Month: July 2009

No landlubbers we! Peg, Ted, John and I took a trip to Rock Hall, MD which is about an hour or so away by boat. Luckily Peg and Ted have this boat, Just Us, which they converted for the day to Just Us Plus Them. While Peggy captained us over, John and I lolled about catching rays and spotting bridges and birds.

Perfect day

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. There was a light breeze, plenty of sunshine, temperatures in the 70’s, and low humidity. It was like we had brought a bottle of California weather with us. We sat at an outdoor table at Waterman’s Crab House for lunch.

Crabman John

Since Peg is allergic to shellfish, Ted doesn’t like it and I’m afraid of dealing with it whole, John was the only one to order actual crabs. He got four jumbos which were delivered before the rest of our lunches arrived and he was still disassembling them after the rest of us were done.

Sharing is good

John generously offered me some but didn’t include the little hammer for getting them open!

After being stuck in holiday traffic on I-95, we reached Roanoke Rapids, NC to stay over night on July 5. We had a sumptuous meal of chicken from Bojangles in the room and in the morning we continued on to Grasonville, MD. And, yay, another favorite part of the trip, a visit to my sister, Peggy, and her husband, Ted. I am always excited to see her and I know she has a lot of stuff planned while we are here.

Fried tomatoes and local corn

For dinner on the 6th, we had London broil with fried tomatoes and local corn on the cob. It was very much like a summer dinner that Peg and I used to have as kids. Our mom used ripe red tomatoes and fried them in butter with a coating of bread crumbs, salt and pepper, and sugar. They were so delicious. Peg and I added some oregano and parmesan cheese and they came out quite yummy. It was a delicious dinner. Today, (the 7th), is a day for getting the car serviced, doing bills, and shopping for and preparing another yummy dinner. Paella tonight!

Leaving Florence, SC, we drove the short distance to Murrells Inlet, SC. I was so excited to see my very, very dear friend, Sophie and her husband, Al. They graciously offered us a cottage to stay in right next door. It was just like the old days when we used to live side by side in Massachusetts.

Oh, it was so good to see Sophie. She, unfortunately, has been having pain in her hip and is having hip replacement surgery on Monday. (Since I am writing this Tuesday, I can report that it went well.) So we were not gallivanting around. Seriously, just sitting quietly and talking is all the activity I need when I am with her.

Low Country Cuisine

Sophie urged us out the door on July 4 to do some exploring so John and I went to our favorite kind of restaurant, a local watering hole. I had grouper fingers (who knew they had fingers!) and fries with a beer and John had a Po’ boy sandwich with fries and a beer. It was all good. After lunch we wandered around Murrells Inlet looking for places we had gone with the kids when we used to summer here many, many years ago. It’s all so developed now that it is hard to recognize anything.

We all watched fireworks later that evening and on July 5th, Sophie and Al let us watch the Wimbledon final. Yay, Roger! All in all it was a great visit, just not long enough!

Rant

We have been watching Wimbledon over the past two weeks. Seeing as how Roger Federer is my new Johnny Depp, I am an unabashed fan. However since we are on the road and do not have a TiVo to record the matches, we have to watch the commercials over and over and over and over again. Somebody needs to come up with a traveling TiVo so one can record programs in motel rooms. (I am not interested in watching on my tiny computer screen.)

So here are a few things I will never buy having watched their commercials ad nauseum: any investment from ING ( the reason my “number for retirement” is under stress is because of investment houses!), Miller Lite with lime, Progressive Insurance (I can’t stand the woman with too much lipstick), DirecTV with their “blamestorming”, TimeWarner cable business class (have they slowed down regular internet service so you have to buy a premium service?), Travellers Insurance with their stupid umbrella, going to online college in my pajamas and ZooYork which has an icky commercial with squashed roaches. I also do not like the caveman series of GEICO although I do like the gecko.

Just sayin’.

Down the Mountain

We extended our stay in Boone for an extra day to keep enjoying the cooler weather, and, more importantly to be able to watch the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. We didn’t have too far to go today and were able to do a little shopping on the way to Florence. We also took some backroads. Our next door neighbor when we lived in Raleigh came from Lancaster, SC so we thought we’d take a look. This is a picture of the Lancaster train depot of the Spring Maid Line, a narrow gauge railroad that only ran 27 miles when it was first built. We had plenty of time to look at the depot since there was a train stopped in front of us, dropping off some cars.