Fulltime Rving... A Life on the Road plus a potpourri of amusements, interests & perceptions.: Fallin’ Behind

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Fallin’ Behind

Wow…I’m fallin’ behind on keepin’ in touch… two weeks with Brandi & the girls pretty much consumed all our time.

Brandi…

Kayla…acting silly…

Brianna & Lizzi…

Shelly & Lizzi…

We had a wonderful visit with them and a couple of day trips to visit with friends. Than back to the resort and two weeks of getting activities setup and ready for the new season. Seems like a hundred things to organize, each having several elements to put into place…. than getting my head wrapped around them all… planning & scheduling. So now I’m 90% done or so and starting to get into the routine mode again. Six months of not having to remember anything… than shift gears to having to remember way too much stuff, time frames, and pulling it all together on time… well.. I ain’t gettin’ any younger.

One last weekend as a trial run, and than… pow… Memorial Day weekend… and we are ready to hit the ground running.

But more on our side trips while visiting Brandi. First we went to Baltimore to see my best friend growing up.

Nancy, Me, and JoAnn

She’s the one that I haven’t seen for 30 years. Visited with JoAnn & Scott her husband, her mom… miss Jane, her sister Nancy, and her aunt Peggy that took me & JoAnn on our first ever visit to Disney World back in 1972 and started the whole Disney part of my life. We had a wonderful dinner at a local restaurant… splurged big time ( but it was certainly worth every dollar) … we both had the cream of crab soup and each had the double jumbo lump crabmeat dinner.

Nothing like two huge perfectly seasoned broiled crab cakes… bout the size of small grapefruits. Absolutely exceeded our expectations even after thinking about it for months. Great company, great food, and a wonderful time trying to catch up on the missing thirty years. So good to remember old times and catch up on the past. Really did my heart good to see everyone again… kinda like going back to the family roots you lost years ago. We are the “neighbor family” that grew up together for twenty years. Foolish to ever loose contact in the first place… but you know how things happen.

Than we drove to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to visit with friends there… another wonderful time with Mechelle & Doug in their wonder home. Mechelle has got to be hands down by heaps & bounds the best house & garden decorator I have ever seen. Every detail, inside & out is like a picture from a magazine. The Rich & Famous could hire her so that their homes would have impeccable style &taste. Another great visit, and great time dinning out. A wonderful seafood dinner, again with cream of crab soup fixed by what seemed to be my exact recipe… just like I’d had made it… wow… delicious. A wonderful time.

We had plans to met Doug & Cindy for a visit to the inner harbor in Baltimore, and another great dinner, but plans didn’t quite work out… maybe another time before the fall.

So as you can see it was a wonderful time all around. Got to see Brandi & the grand girls, Kayla, Brianna, and Lizzi. Got to visit with friends, and got the have some wonderful dinners with the food we miss so much.

The best part of it all… I got to share all these wonderful times with my Sweetie… Shelly brings so much joy to my life… a smile on my face… and a song in my heart! My best friend & Love of My Life!

Just a short thought about the Maryland food we miss so much. Jumbo lump 98% real crab meat, perfectly seasoned, perfectly broiled, unbelievably wonderful… close your eyes and enjoy every bite…

Crab Cakes! - Check! …

delicious cream of crab soup – check!

So what’s next on this seafood adventure…

Good steamed blue crabs, the “Old Bay” way.

Funny thing about crab cakes… they are up and down the east coast… but never as good as back in Maryland. When visiting restaurants in Florida that offer crab cakes… and when asked how they prepare or make their crab cakes… they will ask you where you are from… when you say “Maryland”… they offer other menu suggestions that you might enjoy… besides the crab cakes… they know… they have learned… you will be disappointed, so why even try… How about some nice Mahi-Mahi ? … that works for me! I’ll just have to wait until we get back to Maryland.

The wait is always worth it !

How it all works…

first you find the blue crabs…

they are generally just waiting around on the beach for you to pick them up… right…