedestrian bridge… before starting basically straight upward for 1.5 miles. Prospect Mountain was the name, with a nice distance of 3miles round trip, covering roughly 1,500ft of elevation gain. You know, nice and simple… roughly the same steepness of Mt. Hood, just at a lower elevation.
Yeah.
It was a steep hike, man.
But you know what? When we got to the top and were able to look out over the entire valley, feeling the wind at our backs and knowing we’d earned the views? It wasn’t so bad. Not at all bad.
The descent was marked by ever-increasing talk of lunch – we’d declined to pack snacks, since it was such a short hike, but… the heavy elevation had overcome our breakfast, and the thought of making some sandwiches back at the cabin was creeping more and more insistently into our collective conciousness.
We drove quickly, and pulled out all the fixings just as quickly.
If I may be proud, I’m pretty sure I knocked it out of the park with my own sandwich – heated in the oven, roast beef, cheese, lettuce added in right at the end… mm. We’re talking some good stuff, especially when combined with the various sides that we’d saved, and the leftovers from the night before. Some ribs, some mac and cheese… yeah. The hike had left us all hungry, and we absolutely ate well!
Once we’d finished gorging on our various delicious creations, we relaxed for a bit before heading out onto the lake – the rental cabin had a few kayaks squirreled away near the shore, ready and waiting for us to jump in and pilot them to their next adventure. Chris held down the fort at home, but the rest of us did a beautiful circumnavigation of the lake – Lake Luzerne, if I haven’t mentioned yet.
Our paddling was glorious. Beautiful skies, calm waters, and interesting views were had, and we even landed the kayaks at one point to explore a small tributary that led off the end of the lake… leading to what we learned was (I believe) the oldest paper pulp mill in the United States!
And a huge spider!
In short – the kayaking was excellent, relaxing, and a great post-lunch event.
From the water, we headed inland – after getting ourselves cleaned up, we heeded the call of the town and headed into Lake George to see what kind of trouble we could get into…
A distillery and an excellent restaurant, it turns out – Lake George Distillery and The Boathouse, specifically.
The distillery was definitely an interesting chance to try out some new spirits… but if I’m being candid here, I didn’t particularly click with any of the options that they had on the list. They weren’t bad, by any means, and their straight whisky was pretty solid, but nothing really stood out, you know? They’re good, but… I’m realizing that I really do just like the basics. Simple and clean is starting to be better than unique and experimental, you know?
Dinner, on the other hand, was absolutely excellent. We’d found a solid restaurant that hit the targets of being both affordable and high class, with a great beer menu and a solid dinner menu. Drinks, food, and laughter kept us going well into the evening, priming the way for us to head back to the cabin to keep the party train going until the whisky had been drank, and more than a few creative moves had been made in the various board games that people had brought along.
