I spent a leisurely morning with Terry, Kayla, and Sami, drinking cappuccino and talking.  I left sometime between 11:00 am and noon and drove my shortest route.  I stayed on Route 1 leisurely driving through beach towns enjoying the sights.  In less than an hour, I pulled into my cousin, Philip’s neighborhood, where he lives with his wife, Karen.  I very happily discovered that some of his siblings—Clifford, Beth, and Nancy were also there.  We sat around for a while catching up and then, we all went to Sunset Grille on the water where we met up with Karen (who ☹ had been at work).

Appetizers such as Mahi fingers served with a sweet chili sauce and spicy remoulade, Caribbean chicken quesadilla, (and some others) were passed.  If I remember correctly, I split the Twin 5oz jumbo crab cakes, served with chipotle remoulade and Yukon Gold mashed potatoes with Clifford.  My absolute most favorite food in the world is Chesapeake Bay crab and, obviously, the best place to get that is in Maryland or Virginia.

During many events while growing up, and then at every family reunion, one of the featured events was always picking blue crabs.  Armed with a mallet and a small paring knife, we’d sit at newspaper-covered tables spread with steamed blue crabs, melted butter and Old Bay Seasoning and get to work.  The slightly salty, sweet buttery flavor and tender texture of blue crabmeat explodes on the tongue…it is so heavenly, you just want to savor it.

Many years ago, we had a family reunion at the Lake of the Ozarks and, as usual, had blue crabs flown in.  Other than leg meat, I do not tend to eat as I pick but rather prefer to make a pile which I can enjoy at my leisure.  My brother, Jim, was water-skiing the hour or so as I patiently picked every piece of meat from these delicacies.  I was just about finished picking when Jim came along, swooped up my entire pile of crab at stuffed it into his mouth!  As far as I’m concerned, his biggest crime was not the theft of my crab but the haste with which he ate it!

Back to today…when we finished dinner, we toured around the marina where, to my utter delight, most of the boats were festooned with TRUMP flags.  Inside the restaurant, the owner had his picture with President Trump and, in fact, look at what President Trump tweeted on August 3, 2018:

Afterwards, we sat and listened to The E Street Shuffle, a Bruce Springsteen Tribute band that regaled us with songs we all know.

Eventually, we all went back to Philip’s home and enjoyed catching up.  More tomorrow…