it was date time and so we got a sitter and skeedadled for a nice night and some Christmas fun.

it was a fun night. here is where we went...

1. Our first stop was the space needley type tower thingy in our city. it is about 613 feet high. so we went up there and walked around and looked at our city by night.










2. After seeing spectacular views and enjoying that we went back down and got in a horse and carriage and toured the downtown area on the way to our restaurant for dinner...









3. Johnny Carinos baby! it was definetely nice to have a taste of home again. of course the dish we always get has bacon and therefore didn't taste quite the same with beef bacon... these people don't know what they're missing! It was quite a special treat... oh and did i mention that this restaurant that has both chili's and johnny carino's in it is on a boat docked on the river here?

oh don't ask about the duck and the bear. they were the greeters on the bridge onto the boat. i have no idea what in the world they were supposed to be... some pseudo-daffy and poo-imposter? or maybe they were just a duck and a bear. who knows... it was fun to get a picture taken with them nonetheless.


4. i got us some tickets to the opera house here for an international Christmas show. it had the symphony orchestra, the celebration choir and the opera company doing carols and other Christmas music. we ran into our neighbors there too... it was crazy. we saw the wife lighting up a cigarette (nearly everyone smokes here) in front of a no smoking sign inside the opera house lobby. everyone was doing it so no big deal i guess.
This was a lot of fun and was a good part of helping us feel like it really is Christmas time!