Weekend Drive

To The Beach and Back

I asked and G obliged. He took me for a Sunday drive followed by brunch. Love that.

He headed to my hometown, Hampton and a drive along the beach. Surprisingly for such a beautiful day, the boulevard wasn't too bad.

The sand however, was covered with umbrellas, beach blankets and people.

The salt water marsh was pretty under a bright blue sky dotted with puffy clouds.

We started on the beach side of the marsh and ended up on the west side looking towards the beach, before heading to The 401 Tavern for some nourishment.

We like the old tavern part of The 401 so we bellied up to the bar. 

We did not have whisky with brunch, it just happened to be where we were sitting. However, we did enjoy a beer (G) and bloody mary (me) with our meal.

He went for the manly grilled pork chop and I had my old standby- cheese omelette, which also had shrooms and bacon in it. Best part of the meal? We were using a gift certificate my parents gave us. Thanks Mom and Dad! Though, I'll say this......it was quieter than usual because our pal Desi (aka The Mad Cuban) wasn't around.

Then we followed this guy and his passenger back out of town. What a great rig and beautiful day for a ride.

The rest of our weekend was pretty low key. A couple of campfires, chatting with the neighbors, weeding the garden, pooltime. What about you? Did you do anything special?

Have a great Monday.

Ciao for now,

Traditions & Rituals

A SkeeBall Throw Down...Almost

One thing about growing up at Hampton Beach is that I certainly know my way around an arcade. Well, old school arcades I guess. There's a honky tonk vibe to our beach, not the sand part of the beach, but the strip. It brings back many good memories.  When our family comes to visit from Dublin we have a tradition of going to the arcade (Funarama to be exact and make it no other), to have a little friendly skeeball competition, earn as many tickets as we can and come away with a new stuffed lobster for Lucan.

I usually beat the Gar man, simply because I've had more experience working on my skeeball off-the-side-bumper-delivery which gains me more tickets. Winning at skeeball is one more reason to practice my snoopy dance. So Saturday, our nieces Caroline (who I call Carolina because that's the way I am) and Ali were hankering for our arcade tradition.

Of course, in order to be ready for a competition like this, you must fuel up first so we were off to the 401 Tavern to see the our friend Desi, The Mad Cuban. If there are any Cubans reading this, this is not a dis to your nationality, it's simply an extremely appropriate name we gave to our friend Desi. He's Cuban and he's mad. It's that simple. He's also the host with the most.

Of course he had to let the people at the next booth know that these girls had been visiting him since they were yay-high. 

Then we had to get down to business. Gar was on a mission. He knew he had to fuel up to have enough stamina to win at skeeball.  Of course, after several days spent in the well, he deserved a king cut.

Everything was fabulous. Gar nearly finished that baby.

When we were good and full, we were off to the beach.

Oh yeah, we filled our pockets with quarters and headed for skeeball. I passed this guy along the way and had to get a picture. Number one, he's carrying tequila on his rump and you know how I love margaritas, and number two, my other brother in law and I have an ongoing donkey joke.

I'm sorry to report, I negelected to get any pictures of skeeball. I'll have to wait for Ali to download them from her camera. I was busy trying to whoop some butt. Then we forgot to keep track. Honestly, what kind of competition is it if you forget to keep track? Then this little boy stood next to me with big sad eyes. I said, don't you have any money? He hung his head low and shook his head no. I gave him a quarter....this was classic....he started to walk away. I said, 'hey hey hey, you gotta play that quarter in the skeeball'....'but I don't know how to play'. I coached him through it. The kid nailed a 50 on the first roll. Then another 50, then a 100. By this time, his family had gathered around him to cheer him on. Oh yeah, another skeeball maniac in the making. He did so good I gave him all my tickets too. He deserved them. He was so pleased with himself, you should have seen his face. His Mom was so thankful, it was too cute.

Then we changed modes. I couldn't walk by the pacman game. I had to see if I still had it. I can honestly say....I've still got it. Oh yeah. Don't mess with me Mr. Pacman.  Then onto air hockey. I was beating Gar good and then swooped the puck into my own goal three times in a row. So Gman was winner winner chicken dinner and had to next play his niece. He was taking care of business.

Until he got to his older brother. The girls looked on while...........

they're Dad won. Poor Gar just couldn't keep his winning streak up.

All in all we scored a good bunch of tickets to cash in.

Then the girls had to decide.....a lobster or something else. Then we spied a honey badger. We thought Lucan needed the honey badger for sure.

Alas, the counter girl couldn't find the honey badger out back so Lucan now has a new friend. Leo the leopard.

Our mission was complete. If only Lucan wasn't scared of his new friend. He's a little on the big side and he thinks it's alive. I am not kidding. It's freaking him out.

Of course, before we left we had to do the photo booth thing too.  I think maybe bil John and Gar got an eyeball in each shot, or part of a forehead but that was about it. Those booths are smaller than I remember.

Do ever get to do the old school arcade thing? What's your favorite game? Skeeball? Air hockey?? Pacman?  Or something completely different? 

We spent the rest of the weekend in the pool for obvious reasons. It was hot and it was there. Oh, and enjoying sunsets.

That's the way we roll at Sunset Meadows. 

If you're participating in the Photo Challenge (open to everyone!), tomorrow is the last one. Get me your submissions by end of the day today so I can included them in the final post!

Hope you're having a great Tuesday.

Ciao for now,

It's a Wrap

Presents Open, Cake Eaten. Check.

We were off to sister Di's last night to celebrate my Mom's birthday.  It turned out to be a nice night so I was sure to take a walk around Di's gardens which are starting to pop.

