New Year's Eve was SO much fun. Mechen flew in the night before to start our long vacation and the next day we were off to Hotel Solamar for a New Year's Eve party. A few of the women from work and I decided that it would be fun to reserve a cabana on the rooftop bar and it was one of the best party planning decisions I've ever been a part of. It was great. We ended up having about 16 people and having our own place to mingle was awesome. We had to get bottle service in order to "pay" for the cabana, which was reasonable for a New Year's Eve fete. Everyone got along well and Mechen invited two of his friends from the Kitty Hawk, which was nice because it had been awhile since he had seen them, they are fun and it meant that he had friends that he knew prior to that night.
But I was just so happy to be with Mechen. I love New Year's and to be with him at midnight, as cheesy as it may be to people cooler than I, was awesome!
The rest of the weekend was spent recovering/being mellow. We went to the zoo for free (woo hoo active duty special!). The zoo was pretty cool but it's hard to top the time I went and the polar bear swam around and placed his paw on the aquarium glass. It was huge!
Afterwards, we went to a really neat gallery in North Park that has a ton of handblown glass mini-terrariums of succulents. Then we ate at the Linkery and had a delicious sausage themed meal/mix of dishes with flights of beer. Just so you know, although cask beer tastes good, it is served almost at room temp and no matter how tasty it is, I like my beer cold. So that was my experiment in cask beer.
The next Morning, we went to SmallBar and had a great brunch, the highlight of which is definitely their spicy Bloody Mary that has so many fixings and garnishments, it's like it's own meal. That bar is really fun and has a great brunch menu as well as being pretty decent in the evening as well. Their jukebox is good although I have to Shazam everything since, again, I'm not all that in the know about what kids these day like. It's also a little loud first thing in the morning because I think they start it out at drunk Saturday night levels. My, I sound like quite the old lady! It's like I'm reaching a "milestone birthday" soon.
