Dan Antion

Vincent Price is Dead – #SoCS

Bourbon milkshake
Maddie wanted to sit. I wanted a beer. We compromised.
Cheryl makes a pretty good Michelada

It’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday, so it’s time to take Linda’s prompt and head to the bar. Linda sets the stage for this week’s conversation by giving us:

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘flower/flour.’ Use one, use both, it’s totally up to you. Enjoy!”

She’s kidding, right?

If we were having a beer, you would be wasting no time.

“It’s your turn to buy.”

“Yes, thanks, it is good to be back.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just that sometimes, when you’re gone for a week, I forget whose turn it is.”

“But not today.”

“No, not today.”

“Not today – what? Are you guys not drinking today?”

“We’re drinking Cheryl, but he’s paying. It’s his turn to buy.”

“I think we established that. Welcome back Cheryl.”

“Thanks Dan. It’s good to be back. Did you have a good trip?”

“We had a great time, how about you?”

“It was great, I miss them already. You want a Corona? Or did you switch beers when you were in Pittsburgh.”

“That’s a silly question. He operates within a four-brand range of beers.”

“That might be true, but I did have some drinks that might surprise you.”

“My young friend, if you can surprise me, I will pay for today’s food and drink.”

“You heard him, Cheryl.”

“I did, but I’m leaning toward his side, Dan – you don’t normally drift out of the box.”

“You want in on the action?”

“Sure, surprise me, and the first round’s on the house.”

“OK young man. That’s raise and call. Let’s hear it, what did you drink that wasn’t beer?”

“In reverse order, I had a Margarita at the baseball game, wine with dinner Sunday night and a Bourbon milkshake with dinner on Saturday.”

“A Bourbon…”

“…milkshake?”

“Yes.”

“Well, first round is on the house. Wings and subsequent rounds are on you, old man.”

“Thanks Cheryl, I’ll have a Corona.”

“OK, you got me. But, baseball… I thought you went down to see the Steelers lose.”

“We did go to the football game, but we stayed an extra day to see the Pirates play.”

“Did they lose, too? Is that why you turned to the hard stuff?”

“No, they won in classic style. Tied going into the bottom of the ninth. Two outs, two men on, three-and-two count on Stallings. He smacked it into left field to bring Kramer in from second.”

“I love it when that happens.”

“It sure felt good.”

“I’m surprised the game wasn’t rained out, wasn’t Florence headed your way?”

“She blew through early. It poured all day long.”

“Were you stuck in your hotel?”

“No, we toured Heinz Chapel and Phipps Conservatory.”

“Phipps? I thought it was Phibes”

“Anton Phibes? That was a movie “The Abominable Dr. Phibes?”

“I guess I’m confused.”

“I guess, Vincent Price died twenty-five years ago – tough to tour.”

“Wait, so what’s Phipps? A concert hall? “

“A botanical garden.”

“You – went – to – a – flower show…”

“It’s a bit more than that.”

“How much more?”

“Fifteen acres.”

“Yikes, that’s a lot of flowers.”

“Well, we stayed under glass, given how hard it was raining, but I think there are over a dozen glass rooms.”

“So why is it called Phibes?”

“It’s not!”

“Phipps, Phibes, what’s the difference? Why not Pittsburgh Botanical Gardens?”

“Henry Phipps built the gardens in 1893 as a gift to the city.”

“Speaking of gifts, it looks like you boys are about done with the free round. Ready to buy some food?”

“We are, Cheryl. Wings and another round.”

“So where did you get a bourbon milkshake?”

“A place called Burgatory – a burger joint on the North Shore.”

“North shore of what?”

“The Allegheny River, but the North Shore is a district. It’s where both stadiums are, where the Science Center is, the Casino, a river walk, and lots of other attractions.”

“Hopping place?”

“It was pretty live Saturday night, Pitt beat Georgia Tech earlier in the day.”

“So, some of your teams won. Still, it seems like a long drive for a couple of ball games. Why didn’t you fly?”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“You get there faster.”

“Yeah, but flying sucks the life out of a road-trip.”

“Maybe I am old, but I don’t see the fun in road trips.”

