Daycay: StayGay

GAYCATION 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

or

CHUPASHOPERA: The opera-going, underwearing-buying monster

You may remember last gaycation being a wild spectacle of travelling whimsy. 

This gaycation was all about doing familiar things in a very different way.

Originally, the plan was to gay it up Cincy style by staying the weekend, catching a Reds game, etc etc. Instead, this time:

We went to the opera IN CINCINNATI

We went underwear shopping AT FREDERICK'S OF HOLLYWOOD

We took the day off work TO GO TO A BASEBALL GAME

We ate at a hibachi OK THIS ONE ISN'T VERY DIFFERENT

We got tickets to one of our favorite operas, Die Zauberflote, at the Cincinnati Opera, and took off early Sunday morning for the middle of Ohio. One of the great things about travelling with K is that a 5 hour car ride doesn't feel nearly that long when you're singing TLC at the top of your lungs.
We found a Japanese Hibachi next to the mall, where we completely gorged ourselves before heading over to Fredrick's to spend way too much money on BONKERS underwear (Corsets? Garter Belts? Lacy Things? All of the above.)
And then there was the opera.
This was the first time I've seen Die Zauberflote live in German, and this one had PUPPETS.
For those of you who do not know, a hefty portion of my relationship with K revolves around an almost unsettling affinity to puppets and Muppet movies. It's endearing, in a way.
The opera was everything I hoped it would be, entertaining, spectacularly sung, full of puppets (yes I will stop with the puppets now), and including some really yummy sugar-free peanuts at intermission. 

In the spirit of daycation, we turned right around and headed home. Which turned out to be much more taxing than either of us had anticipated. We stopped at Ruby Tuesday, somewhere in Bumblefuck, Ohio, which is usually a pretty mundane dining experience.  Instead we managed to completely off-put another waiter; and eat turkey burgers, Smashed cauliflower, and some sort of Italian sweet cake like the queens we undoubtedly are. At this point we were pretty exhausted, hence the two rather distressed looking pictures you see above. That cheddar biscuit was delicious, despite the horrified face I was making.

Our GPS sent us on an atrocious side road, and we ended up back home at 1:30 AM. Lesson Learned: Cincy Daycay is a ballbuster.

The next day, we recovered by leisurely making our way to Lawrenceville to go to the Round Corner Cantina before going to see the World Famous Pittsburgh Pirates play the Chicago Cubs.

We sat outside under an awning, and it immediately began raining as soon as we got our pitcher of margarita. Good timing.

Three kinds of salsa, two kinds of taco, and one kind of awesome later, we headed to PNC Park.

Our seats were impeccable, almost directly behind home plate. Every man who saw us trying to take pictures of ourselves eating a footlong hotdog in tandem offered to help. Baseball Helmet Sundae. Soft Pretzel. I honestly don't remember how the game ended, because all I remember is being incredibly happy.

So there you have it: The long overdue tale of gaycation/daycation/staycation. 

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