Home From Nashville……

   My brother Art and my nephew Adam are home from Nashville for a week. Saturday night, we all went to DiMillo’s restaurant in Portland, Me. It’s a famous seafood place that is actually on a boat. Anyone that lives around here knows about DiMillo’s. The food is a bit expensive but pretty good. The big deal with this restaurant is that it is on an old car ferry boat that is docked permanently on a long wharf. Many folks dock their big boats right there too. It’s an historical place for Portland.

The above photo is an entrance to the boat when the weather is bad. The menu has an array of great choices.     DiMillo's

  I had the broiled haddock with baked potato,  fresh filet green beans and a market salad, and Bobbie had the Scampi dish. We shared a calamari appetizer. The calamari was good but a bit greasy. The haddock was amazing and cooked just right. The baked potato was forgettable and the green beans should have been forgotten….they were not cooked. Bobbie loved his dish and I didn’t hear any complaints from anyone else. There was a bachelorette party of about 20 young women right next to us. That was interesting! They were drinking and passing a deck of cards around with naked young men on them! The bride to be was wearing a tiara and a big smile! My animated brother from Nashville just HAD to go over and find out what all the fuss was about! That’s how we knew what was what!

   Unfortunately, two regretful things happened, the most important had to do with my brother Arthur. He was suffering from either a bacterial infection, the flu, or latent food poisoning. (You would never know from reading the above would you?) He had been sick a good part of the day and almost didn’t come. He did not eat but insisted we all go and that we all eat. He also, without our knowledge, picked up the tab and the tip for 8 of us!! We were upset about that but neither he nor the waitress would budge!!  I guess it was his way of thanking all of us for the fund raiser we put on for him. Awe……:) The other regretful thing that happened, was that I forgot to charge my batteries in my camera! The only photos I got  were of my niece Karen and one shot of her beautiful kitchen before we left for Portland! She and her husband were the ones that let us use their golf club  a while back for the fund raiser for my brother. Here’s a link to that.  Toody Brook  And here are the only two photos I got at my nieces place….Gosh her place is huge and gorgeous! I’ll get some at another time. You just wouldn’t even believe it!

And then it died! But!! I did get some of the barbecue we had the next day at my brother Denny’s home!! We sat out on the back deck….it was a beautiful day. That’s my husband bob and my sister in law Mary Ellen, my brother Denny’s wife. She has one of those “new” screen doors that squeak when opened and SLAM when shut that sound just like an “old” camp door. I guess that is all the rage now! The kids certainly kept that thing a slammin!

That’s my brother Denny getting ready to grill. “What Mary Ellen? I need my what??”  

“Oh….my apron! I’ll just stand here and act like i like wearing this thing!” Did I not get the phone call or the memo regarding plaid/striped shorts day?? Hold that apron up there Den!! Robert Anderson above left, my niece Karen’s husband and co-owner of Toddy Brook. Then my brother Steve shows up…. That’s him on the far left…..again with the striped shorts?? Is it a golf thing?? Whoops….my niece Jennifer’s husband Trevor on the far right apparently did NOT get the memo.

We had the standard appetizer plates and Denny cooked us all some great burgers and hot dogs with a huge tinfoil container of steamed onions and peppers to go on top! They were great! And we had many salads. I made a creamy pasta salad that I MUST share with you all in another post because it was AWESOME. I got it from a blog! And we also had THESE….well in between handsome Nolan ( my niece Karen’s son) on the left who was bored stiff and Chase (my niece Jennifer’s son) on the right who is adorable and younger.A closer picture of these beauties….. My brother Denny got lazy and cooked these lobsters with the bands on the claws! Robert told him it was not a good idea as the taste of the bands may come through….to which my brother replied….. “Oh no one would taste that….I added a can of beer to the cooking water!” Adam didn’t mind that any. He dug right in. Along with the rest of the crew. My husband was smacking his lips! My niece Jennifer’s adorable children….Amella and Chase. And then Chase wanted me to see his new bracelets that all the kids are wearing now…. Isn’t he just the cutest? I wandered around for a little while and came across this… It’s the right side of my brother Denny’s garage. He has ALWAYS been a car NUT! This garage used to have a huge hat collection. Now it’s apparently filling up with old license plates…..makes sense. His office is filled with old car memorabilia. I took these out of the garden and brought them with me to give to family. I have been averaging about 5 to 6 every other day for about a week or so now. God they are so much nicer than store bought! Fresh and juicy! We don’t eat bread but I must find some good bread so I can make myself a cucumber sandwich! The weekend was full….I got a chance to spend some time with my brother Art and my nephew Adam. We had a little bit of music from them as they each brought a guitar with them. And Bobbie and I left with a full stomach and a full heart. It was a good day. Poor Obie was at home waiting for us but we had one more stop to make before heading home…..work for just a few minutes. In front of our work is a wonderful stone I have admired for sometime. Here it is…. It is in a flower garden by the front door. Isn’t that cool? And behind that rock is this…..                The smaller rock above it says…….

  PEACE

             Isn’t that nice?