“Music, snacks, taking pictures and Eat’n Park.”

“You have nine hours of music?”

“Faith does – I think someone once said: ‘music goes into the making of a road trip like flour goes into the making of bread’ – or something like that.”

“Pablo Neruda, but it was ‘peace goes into the making of a poem…” Dan, but I like your version. Here’s your Corona (with her lime), your Meiomi, your seltzer and the wings will be right up.”

“I should have known you’d know that, Cheryl, you write beautiful poetry. Cheers!”

The gallery is from a walk through the conservatory. Sorry I don’t know the names of most flowers.

This has everything I like.
Hey, this one has a name. Most of the signs weren’t close enough to photograph with the flower.
Lots of hanging stuff.
How cool is that? There was a little girl walking around staring at this from every angle.
This, I think is an “Angel’s Trumpet”
I’ve never seen a flower that blooms like this.
The sign said “Strawflower”
I dunno, but pretty.
Some things were hanging down to greet us
Everywhere we walked, something was waiting for us.
I like the light shining through these petals.
So pretty.
It appears to be flying toward us.
These are glass sculptures.
The best thing about this flower was the way it reached out to us on the path.
Sorry I don’t know the names. Pretty yellow flower.
The gardens are inside, but bees and critters can be found. We even saw a chipmunk.
I love seeing water drops on flowers. This flower is a color I don’t see well, but I know it’s pretty.

73 comments

  2. Great story, Dan. I tended bar many a year, but never heard of a bourbon milkshake!! I haven’t been to a baseball game in many a year, I’d best get a move on, the year is almost over!!

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  3. Oh my God! These pictures just blew me away. Simply brilliant, Dan. I would love to be at this garden. Also, I liked the “flying sucks the life out of a road-trip” phrase. When I was planning my trip I and Sarah did thought of taking the flight because you know I haven’t tried it yet. However, both me and Sarah mutually decided to stick to train journey because it is so much fun. We were in no rush so why take a flight. We wanted to have fun and so we book the train tickets which was again 50% cheaper than the flight, so we saved money and also had 50% more fun. Maybe, I’m still not ready for my first flight trip.

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  4. My kind of post – Maddie, beer, bourbon milkshakes, AND flowers. Home run for this reader (pun intended). :-) I applaud you, your brother, and daughter for making an effort to keep your family connections alive and well. Plus you have fun in the process. We’re heading to PA in a few weeks, and I’m going to be on the lookout for Eat’n Park. :-)

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    • Thanks! You would love Phipps, Judy. So many gardens! And I’m pretty sure you’d like a bourbon milkshake – oooooh, smooth.

      We try to get down there every other year. Win or lose, it’s always fun. The drive can be tiring if we hit traffic, but we’ve only had to take a detour one time, and that turned into a fun ride.

      I hope you see some fall color when you go.

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  5. “Yeah, but flying sucks the life out of a road-trip.” Love this! When I was a child my parents used to take the whole family on Sunday drives. No destination planned just to wander and see what was out there! Beauty . . .

    Liked by 1 person

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    • We did the same. It was a big deal and so much fun.

      Flying down would be do much worse. An affordable flight would require leaving earlier than we do when driving. Then we’d get there, have to rent a car and it would be 6 or 7 hours before we could get into our hotel. And 14 mini-pretzels vs. a whole duffel bag full of snacks 😏

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    • Thanks. Both were nice. Please don’t ask me to choose ;-)

      It was a great thing to do on a rainy day. I hadn’t been there since I went on a grade school field trip. (That’s a long time).

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  7. What a terrific tour of the botanical garden. Everything is so beautiful and some of the plants so unusual…at least to my eye. I’d be like the little girl checking out the big green head from every angle!!

    Apparently Maddie just KNEW you needed a beer. Isn’t it amazing how she convinces you that SHE wanted to sit! Lol. You gotta love it. 🤗

    Hope you all have an enjoyable weekend with nothing but fun things on the menu.
    🔹 Ginger 🔹

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    • Thanks Ginger. Since one hot day, when I opened a beer and took her out to sit, she sees a beer and thinks “oh boy, oh boy, we’re going to sit.” It’s a good thing I don’t drink much during the week.

