Girls Weekend 2015, Richmond, Virginia. Tuesday, October 27

Last full day of our Richmond, Virginia Girls Weekend adventure.  Sigh.  It always comes too fast. Once again, as always with our trips, we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and have seen and experienced many things that this charming and historical city has to offer.  Museums, cemeteries, Segway rides, and wonderful dining and shopping experiences.  Girls weekend is the best!!  Today after our morning rituals, Kathi uses her Uber app to get us a ride to the Edgar Allan Poe museum.  This will be the second Poe museum that we have visited on Girls weekend, the first one having been in Philadelphia, a few years back.  Unlike that museum, which was located in a home that the famed poet and story writer had actually lived in, this museum is located in the oldest house in Richmond and, while it is in the neighborhood where Poe grew up and spent the majority of his childhood, it is NOT a house that he every actually lived in.  Apparently those have all been demolished.  However, they do have quite a collection of many pieces of furniture that were in the home he lived in as well as some pieces from some of the places where he worked.  They also have several original writings of his.  The man wrote incredibly small and neatly, I must say!!  We wandered around in the museum and on the grounds for a couple of hours.  The museum also includes a model of the city of Richmond as it was during Poe's life time, along with some wonderful illustrations done by a young English street artist that were intended to accompany Poe's poem, "The Raven".  The 43 watercolor and ink illustrations,  by James Carling, are not the ones normally associated with this work, but certainly do an amazing job of capturing the mood and feel of the piece.

The museum is comprised of several buildings with a beautiful little courtyard in the center that has been designed to represent The Enchanted Garden as described in Poe's poem of that name.  This garden includes a shrine and a fountain.

There are also a couple of resident black cats, Edgar and Pluto who roam about freely.  It was all quite charming, with a bit of creepy, too, in places.  After all, we ARE talking about the master and originator  of the psychological thriller and murder mystery genre of literature.

Once we did a little shopping in the great gift shop here, Kathi, once again, got on her Uber app and got us a ride to the ShortPump shopping center.  A shopping center we chose because they have a Free People store.  I had recently purchased some Free People clothing items from the Off Saks Fifth Ave store back home in Oregon that Kathi really admired and after checking out their website she decided that she wanted to take a hands on look at their stuff, which IS fabulous, in my opinion!  So we Ubered off to the mall and spent a wonderful couple of hours going through the sale rack and trying on lots of wonderful things, some of which came home with us and some that didn't make the cut.  After that workout, we both realized that we were starving and decided to get dinner at the Rock Bottom brewery that was right there in the mall.  I had a couple of the best Bloody Mary's ever, along with  two delicious chicken quesadillas, while Kathi opted for a burger and a beer.  We made a quick dash (by now it was 8:30pm and the mall closed at 9) into both the Macy's and the Nordstrom to see if they had any deals on their small selection of Free People clothing and came away empty handed but fully satiated.  We got an Uber ride back to the apartment and called it a night.

GirlsWeekend2015, Richmond, Virginia

Well, it’s Day 5, and Lori and I are a bit sad that we’re already past the halfway point of Girls Weekend. It’s definitely overcast today, and it rained at some point and was still a bit drippy outside. We start the day hovering over our computers and drinking cups of coffee. Lori has been the designated coffee maker for this trip. We have a Keurig in the apartment, and our hosts keep it well stocked with a few different brands of what seem to be, at best, mediocre tasting coffee, and at worst, tasteless and nasty. Lori has tried everything, including doing a short pour, but nothing really works. We are craving Starbucks but there isn’t one close to us.  So after determining this to be the case, Lori decided to walk to a nearby coffee shop after her shower to get a "real" cup of coffee.  She ended up at a place with the curious name of Cartwheels and Coffee that is a mere block away from our apartment.  The origin of the name became clear when she walked in and saw a nursing mom and toddlers everywhere climbing on all kinds of indoor playground equipment and playing with all kinds of available toys, along with the coffee bar.  Wow!  What a great idea!  And the coffee turned out to be pretty good, too!!

As I am writing this, I have come the realization that we have not given you a "tossing of the States" update in a couple of days. So here’s where we stand. On Sunday we tossed and all three remaining stated landed face up, so none were disqualified. When we tried again this morning, two states landed face up, and the other landed squarely on its side…meaning that once again, none were disqualified, so we put them away for next time.

