Shivers

Last week Shivers went to visit family in Ann Arbor. Although he would normally fly to Michigan, because he waited too long to get decent priced plane tickets he ended up going by car. He was not, however, ready to face the nine hour drive in one day, so he decided to break up the journey, first with a stop at Dairy Queen (of course), and then for the night in glorious Boardman-Poland, Ohio. After checking out local cultural sites such as the Big K and Walmart, he decided it was time for dinner. Shivers first went in search of his meal’s most important element (wine, naturally), and was very pleased to discover Vintage Estate Wine and Beer, which has a rather impressive selection of wine and beer (over 800 craft beers and 1000 wine labels, from which Shivers chose a rather tasty Malbec). He was craving pizza with his wine, so after driving around aimlessly for what seemed like ages due to his grumbling stomach, he stumbled across a non chain pizza parlor, Inner Circle, where he was most impressed to find a penguin on the wall.


Shivers set out early(ish) the next morning (surprisingly he wasn’t tempted to linger at the Fairfield Inn’s breakfast buffet, which included such delicacies as Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage sandwiches), so he had time to make a brief stop in Blissfield, Michigan to do some antique shopping. He wasn’t overly impressed by the selection (much of it more thrift store than antique shop), but the shopper that he is he didn’t leave empty handed (and even found some new penguin friends). Sadly there was no Dairy Queen nearby, so he had to make due with a peanut butter cup McFlurry (luckily Shivers is a glass half full kind of guy, well equipped to deal with life’s disappointments).


26 hours after setting off Shivers finally made it to Ann Arbor, where he spent most of the weekend hanging out, eating and drinking too much. He did manage to leave the house on a few occasions, to go shopping and to spend an afternoon at a nearby lake.


He also helped his niece celebrate her fifth birthday – he loved all the arts and crafts at her party, but without a doubt his favorite activity was the cupcake decorating (Shivers was rather proud of his creation).


Before he knew it the weekend was over, and it was time to drive back to Washington. There was no time for excursions on the way home, except of course the all important Dairy Queen stop. As usual he looked for a new Dairy Queen to try, and stumbled across what might just be the most amusing one he’s been to yet, in Donegal, Pennsylvania.


The establishment sported a ski lodge look, complete with fireplace and local wildlife (which was probably much happier in its pre-DQ days). After what seemed like a never ending day on the road Shivers found himself back in DC, just in time to enjoy a new episode of Inspector Lewis (thank you PBS).