The Rhodies are in full bloom.

Cayden, my great nephew, and Sophia, my great niece walked through the garden with me a little while. Then the slide called.

Then the fairies called.

And more flowers, like this iris. Amazingly beautiful.

Pretty green hosta.



Then back to the party. Sohpia giving Great Grammy her card that she made.



More merriment.

And of course, cake!

Don't forget the surpise guest...............Hampton's newly 'crowned' (a much deserved honor for our friend) Citizen of the Year Desi Lanio, proprietor of The 401 Tavern. 

All and all, a fun night celebrating life!

What hot for you today? I've got meeting prep, meeting, back to the desk to do work for several clients....you know, the usual juggling.  Hope you're got some more creative endeavors up your sleeve.

Ciao for now,

Lobster Bake- Take 2

Busy weekend here. The Bates of Clontarf (part of our Dublin family- Gar's brother Fran, our ssister in law Fiona, nephew Conor, and niece Rachel), who are in NJ for the summer due to work, swung up on Friday for a quick visit. We just chilled- ate yummy cheese, swam in the pool, and talked. Perfect laid back family time.  Saturday before they headed off to visit Fiona's sister in Boston, we had lunch at the 401 Tavern.  We got to eat in the 'wine loft'. Wish the picture was better, but I love the way our friend Desi decorated this part of the 401- about 1,000 wine bottles across the ceiling and now creeping onto the wall. Very pretty.

Too bad Gar couldn't eek out a smile for the picture.

Yesterday afternoon, we were off to our friend's lobster bake. Since Ralph helps Gar out with ours on the 4th, Gar does the same for him.

Filling the baskets with seaweed, clams and lobsters.

Loading the baskets onto the bake.

Hot stuff coming off the bake.

Come and get 'em!

So, so good.

Hope you are having a good weekend too. Enjoy your Sunday.

A Map, Lunch, Some Decanters & A Cod

A Map

Yesterday my parents asked me to go to lunch with them. You see, I'd found a beautiful map of Cuba in my Etsy friend Maria's shop. It was perfect for our friend Desi, man about town, the face of the 401 Tavern in Hampton, New Hampshire (where I grew up and my parents still live) and who I affectionately call The Mad Cuban. Desi was born in Cuba and his parents sent him and his brother off to America when he was only a boy.

After the map of Cuba arrived from Montevideo, Uruguay (where Maria is), Dad was on a mission to frame it so he could present it to Desi.  Luckily, they have lots of old frames in the basement (from my cousin's days as a trash collector in Yonkers, NY.....Johnny snapped up the things that he thought were too good to throw away, hence the frame collection in my parent's basement). If you can believe it, he couldn't find one that worked from the collection and had to take one of the hall wall. It too was from Johnny and had held a family collage of sorts for about as long as I can remember. Well it doesn't anymore. Now it holds Desi's antique map of Cuba.

The "Presentation" by Dad (aka Jerry)



Mom (aka Marge) and Desi Share a Smile



Desi giving the map a thumbs up.



Another shot of Mom and Desi. Just because it's cute.



And finally a toast to the map. Rather appropriate.
Thanks to Maria  for making this moment possible!

I should mention that Desi took a moment to read the back of the frame, where my parents had included the provenance of the map........the year of the print, that Maria had sent it for Montevideo, etc. It's just like them.  If you're looking for a great gift or just have a love for vintage prints, be sure to check out Maria's shop Carambas. You'll be glad you did. I mean, just look at Desi's face!

Lunch

Onto the food...........my parents both ordered 'The Commish', an tip of the hat to our friend Jimmy who passed away last year and loved the lobster pie. Nothin' fancy here folks, just big hunks of lobster.




Lobster and butter topped with breadcrumbs. Simple and delicious.



They tried to convince me to get the same, but I had my heart set on a garden salad and the baked haddock sandwich.



See why? Yum.

Then my father proceeds to tell me that Brother Mike (no he's not a monk, he's just my brother) had stopped by that morning with fresh Cod from Captain Peter Lag (aka Peter Lagerstrom).  It's good to know people in the fishing business. They're big on sharing. So after lunch I stopped by my parents house to pick up a share of the Cod. Yup, we LOVE seafood round these parts (probably because we've got some of the best seafood I've had anywhere).


Some Decanters

When I entered my mother's dining room, all I could see were 'collections', reminding me of yesterday's post. Bells, plates, decanters...........so I got a couple of shots.



Don't you just love the gentleman on the left? So proper.




Part of their Norman Rockwell plate collection, and yes, more decanters.




Even more. They go all the way around the dining room at the top of the wall. They added this plate rail to hold their collections, after they raised the ceiling in this area years ago.

 A Cod

I got so distracted by the decanters and plates, I nearly forgot the Cod!! That would have been a tragedy.  Here's a tip. Want to know if fish is fresh? It should look just like THIS!!




Straight from the sea. Beautiful color, consistency and smells like the ocean.
There should be NO slime and NO fishy smell.

 
I'd love to show you pics of how it came out, but I did not take pics. Whoops. FYI, it was an easy fish dinner.  I layed the fillet on some tin foil, sprinkled it with some breadcrumbs and spices, then I added some frozen corn to the mix, topped it all with pats of butter. Folded tin foil over the make a pouch, and Gar popped it on the grill on low heat, with other side on high, for about 25 minutes (this was a big fillet!). So, so good. I really wish I'd taken a picture, it looked as good as it tasted. Thanks Cap'n Lag!

All in all, it was a pretty darn good day.

Happy Friday everyone.........Ah, the weekend!