This morning’s breakfast is hard boiled eggs and oatmeal. I added raspberries and almonds to mine, but Lori is a plain-with-brown-sugar-oatmeal kind of gal. After completing the morning’s writing tasks (thesis for me and journal for Lori), we showered and dressed and left the apartment to walk to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA).  

It was the chilliest morning yet, but our walk wasn’t long at all, only about 15 minutes.  Most of the way we were walking on a boulevard, appropriately named Boulevard Street, that was flanked on both sides by huge beautiful 3-story homes. Most of these had been turned into flats and apartments, and some into businesses, but it looked like several were sill single family dwellings. The houses were all brick, and some were painted on the front. The houses were all different from one another in some way – different roof lines or balconies or porches or doorways. The houses had very small front yards, most no more than 10 feet deep, but it appeared that most of them had back yards, and this is a city with alleys, so all garages were well behind the houses on the alley. Even though the houses are quite close together, we loved them and loved the area, and decided we could both live here. It is my preference that a house should look like a house, not a garage with an expansion next to and behind it, but that’s the city girl coming out in me.

As Lori wrote yesterday, at least 80% of the people we have met, who have heard we’re from out of town, have told us we must go to the VMFA. Not being dummies, we figured we had better make the time to get there, although art museums are not Lori’s favorite thing. I enjoy them as long as they are not completely contemporary - I’m sorry if anyone is offended, but a couple of crisscrossing streaks of color on a white background, or a canvas that looks as if someone hurled five cans of paint at it in the span of 15 minutes then hung it on a wall, are not my idea of interesting art.  As it turns out, the VMFA was well worth the visit.  First of all, it is absolutely and completely free of charge, with the exception of one exhibit on Japanese tattoos. Second, it is the state art museum, located here because Richmond is the capital, and as such, contains art from a wide variety of genres, periods, etc. We had no real plan of attack, so we just went to the second floor and walked into the first gallery we came to. Over the next couple of hours, we wandered through ancient art, East Asian, and European Art that held a gorgeous display of Faberge, including one of the precious and rare Imperial Eggs. 

 

We visited the Tapestry Hall and the English Silver display. Somewhere in the European gallery we stood a long time looking at gorgeous stained glass. We moved out of artifacts into paintings, but by this time we were getting quite hungry, and decided it was time to leave. On our way out though, we spotted a couple of really interesting pieces in the Realism gallery, and so we stayed in there for another half hour before going to the gift shop to look around. Museum gift shops are the best, they always have such a wide array of interesting things.

We left the museum at about 4:15, and were back in our ‘hood by 4:30, looking for food. We had our eyes on an Ethiopian restaurant we had found the day before, but when we went in to the space the restaurant shared with a bar, we were told the restaurant was closed on Mondays. As it turned out, several places are closed in Carytown on Mondays. We ended up in a Thai restaurant called Mom’s Siam, and in the end we were very happy to have found the place. Lori ordered red curry with chicken, which she said was wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed a tender and flaky piece of grilled salmon accompanied by jasmine rice and green veggies.  The veggies were a bit too spicy for me, but I still managed to eat about half of them. 

All sign of rain had disappeared and the evening was clear and crisp and great for walking, but we went back to the apartment to regroup and, as it turns out, for Lori to take a quick nap! We looked for someplace that had live music, but no such luck on a Monday. While we were calling around to find music, one bar said they didn’t have music on Mondays but they did have game night, and all were welcome to come in and play any of an array of games they laid out. So after our hour and a half or so of rest, we set off for game night at the Cary St. Cafe, only to find out when we got there that the entire place was rented out to a private party for the night.  I almost asked to speak to the idiot who had told me over the phone to come play games, but instead we just turned and went back home. Once there, however, we decided that we really did want to be out and about somewhere a bit more, so Lori grabbed a couple of card games she always carries with her, and we went to the wine bar up the street, which was open – hurrah! There we sat for a contented couple of hours, ordering and drinking a couple flights of different wines (we did not find anything we really liked during this tasting) enjoying some really good girl talk, and then playing Quiddler until we decided it was indeed time to head home. Good Lord, I love Girls Weekend.

Once back in our cozy homespace, we tossed the states again for what turned out to be the final time. Next year, Girls Weekend will take place in…drum roll please… Florida! Before we went to sleep, we were already looking at possible cities. Ah, anticipation!

