Local stuff additions.

Whenever the hub and I talk about favorite things to do when we lived other places (drink beer on the roof at Dave and Buster's, eat at the Brew Moon...) I've been trying to go through and add them to the Local Stuff listing. Then I try to give you guys a quick summary here, so you don't have to click on EVERYTHING but can pick and choose.

Here's the latest crop of stuff from all over. Today it's mostly about food. Because I'm hungry.

--The Bishop Museum is in Honolulu and is, pretty much, THE museum for Polynesian/Hawaiian cultural stuff, and natural history of the Hawaiian Islands.

--Brew Moon is a restaurant in Honolulu that's easy to get to, with free parking and an open balcony so you can eat outside. Good food, and a microbrewry, so good beer too. Get the beer sampler. There was many a night I sat there with visitors from the mainland, watching rain come down the mountains at us as the sun set off to our left, drinking beer with the wind in my hair. Sigh.

--The Cheesecake Factory is - at this point in time - a huge chain of restaurants across the USA that specializes in cheesecake. The first time I ate there, it was 1986, and it was one of the hottest family restaurants in Los Angeles. Get the double chocolate cheesecake.

--The Cleveland Museum of Natural history is just what it sounds like. There's a pretty good gem exhibit, and lots of dinos and interesting stuff dug up in local fields, like giant armored turtles the size of Volkswagons. One of the VERY few cultures to make it to the copper age in N America was on the shores of Lake Erie, so they have a lot of that stuff too (and also Hopewell culture stuff, for those of you who follow that stuff). CMNH also contains Lucy. I've been there to visit her many times. She's actually out with the regular displays unless they're doing conservation.

--Dave & Buster's is a chain of bars with restaurants and video game arcades attatched. The one in Honolulu is on three floors; Floor one, bar and restaurant. Floor two, video games. Floor three, roof bar. While playing games, the waitresses will happily bring you a beer. It's in a complex with a very good movie theater, so we used to go to the movies and then finish out our night in the roof bar with a couple beers. Very fun place to go for birthdays or whatever.

--Olde Mystic Village is in fact a modern (fairly modern, it's been there at least fifteen years) shopping center made to look like a small New England village. It's in Mystic, Connecticut, where I used to spend a lot of time. (And need to start spending time there again.) Anyway, there was a yarn shop there that had some of the only affordable wool I could find. (Patons.) I don't know if the actual yarn shop is still there, but it's a nice place.

--The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland, Ohio. Make sure to check out the MTV display on the second floor. VERY cool.

I'm wondering if I should keep adding local stuff... but I've got some room left in the sidebar before I have to worry about it.