Cleveland Annual Orchid Show

There are three types of people who go to orchid shows:
1) People who like looking at beautiful things
2) Gardeners
3) Crazy obsessed orchid people who are only there on the last day to try and buy one at close.

Buddy and I hit up Touch for brunch in the morning, which was so so. He loved his omelet. I wasn't a fan of the Touch breakfast sandwich, I think the cream cheese overdid it. But we got to sit in the English Mystery Novel back room, and the coffee was really good that day. So I'll just move on down the menu next time. Then we picked up Doug and trekked out to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens.



Here's a place we all agreed we hadn't been in for at least ten years. I mean, most of us have wandered in the outdoor gardens, but when was the last time you paid to see the inside show? I almost did at Christmas for the tree exhibit, but was scared off by the idea of University Circle Sunday parking. There is nothing scarier than East Side intellectuals in subarus trying to parallel park.



It was crowded, but everyone else had a camera too, so I felt okay wandering around in a starry eyed daze staring at an LCD screen.



They let out a whole truckload of butterflies. Butterflies everywhere. Butterflies are one of those few things it's hard to capture in a picture, which make them special. So imagine little red and black jewels hovering just out of sight the whole time. Now imagine them beating their little wings against the greenhouse glass, desperately trying to get free and away from the ecstatic birds and small children.



We left right around 3pm, to avoid the crazy mob of orchid enthusiasts that usually descends on the show when they're selling off the orchids. The staff was already preparing for it in hushed strategic tones. We instead went to have some coffee and custards at Presti's, and agreed that brunch/museum/coffee is the stereotypical but true perfect Sunday. I should bottle and sell it in different packages, for the aspiring Clevelander. I mean, people make money off of less.



More of my Orchid show photos here. Like, a LOT more.