After a somewhat quiet day, the four of us went downtown for a belated Father’s Day dinner at Peacemeal. Peter had a double-decker grilled cheese sandwich, and the rest of us all ordered BBQ seitan. Mmmm. Of course we had the vegan chocolate cake for dessert. The kids had kind of complained on the way to the restaurant, but by the end of the meal they were very satisfied.

We strolled down State Street and stopped in Little Luxuries and Puzzlebox (which is closing! bummer). Peter fell in love with the stuffed animals, and we ended up buying a very cute bat puppet. Turbo carried it around, and several people commented about its uniqueness.

Across the street, we spotted a crowd gathered around a young man who was creating art with spray paint. No, not graffiti – detailed pictures of skyscapes and planets, on paper. It was fascinating to watch him. He used crumpled paper and awls as his brushes. Moon was thrilled, because she had seen a similar artist on a previous trip downtown with her friends. We talked to several of the people in the crowd. (“Cute bat!”) A biker stopped to watch, and we noticed he had a dachshund in his bike basket. Turbo went over to pet it, and the rest of us followed. The dog’s name was Dieter Klaus, and he was an extremely gentle and laid-back hound. He actually belonged to the biker’s roommate.

It was such a pleasant evening… watching the people, petting strange dogs, seeing street performers, enjoying the unseasonably mild weather. The kids agreed it was much better than any video game or DVD. And that made their dad smile.