Ah, Arbor

We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon exploring the Washington Park Arboretum yesterday. Quite an impressive park in the middle of town.

E on bridge



With, I believe, some sort of birch



With ferns and such



Afterwards, we had some coffee at Victrola. It's pretty, and the place is nice and cozy and all. . . but like almost every independent coffee place here they insist on pulling ristretto shots. I've given it like six months (!), and I'm quite sure that I'm not saying this because I went to Starbucks a few times in the Quad Cities--I just prefer traditional espresso, and that's all there is to it.



Compare, if you're so inclined, this photo of Mimi's coffee taken with the iPhone camera



It wasn't just yesterday, though: it's been pretty sunny pretty regularly lately. I may need to buy sunglasses (apologies, my midwestern readers).

View from Emily's place of employ


Oh,
and my Nalgene bottle has gone funky, so on Braxton's recommendation I've invested in a Sigg bottle:

My new bottle
So far so good--it's aluminum (or is it aluminium?), so it's light, cute, and isn't made of oil . . .