Vacations

We have been truly enjoying our friends from Virginia. Hope they've been enjoying us as much as us them. We've been doing the usual stuff around Riverside--floating on the river, eating, sitting on the porch, eating, running into town, eating, hitting the shores of the Gulf, eating . . . You get the drift.

On our way in from the airport, we stopped at the farmer's market and picked up some fruits and veggies for our week. Leenda was kind enough to cook up some pink-eyed peas. (Pic borrowed from here.) I have to admit, I had never heard of them before. Yum. We served them over rice--hoppin' John style. They are very similar to black-eyed peas but a tad more delicate. Soooo good. We made up a batch of green beans one night, my fav. We've been eating so much, I can't remember now what we've been doing. Of course, we've hit all the favorite haunts around the area--The Crab Trap, The Oyster House, Big Daddy's and so on. We even added a new place to the list. The Biscuit King! I have to admit, when I walked into the place, it kinda scared me. Just a big ol' open area with round and oblong plastic tables and fold up chairs everywhere. I guess we sort of looked like dear in the headlights because a woman soon approached us. "You must be new here." Could ya tell? hehe. You order your meal at the counter--the menu being on a piece a paper you pick up there; and we soon figured out the biscuits are ones with the "meals" cooked inside. So, if you want eggs and bacon, they're all right there in the middle of this humongous biscuit. Interesting. Not quite what I was looking for, but I'm always up for trying new things. I ordered the ham, egg and cheese (I think) and all they had left were ones with jalapenos in it. No prob. I love peppers. Guess we were kinda late for breakfast. Since they open at 5 a.m. (uhhuh), 10 a.m. was pretty much lunch time for them. No biggy. Of course you could order breakfast regular style, which is what Linda did. The boys ordered pancakes--which looked like griddle cakes to me. When we got our "biscuits," they were HUGE! They resembled something like an apple dumpling, big and round and browned on the outside. And low and behold, there all the ingredients were when I cut into it--eggs, ham and cheese with jalapenos. It was delish. I bet they were even better if you got there a tad earlier. Of course, we went back for lunch one day after we saw they had the ol' Southern traditions like chicken-fried steak, ribs, hamburger steak with gravy with a choice of two sides (kind of like the meat and three of Tennessee). Again, yum. Needless to say, you can tell we've been eating quite well, thank you.

Yesterday, we decided to head to the beach. It was a lovely day and we arrived about 10 a.m. (Guess that's kind of our time down here on vacation.) The hub and kid had found this lovely little stretch of beach almost on the Flora-Bama border. Just beautiful. No buildings, not many people and the water nice and quiet. The waves are low and gentle. It was actually the first time we witnessed a green flag. It's normally red or purple. Purple is the scary one--"Dangerous Marine Life." (We don't have lifeguards on our beaches so the flags are quite helpful.) Having been down in these parts when several people were attacked by sharks in a three day period, I'm a little hesitant to go in the waters when that purple is flying, I tell you! The hub and kid did go in under the purple flag warning and the water was full of nettles, stinging jellyfish, ouch. At any rate, the water was perfect, cool when you first jumped in and relaxing after you were in for a moment, clear so you could see all the fish nibbling on your feet and free of nettles. Well, that's what we thought. Of course, once we coaxed "the friend"908 (Linda's son and the kid's friend) to come in, both he and Linda got stung by one. That did our little outing in. We were all running for the shores after that. hehe. I haven't been stung in many years; but I remember as a child how much I attracted those buggers and always ran out of the water crying. Thank goodness I had remembered to bring the meat tenderizer with me. You just rub it on and it takes the sting away--mostly. Vinegar is also good, but I thought the Accent would be easier to carry. It was almost noon anyway (lunchtime--hehe). It was a fun morning and just the right amount of sun. As we trudged back to the parking lot, it definitely was getting hotter.

Last night, we ate at our favorite little dive on Mobile Bay. I can never remember the name of it so I call it Wayne's World as Wayne and his family run the place. They have the best all-you-can-eat shrimp for $12.99 on Friday nights. Don't get much better than that!

We were supposed to have rain this weekend, but it has turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. To tell you the truth, I was looking forward to a nice rainy day, sitting and reading or whatever. Not that it makes much of a difference. That's what we're doing anyway. And, of course, I have my trusty little helper by my side telling me what to write. Smile. She's been such a joy to have here at Riverside. (Most of the time! She still has here devil streak every once in a while!)