In Which there are Pirates, Poppets and a giant Cherry

Had a very quiet day on Wednesday, the last of the out-of-town Fiends (except Nathalie & I) being on their way home. I slept a lot. Then headed out to Stillwater once again as I had hear this rumour that Paul and Lorraine would be playing there. Admittedly it was a rumour from a pretty good source….
There was an old car show and they were playing as part of that. Which was interesting. Nathalie and I took a look at the cars, and played around taking pictures of weird reflections in them.

And, of course, listened to the music. I don’t wish to boast,(what am I saying, I long to boast!) but during the set break we got to hang out backstage with the band. Mm (nods)
Admittedly, in this instance, ‘backstage’ means ‘ the part of the parking lot behind the stage rather than in front of it’, and there was a tragic lack of laminated passes, but still…! I’m sure that with a little more practice I too could be a groupie.

Then Today (Thursday) I went hunting for a giant spoon, having heard rumours that one was to be found in this city. To my utter amazement I managed to find my way from the hotel to the Sculpture garden without getting lost., even once. Someone should take notes, because that probably isn’t going to happen again any time soon.
To cover my confusion, I spent a long time looking at the giant spoon and cherry. It was good to see something even less rational.
There were some other sculptures, too. I enjoyed the Henry Moore, although this too had a slightly surreal feel, as the last time I saw this sculpture it was in Kew Gardens. I had the Poppets with me, and decided that the request not to climb on the sculptures probably didn’t apply to poppets.

Another of my favourites was Frank Gehry’s giant glass fish., and the glass house in which it lives.
After inspecting the sculptures, and filing to identify some large and no doubt extremely common birds, it was time to try further navigation. Lured by promises of tea, I had agreed to go over to see Quiche and bring Nathalie back to the Big city in order to catch her flight home. Given my proven ability to get lost in almost any circumstances, my failure to do so on this occasion can only be attributed to the fact that I was following directions provided by the Fabulous Lorraine.

There was tea, and some bees, and some more tea. That tea was *good* tea.

And we only made one teeny mistake driving to the airport when a junction came too suddenly (Sure, I *could* have cut across 3 lanes of traffic to go there, I just didn’t happen to want to just then) But that was quickly fixed with a U-turn and other then that the trip to the airport was uneventful and as far as I know, Nathalie caught her flight successfully.

As I arrived back at the hotel I could not help but notice that there was a sudden increase in the ambient concentration of pirates in and around the hotel. Some might attribute this to the fact that ‘Convergence’ is taking place in the hotel next door. I suspect that this may merely be protective colouration, and that the Pirates may have more sinister plans in mind. If this hotel is boarded and sets sail for the Caribbean you will know who to blame.

The elves in the elevators may or may not be in on the plot. That is currently unclear.
I’m pretty comfortable with assuming that the Starfleet officers belong with the convention, however. I doubt *they* would throw their lot in with Pirates.