      The gardens were so pretty. Room after room of well-maintained and beautiful plants. I was amazed.

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  8. Timing could not have been better for your trip. Love all the flower pictures and who needs names, just look at them!! Beautiful!!!

    Even though it is before 8 a.m., I am jonesing for a bourbon milkshake. I hear Joey drinks them all the time ;). Well not really. But I think she mentioned something similar in a post from the last week or two.

    Cheers! to road trips and Happy Saturday!!

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    • Thanks! We got lucky with the weather, the things we could do, everything but the finial score of the football game, but that couldn’t ruin our good time.

      If Joey drinks them, they must be good. I know ours were. My daughter didn’t order one at first, but she had a sip of mine and then ordered hers.

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  9. A) Your trip sounds fantastic. So glad you and Faith had so much fun. B) So glad you skirted the hurricane all week. C) Thanks for the link 😉D) That botanical garden would be so up my alley. So many orchids! Very stunning Bird of Paradise and the pretty yellow flower is Allamanda. It grows prolificallyin Costa Rica and is what we grew by the little house in Florida. E) Aren’t Boozy Shakes great? I had my first one ever at Grindhouse Killer Burgers recenly. So good. It’s great to be back at the bar. I missed you guys but I sure miss all my guys in Nebraska already. Have a super relaxing weekend.

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    • Thanks for filling in the details on the flowers. I saw that some were from CR and I said “Cheryl will know what this is.” Faith toured the National Aviary again. She wanted to see the new rain forest exhibit they added. My brother and I dropped her off and rode around for a while. Maybe she’ll share some pictures.

      We had the best time. It was good to be home, but after three days of work, I was ready to put the snacks back in the car and drive 9 hours for a bourbon shake ;-)

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  11. I could listen to that song all day–such a bouncy, happy song! We have a burger place (definitely not a burger joint) downtown that has alcoholic milk shakes. I will skip the burger but try the shake one day. So with you on a road trip. My supervisor and I drove to Orlando last month for a conference instead of flying. About a 7 hour drive, but it was so much fun!

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  12. Vincent Price was a fantastic actor and a very funny person. Good cook, too, from what I remember.

    Whenever the Braves played in Pittsburgh, Skip Caray would remind everyone that it was at “the confluence of the Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela Rivers.”

    Great pictures!

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  14. Absolutely gorgeous flowers. The one you say looks like its flying – it kinda is – its a bird or paradise. At least that is what we called them in my grandmothers garden. Fun post, but bourbon milkshake, really, gross. Sorry.

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  19. You lodgee for Vincent is that the price of a beer and or cider this Saturday ? The floral
    Photos are fantastic. As opposed to the spell checker on this haunted tablet. The spell checker leaps out when least expected. What hump ? I have a hunch this might require more than a few beers to figure out.

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    • Thanks Laura. I used to switch between SoCS and the bar conversations. I like both, so I decided to try to combine them. I wouldn’t normally have much for flower/flour but we had just been to Phipps on Monday. The exhibits were beautiful.

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  23. Even I don’t know the names of all those flowers. Two of them, no idea. It doesn’t detract from their beauty! Being inside the botanical gardens on a rainy day, how delightful!
    Bourbon is a good milkshake, a good float — bourbon is yummo.
    I have about 4 days of music, which is why I’m completely galled when my iPhone ‘randoms’ some songs at me every day. I think it really likes U2 and Coldplay. I dunno. I do too, but not every day! SKIP!

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    • Thanks. It was a great way to spend a rainy morning.

      I have a YouTube play list that I listen to when the noise in the kitchen gets too loud. It has about 45 songs. I set it to ‘random’ and they played one song four times during lunch. I tweeted that they should look up the meaning of “random.”

      I never would have thought a bourbon milkshake would taste good – now I wish I could have another for breakfast.

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  25. Gorgeous pictures, OF COURSE. Charlie and I love road trips to gardens. We haven’t done one for years, and it’s about time for us to start thinking about maybe contemplating planning on another one. Yeah, we’re homebodies.

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