Girls Weekend 2015, Sunday October 25

       

Wow.  It's Sunday already, how can that be??  The time on Girls Weekend always seem to go by so very fast.  Our original plan for today was to go to the Edgar Allen Poe museum this morning, then to our Escape Room experience at 5pm.  Instead, we spent a leisurely morning in the room until we were starving and I suggested that we go out and get breakfast rather than having our fruit and yogurt breakfast as we have been having the past couple of days.  Mainly because I had finished off my yogurt the night before!!  I did a little research and determined that Weezie's looked like a good choice for breakfast, so once we both had showered we walked the few blocks to the restaurant.  We did have little bit of a wait, seems this place is a favorite for breakfast.  Kathi and I both had eggs, over medium, with crispy bacon along with whole wheat toast for Kathi and an English muffin for me.  I don't know if the food was exceptionally good or if I was exceptionally hungry, but everything tasted absolutely delicious.  Once we were done eating we starting wandering back towards our apartment and found ourselves getting drawn into many of the great shops along Cary Street that we really hadn't taken the time to explore yet.  This quickly led to a revision of the days' plan.  Rather than go to the Edgar Allen Poe museum today and rushing our way through it, we decided to go ahead and browse the shops here until it was time to go to the Escape Room.  We found a couple more delightful vintage clothing shops as well as some clothing boutiques that had WONDERFUL stuff that was outrageously expensive.  We also made our way into a cafe that was displaying and showcasing the art of a couple of artists that were actually there.  In addition we finally made our way to the local bookstore, Chop Suey.  Funny name for a bookstore, huh?  And their resident cat is named Won Ton  (who, unforturnately was not on the premises because he was at the home of the bookshop owner recovering from a unknow mishap that resulted in a broken jaw.....poor baby) It is mainly a used bookstore, but, as so many used bookstores have done with the demise of so many of the BIG bookstores, they also carry a number of new books, too.  One unique and interesting thing that they do at this bookstore is have a few shelves of books that are wrapped up in plain brown wrapping paper and twine with a general description of the book inside.  They call these books "blind dates" that you can buy and take home to unwrap and read.  What a charming idea!!  I didn't buy any of these books, but I LOVE this idea!

By this time, it was time to call Uber (which I have decided is truly a great service), and catch a ride to our Escape Room experience.  Now for those of you who are not familiar with Escape Rooms and wonder just what the heck I have been talking about, let me tell you about it!

Escape Rooms are becoming a hot ticket across the country.  Each Escape Room has a different story behind it to help you get started.  You and several of your friends, or co-workers or strangers, depending on who has booked the experience at the same time that you have, are locked into a room for 60 minutes, in which time you are to find clues and solve puzzles in order to get out.  Megan and I did one of these while we were in New Orleans and I am now hooked.  I don't want to give too much away, but both of the rooms i have been in have included notes left lying around with cryptic messages  that are meant to be clues to where to look for keys to locked chests, or desks which lead to more clues.  Both of the adventures I have done have started in one room and had clues that eventually led to a secret door (both have been bookcases) that opened up into another room.  In New Orleans, Megan and I were the only ones trying to solve all the clues and puzzles and we came close, but didn't quite solve everything in the hour we were given.  In this adventure, Kathi and I were with a group of 6 other people, who all knew one another, but we all collaborated in our effort to solve everything, unlock everything and get our.  Again, we were close, but were defeated in our efforts.  It is SO MUCH FUN and I would highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for something to do that is different than dinner and a movie.  It gets one moving (we had to climb a ladder and crawl through a passageway for this particular experience, for example) and using your mind in order to get out of the room.  It is challenging, but fun.  And, of course, they will let you or any of your party out of the room if they decide that the whole thing is not for them.

Once we were out of the room, we did a little grocery shoppimg at the Martin's grocery store that was in the same shopping center as the Escape Rooms, then ubered our way back to our apartment.  We did make a quick run out to a local pub/pizza place, the Mellow Mushroom, to fill a growler that Fiona provided for us with a berry cider. Rather than going our for dinner, we snacked on cheese and summer sausage and fruit and watched "The Perks of Being A Wallflower".

                                   

Not long after the movie ended we crawled into bed and crashed.  The Edgar Allen Poe Museum in closed on Mondays, so tomorrow we plan on visiting the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (EVERYONE we have talked to here has said that we should go there), and the Poe museum on Tuesday.

Until then...............

