Uppity and Down

For the past two evenings I have left the security of Uppity Town Normal and headed to Bloomington for fine dining experiences.  Yes, that would be Downtown Bloomington, formerly known as Downtown Bloomington, as opposed to Uptown Normal formerly known as Downtown Normal.  If you are confused, don't feel bad.  Just laugh about it, like most people who've lived here a long time do.  Uptown!  Ha!  HAHA. 

Downtown Bloomington has many fine attributes, but the only action on a Saturday night seems to be at the bars.  As opposed to Uptown on a Saturday which features people at a movie theater, restaurants, a fancy schmancy hotel and conference center, and now the CVS drugstore open on the corner of Fell and North avenues.  Yes, you can now buy condoms in the very spot where I was baptized over 40 years ago.  Boggling!

Friday night we had pizza at the Lucca Grill.  The kids were there a few weeks before, celebrating the end of the baseball season for Jeremiah's team.  The pizza that night was good, we all got to sit together upstairs in the ugly room with the huge noisy air conditioner and the kids had a blast.  So when they got to pick where they wanted to eat out on Friday, they got to choose between the 2 restaurants where they like to eat that do NOT have a drive through:  Applebees (haute cuisine for 9 year olds!) or Lucca Grill.  LG won hands down. 

When we went with the team, we went straight to the upstairs room that night as it had been reserved for us.  Friday we headed in through the main restaurant on the first floor to be seated.  The kids freaked out.  MOM!  You can't take us in here!  It's a BAR!  Well it does look like one.  But the first floor tables were full and we headed upstairs and sat right by the noisy air conditioner so everyone was happy.

FYI - they are planning to take Grandma and Grandad there for dinner on Grandparents Day. 

Saturday night I went to have dinner with my friend Shamelle at Reality Bites.  It was also very busy, and we sat at the bar because we had neglected to make a reservation.  Which as it turns out, was just as well because by sitting at the bar we got to meet some fun people who also neglected to make a reservation and were sitting at the bar and we all ended up sharing our food with each other so we could taste as many dishes as possible.  The food there was great.  I ordered Baja Fish Tacos (not authentic as I have had the real thing in Baja) but just as delicious.  Shamelle had a tuna-wonton salad that was excellent.  Scott sitting next to me on the other side shared his brie and fruit appetizer with us and Shamelle was pretty excited about that, too.  But the crowning moment of the night was that...a total stranger gave me hummus!

The couple on the other side of Scott had started this food-sharing-movement.  They ordered the Yummus Hummus and then passed it down our way.  They are my new BFFs, if only I could remember their names.