Monday, January 27, 2014

Our Anniversary: It was Twenty Years Ago Today

Actually, it was ten years ago that Jim and I were married.  And it was January 17, not January 27 (today).  And although Jim's taste in music is much more expansive than mine, we both like the Beatles; hence the title of this post.

To celebrate our wedding anniversary, we had an inexpensive celebration, considering that we were going to fancy it up.

First we saw the Oscar-nominated movie "Gravity" featuring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney plus the poor unnamed guy whose face disappeared in the movie's first few minutes. Jim liked the film. I wasn't all that enthused but the more I thought, the better it was. I looked up comments from actual astronauts regarding how the movie depicted space exploration.  Seems the space walks were pretty accurate, but you apparently can't just fly to a foreign space station in another orbit (with or without a boost from a fire extinguisher) when you run into big trouble.

We had dinner reservations at Tucson's historic Hotel Congress, famous as a place the Dillinger crime gang stayed before being captured.  But first we stopped at "The World of Beer" for a drink and a huge pretzel. The pretzel was graciously comped because the bar tender briefly forgot to send the order to the kitchen. Then at the nearby hotel we had dinner entirely off the happy hour menu for a total of $20.  

Anyway, happy belated anniversary to us.  Between us, we've been married 58 years if you count his, mine and ours.
After this pretzel (obviously I'd already eaten a hunk of it) at Tucson's "World of Beer" we probably could have skipped dinner.
A dusty-wine-bottle chandelier at the Hotel Congress, where we had our anniversary dinner.  The hotel touts its connection with former public enemy number 1, John Dillinger.  As the story goes, in January 1934 Dillinger and his gang were staying at the Hotel Congress when a fire broke out.  They fled the hotel, but tipped a fireman to go back in and retrieve their luggage -- which contained $25,000 in cash from a recent bank robbery.  One of the fire men later recognized a gang member's photo in a copy of "True Detective" magazine and told the police, which led to the gang's capture.  I'm not sure about the gang, but Dillinger escaped and met his end a few months later in a Chicago shoot out.  
Palm trees and shadows in downtown Tucson.
Meanwhile, sunset as seen from our camping spot at Tucson's Davis Monthan Air Force Base.

5 comments:

  1. Happy Anniversary! We have been to a couple World Of Beers. They have an amazing selection.
    What fine label did you choose?

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  2. Hi Boonedocks! Jim had a Green Flash West Coast IPA and a Dragoon IPA. He liked them both, especially the Green Flash. I had a Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout. They had a chocolate stout on tap that I tried, but I liked the bottled Sam Smith better. We'd never even heard of World of Beer before, so you got us on that one.

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    1. We went to one near Melbourne, FL two winters ago, but have seen them in other places as well. Nice beer choices you made! Would have been disappointed if you had said BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors) products.

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  3. Happy Anniversary, to both of you. Of course one of you certainly got the better end of this deal, not going to name anyone, but you know who you are.

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