One art form that I enjoy as a hobby is photography. As with blogging, I enjoy the occasional challenge to spark my creativity (and also provide an audience.) One such challenge is Five on the Fifth. Each month, on the fifth, you are encouraged to post five photos taken on (or leading up to) the fifth. The theme for this month is “the blues,” which as you know can mean a color, a feeling, or a genre of music.
I actually had planned to take one per day starting on the first, but I discovered yesterday that my phone had been reset to 320×200 pixel mode for weeks. A shame, because this cosmic looking image of suds at the car wash could have been awesome:
So I took all five images today. I went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant near Seaport Village, a cluster of gift shops and restaurants perched on the edge of the harbor. The place that I thought I was going to was closed. And when I say closed, I mean really closed. I was rather blue at that point.
Fortunately, I found that I was mistaken about the location of the restaurant. The real restaurant was still open, and just a short walk from the abandoned building. On the way, I passed this whimsical sea dragon.
The restaurant was a rather nice place. All but two items on the menu either contained seafood of some sort or other, or had various fish and shellfish upsells. I perused the menu for a few moments and then ordered something that I recognized, albacore. I forgot, until the food arrived, that it is customary to serve tuna rare, very rare. Lots of people like it that way, apparently.
However, having now ordered very rare tuna from a reputable restaurant that specializes in its preparation, I am now quite sure that I don’t like it that way. While it tasted all right, the texture and the temperature were disconcerting to me. I should have just ordered the fish and chips, as unsophisticated as that would have been.
Outside the restaurant was a group of bronze statues commemorating Bob Hope’s many USO tours. This may sound a little random at first, but with the USS Midway, a museum ship, docked nearby, the surrounding area has been themed to honor World War II veterans.
Not far from Bob Hope is a controversial statue recreating the famous image of a sailor kissing a nurse at the end of the war. Not only is the statue gigantic, it’s actually made of construction foam, which will eventually disintegrate in the weather. But raise the subject of removing it before it deteriorates and the citizenry raises its hackles. Never mind that the statue was protested by some as “kitschy” when it was installed.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a good image of that statue this afternoon. But here’s someone else’s image, if you’re curious.
I then returned to Seaport Village, there to have a bit of coffee and to stroll around a bit before departing again to begin the evening’s entertainment.
…The new Castle Ravenloft board game. It was actually quite exciting, despite the fact that the rules were just a bit vague in places. I’m looking forward to playing it again.
ERIK