Girls Weekend 2015, Saturday October 24

       

                                  All geared up for our Segway tour of historical Richmond

Saturday, October 24, 2015

It’s Day 3, and after having our morning chat and coffee and breakfast, we managed to get out of the apartment by 12:30. We walked along the same route to downtown that we followed yesterday, noting already-familiar landmarks along the way; the mural walls, the uneven brick sidewalks, Firehouse 12 with the really nice firemen who gave us directions yesterday. Although it was overcast and quite a bit chillier than our first two days, it was still a nice day and we enjoyed the walk. Despite all of this, after about half an hour I had to say “uncle”. My ankles have been deteriorating pretty steadily over the years from arthritis and whatever abuse I have subjected them to, and despite having had a cortisone shot in one of them only a month ago, they were screaming after the long trek yesterday. And so, I decided it was time to expose Lori to Uber. She had never used the service and was admittedly wary of the entire idea, fearing vulnerability for female riders. Also, she said there is a lot of controversy in Oregon over the use of Uber over taxis. This spurred an intellectual conversation between us the next day (OK, really it was a rant on my part about free enterprise in this technological world, and calm acceptance of my right to rant on Lori’s part).  Our Uber arrived in 3 minutes flat, and we were glad to have called it when we saw how far we still had to go to reach our destination.

And where exactly were we going on this fine, autumn morning? We arrived at Segway of Richmond at 1:30 sharp, after spotting and stopping at a Starbucks a block away. We were about to take our first Segway rides, and both of us were extremely excited. The experience did NOT disappoint. After signing all the prerequisite forms and donning the appropriate safety gear (I spotted a pink helmet and a Segway covered in pink ribbon decals, and immediately claimed them both), we all went out for instructions and practice time in the alley.

                         

                                                                    Ready to ride!!

Then Lori and I and 14 others who had the same marvelous idea, were off on a 2-hour tour of the historical and landmark sites of downtown Richmond. One of our stops was in gorgeous St. Paul’s church, where all of the stained glass windows were done by Tiffany. 

                         

                                beautiful Tiffany stained glass windows of St Paul's Church

Our guide also took us down to the St. James river, as well as to the government center so that we could roll up to the governor’s mansion to say hey!  We had a great time, and now Lori wants a Segway so she can tool around Salem on it.

                         

   

After our tour we were STARVING. There was a restaurant right across the street called the Urban Farmhouse, a farm-to-table kind of place that looked good, so we went there. We each had a bowl of delicious tomato basil rice soup, and shared a Cubano sandwich with ham, pork, and sharp brown mustard on a wonderfully firm yet flaky roll. YUM YUM YUM! With our tummies full, we called an Uber and came back to Carrytown, the area in which we were staying. There is a great vintage clothing store next to the Byrd Theater called Bygones, where we had purchased our tickets to the Phantom of the Opera the day before and we were wanting to spend some time in there, because our quick stop in to buy the tickets revealed that they have some VERY cool stuff. Since they didn’t close until 8:00, this was our chance. We spent a delightful couple of hours in this fascinating place. They had amazing vintage clothing and jewelry, and the “shopgirls” were completely dressed for the occasion, in vintage 40’s clothing, hair, and makeup.  Lori found an amazing sequined dress in a gorgeous blue that she thought looked like me, and encouraged me to try it on. With a body in the dress it took on a wonderful shape… unfortunately, I had a bit too much wonderful, and couldn’t get it zipped. So Lori tried it on, and it zipped up nicely, but as she is … uh… shall we say, almost completely wonder-free on top, it didn’t work on her either. So we mournfully gave up the dress and had to be satisfied with admiring it on the hanger.  I bought a full slip from the 50’s and a new dress that was a reproduction as my trip souvenir, and Lori purchased an awesome OLD burgundy velvet cape with a hood for her daughter Megan, who is a budding photographer and is always looking for great props and costumes.

We left the store and walked home to our little adorable apartment (which is what it’s called on Airbnb) and settled in for a cozy evening of red wine, writing, picture sharing, and internet surfing. Our old bones have been exhausted by all this fresh air and walking, and when we went to bed we were asleep within moments.

 

Kathi Ridley-Merriweather

Executive Director, Indy Youthworks,

"...where kids can act out!"

