I collect big glasses as a testament to my travels- not because I love the food. It is simply more economical to have one item from each locale, rather then shopping shopping shopping. Plus, it looks uniform when displayed AND you can use the glasses at parties- thats cool as long as dumb asses don't break them.

I collect glasses from where I've been- even if the cafe is closed. For instance, I've been to Aspen. I can't find that glass. I'm trying. When I head to Belfast, I'll look for that glass even though that cafe closed in 2004. Etc.

I guess I'm a typical when it comes to souvenir at HRC. I prefer the large glasses- not the shot glasses. As a result, my suitcase has become rather full as I roamed about Europe trying to collect them. Oddly enough, I found myself attending cities I had no interest in (Birmingham, England; Catania, Sicily, etc). Here's my current list:

Houston
Dallas
Austin
San Antonio
New Orleans (my first glass)
Memphis
Louisville
Nashville
Gatlinburg
Hollywood, FL
Biloxi
Destin
Tampa Bay
Baltimore
Washington D.C.
Orlando
Miami
New York
Boston
Indianapolis
Detroit
Cleveland
St. Louis
Phoenix
Chicago
La Jolla
San Diego
LA
Honolulu
Hollywood, CA
Cancun
Cozymel
Tijuana
Atlanta
Barcelona
Rome
Catania
Munich
London
Amsterdam
Kowloon
Madrid
Whistler
Kanata, Ontario
Birmingham, England
St.Thomas
Denver
Newport Beach
Nottingham, England

That's 49 total?

My wife is headed to Mexico City and Guadalajara this summer, to I'll get those two; my personal edict requires that I either attend personally or someone purchases it for me without my request. If that occurs, then I have to visit that cafe within a couple of years.

This winter I'm headed to China, so that'll be Beijing. My wife and I were planning on driving up to New England for Christmas...that would have been when I hit Toronto, and Niagra Falls US and Canada...but this opportunity came up for me to go to Beijing sooooooo..........

I still need to hit some of the obscure cafe's here in the U.S. like Minneapolis, Pittsburg, Foxrun, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Myrtle Beach. I really want San Fran, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas. The hard one will be Key West, Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Bahamas. Maybe I'll take a cruise for three of them and do a weekend trip to Bahamas. It doesn't cost much to fly over from Miami.

My wife and I are planning a back packing trip to Ireland, France, Greece, and North Africa in '08. That'll give me Dublin, Manchester, Leeds, Paris, (and maybe a quick trip over to Berlin and Cologne via Ryan Air). I'll hit Athens, and then Cairo, Hurghada, and Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt. God knows whenever I'll make it to Scandanavia and get Oslo, Copenhangen, Gothenburg, and Stockholm.

I kick myself for not hitting Lisbon when in Spain, and obscure places like Cabo San Lucas, Alcapulco, and Puerto Vallerta will have to be hit on a pacific cruise. I don't know if a cruise visits all of those places.

Did anyone know they just opened Santa Domingo in the Caribbean? I'm not sure I'm headed all the way there for just a glass. That's a little obsessive *cough cough.

I'm looking for Ft. Lauderdale (been to the city, not to the cafe...closed in 2000). Recently Bristol in England closed. It was only a bar, but they had a glass. I kick myself for not attending it when I was in London.

Eventually...someday, I want to have been to every city HRC has had a presence in.