Teaching Artist, Indiana Repertory Theatre

Adjunct Faculty, University of Indianapolis

317.319.6337 cell

Girls Weekend 2015-Richmond, Virginia

       

Sooo.,,,Friday morning, we both woke up around 7:30 or so and we decided to get up and start the day.  Mornings on Girls Weekends, unless we have some morning activity scheduled, have come to consist of cups of coffee, catching up on one another's lives, and catching up on the world on our computers, as well as writing up a journal of our daily events.  We have found that if we wait too long to journal our daily events, that we have a hard time remembering everything that we did, so the sooner we write about it, the better off we are!!  On this particular morning, I am not sure what all we did, but I DO know that we didn't leave our cozy little apartment until 2pm.  Since we decided that we REALLY wanted to go to the showing of The Phantom of the Opera, I called to change our Escape Room adventure from Friday to Saturday and we thought we would walk to Hollywood Cemetery early in the day.  Guided tours are offered at the cemetery, but only at 10 am and we just weren't going to be able to get their by then, so we took our time getting ready and walked the couple of miles to the cemetery.  As we walked to the cemetery we were treated with seeing many of the murals painted on buildings around the city.  Apparently this is big thing here in Richmond and there are murals nearly everywhere one looks.  It really is quite delightful. 

                                        

The weather was gorgeous and the walk was very nice, although most of the sidewalks here are bricks rather than the pavement that Kathi and I are both used to and one really has to watch one's step so no ankles end up twisted.  We ignored the directions given to us by Google maps because we were determined to get a cup of Starbuck's coffee.  

Our apartment does have a Keurig machine and our hostess has provided K cups, but it just isn't Starbuck's, ya know what I mean?  We did make it to a Starbuck's on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University then set out to complete our journey to the cemetery.  We spoke with a darling and very nice young man outside of the Starbuck's to find out the quickest route to our destination.  It wasn't long before we found it.

                  

The cemetery is 135 acres of rolling hills and paths and roads that overlook the James River.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places because it is the final resting place of two US Presidents, James Monroe and John Tyler as well as Jefferson Davis, the only Confederate States President, along with 22 Confederate generals, two Supreme Court justices and thousands of Confederate soldiers.  It truly is a beautiful and peaceful place and Kathi and I were happy that we decided to visit this place.

                           

We did have one of our Kathi and Lori moments while in the cemetery where we laughed at ourselves until our stomachs hurt.  We always try our best to get pictures that include both of us while on our trips and sometimes, when there is no one else around to take a picture for us, this means using the timer on my camera and making the mad dash to get into the frame.  This happened to be the case at the spot that we decided was just the right place for a photo of the two of us.  Something went wrong with our first attempt and we got no picture, probably because I mistakenly hit the on/off button on the camera before I made the mad dash rather than the shutter button.  The second time I was successful in pushing the right button, but I didn't quite make it to my spot in time to pose for the picture.  Then some folks came along that we recruited to take the photo for us, but it took a little bit of moving around to get the light just right, so I didn't look like a spirit in the cemtery.  We finally did get a get shot, after a few tries.

                            

After walking around in the cemetery for an hour or two, we realized that we were pretty hungry, thirsty and a bit tired, so we decided that it was time to make the trek back and find something to eat.  Kathi has bad ankles and was starting to have experience some serious pain so we kicked around the idea of calling Uber for ride back to Carytown, but once we started walking and talking, we were back before we knew it.  We took one of Fiona's suggestions for dinner and ate at a taco place called Don't Look Back (interesting name.....I would love to know the story behind it, wouldn't you?)  where Kathi had fish tacos and I had spicy beef tacos, and we both had margaritas.  We agreed that our food was delicious and after polishing it all off we walked across the street to the Byrd Theater for The Phantom of the Opera.  The original 1925 silent film version with Lon Chaney.  This was a unique experience because we were in this beautiful old movie theater that was built in 1928 and is the home of a wonderful Wurlitzer organ, which was skillfully played by an organist (Michael Britt) who played the score that originally accompanied this film.  I have to confess that when we decided to do this, I was fearful that this would be one of those experiences that sounded really cool, but ended up being a disappointment.  This was not the case at all.  It was a great experience and one I would be willing to do again.

         

                                         Inside the beautiful Byrd Theater in Richmond, Virginia

Once the movie was over, we walked back to our apartment (all of one block away) and did our second tossing of the states.  We did our first toss this morning.  After this morning's toss this is what was left:

                Then after tonight's toss we were down to these three:  

We each called our husbands, downloaded pictures, caught up with the world on our computers, Kathi worked on her thesis a little bit, then we turned in for the night.  Tomorrow is our Segway tour.  Until then.......

       

Girls Weekend 2015-Richmond, Virginia

Thursday, October 22, 2015 – Richmond, VA 

above the clouds on the way to Richmond, VA for Girls Weekend

(the following was written by Kathi)

It’s finally here!! The 18th annual Girls Weekend. It’s weird, the year seems to fly, then when 

GW is approaching it slows to a crawl and feels like it will never ever be time…and then, 

suddenly, it’s time! Lordy, do we love Girls Weekend. Just sayin’. 

In order for us to have the majority of the day here, poor Lori had to take the red eye. She arrived 

first at about 10:30, then I arrived an hour later. My bag actually showed up when I did, unlike 

last year, and soon we were in a taxi and on our way to our Airbnb in Carytown, an area of 

Richmond that, according to my reading, was a somewhat funky, somewhat eclectic 

neighborhood with lots of places to eat and shop, and great for walking.  We arrived before the 

adorable little basement apartment we were renting was ready, but we got to meet our host Fiona, 

and her cute little dog Squeaker. We offloaded our bags and took off for a walk and to find some 

food while Fiona completed cleaning the place. 

Lori had been doing some research and suggested we eat at the Daily, a nice little place with 

outdoor seating and a good lunch menu. After received copious amounts of directions and 

suggestions from Fiona – who could talk a blue streak – we went to find the Daily restaurant and 

had a delightful lunch while sitting outside. It was a gorgeous day – about 78 degrees and 

brightly sunny, and we enjoyed a cup of soup (curried sweet potato for both of us, yummy!). 

Then Lori had a big chicken salad and I had tofu lettuce wraps. Yep, I said tofu lettuce wraps. I 

have been ordered by my doctor to ditch dairy and carbs as much as possible for a while, and I’m 

trying to be a good girl. We’ll see what the dinner report is a few days from now, but our lunch 

was nice and healthy, and tasted good too. 

After lunch we walked about a half mile up the street looking into a few shops, and ended up at 

Kroger where we grabbed some snacks for the room. I didn’t have much sleep before my 5:45 

am flight but had been able to sleep soundly on both legs of my trip here, but Lori was starting to 

crash from lack of sleep, so we walked back to find that our apartment was just about ready. Half 

an hour and several thousand words from Fiona later, we were settled into comfy chairs in our 

cute little place and had a nice chat, until at about 4:30 Lori gave in to the great need for a nap. 

While she slept I made my picks in the football pool, submitted midterm grades for the Public 

Speaking class I’m teach this semester, and started writing this journal…none of which was the 

thesis writing I was supposed to be doing. Gotta be more disciplined than that for the rest of the 

trip. 

                         The little apartment that we are staying in is in the basement of this home.  Our entrance is on the left hand side of this picture , down the steps.  It is a truly darling little place and only one block away from all the action on Cary Street.

After Lori woke up and freshened up we set out to find some dinner, deciding on a pseudo Indian 

place called Curry Craft with a nice atmosphere, great wine, and somewhat mediocre and quite 

disappointing Chicken Tikka Masala. We decided that if we wanted Indian again on this trip we 

would try to traditional place up the street, run by real Indians. We have found ourselves several 

times over the years dining in front of a lovely or interesting window, and we have a nice 

assortment of pictures. Our table at the fake Indian restaurant was by a great window, so we 

asked the extremely willing and helpful server to go outside and take our picture.  There was so 

much glare that in the end she came back to take the shot from the inside looking out. 

       

After dinner, before strolling back home, we went into the Byrd Theater, a circa 1920s movie 

theater (I’m making that up right now, I’ll correct it later when I find out the real year it was 

built) which had “Phantom of the Opera” on its marquee, to find out if they were going to show 

the original circa 1950s (I’m making that up too, I just know I watched it as a kid) Bela Lugosi 

version I so loved as a child. As it turns out, they were actually planning to screen the REAL 

original 1925 Lon Chaney SILENT FILM version, and it would be accompanied by someone 

playing the theater’s Wurlitzer organ in the manner the movie was meant to be seen, and the 

organ was meant to be played. One showing only, at 7:30 the following night. 

                                         

Well, any of you who know me and Lori know that there was no way we were going to miss that. We immediately decided to alter the plans we had made for Friday so that we could attend this showing.  

We left the theater and went across the street to treat ourselves to scoops of homemade pumpkin 

ice cream with hot fudge (you’ll hear more about the folly of this decision later) and walked 

home to enjoy it in our little sitting area, then chatted until both of us were quite tired and went 

to bed.  The big queen size bed was quite comfy, and after spending only a fraction of our usual 

bedtime talking time, we were asleep.