Weekend Review

Thursday was Mark's birthday so I made an early reservation at Cafe Dupont. After I got off work, we drove through a torrential downpour to get there, but it was just barely raining downtown . . .until later!

Mark started his birthday celebration with "the best Old Fashioned" he has ever consumed. They use demerara sugar in their simple syrup.

Cafe Dupont sources as many food items as possible from local sources. Our server brought

out bread that was obviously made by a talented baker.

She then brought us an amuse bouche. It was half of a tiny heirloom tomato with goat cheese and a piece of lamb bacon on top. Yes - lamb bacon. It was tasty. Of course, there were also two sauces - one under the tomato and one drizzled on the plate. We ordered the cheese plate and I wish I had taken a picture. It was gorgeous -- cubes of many different cheeses with various drizzles of honey or sauce and fresh fruit prepared in different ways. Cafe Dupont serves one of the best 100 fried chicken dinners in the U.S. so Mark ordered fried chicken. I think it is funny for a fancy restaurant to serve fried chicken! I ordered the local vegetables. Both were delicious. Mark had beignets for dessert and sorghum ice cream. 

Mark said the Old Fashioned, the cheese plate, and the sorghum ice cream were the best!! Between courses we also had a palate cleanser. It was a tiny scoop of watermelon and another "summer flavor" (I can't remember!) sherbet.

I had a few things to do on Friday morning, but by 2:30 we were loaded into the car with fishing poles and bathing suits and we were headed to our friend's lake house for a mini vacation.

This is a funny "staged" photo. Our friend's lakehouse is in the town of our rival college team. Mark had told some of our young professionals where we were going and that he holds his breath all the way through town (joke). He put on his respirator mask so I could take his picture for our friends.

We spent the afternoon checking out our friend's new lake home and then watched a gorgeous sunset - first from the dock and then from their upstairs balcony.

Our friend had baked a carrot cake for Mark using Mark's mother's recipe. We first feasted on grilled chicken, grilled okra, and grilled corn on the cob. It was a perfect way to end the day.

We went for a long boat ride on Saturday morning and the morning could not have been more beautiful!!

I spent part of the day reading while seated in a very comfortable chair on that upper deck.

Another couple of friends showed up at lunch on Saturday and we ate grilled pork tenderloin sliders and salad and fresh fruit. We were laughing at the change in lake menus since we are no longer "young in body" only "young in heart." We ate mostly healthy foods throughout the weekend with only a few treats.

Everyone spent the afternoon talking and laughing. Some folks went for another boat ride. Mark was in charge of dinner. He caught fresh bream on Thursday at our farm lake. He fried fish for everyone. I don't normally eat fried food, but his is delicious! We provided tortillas and all of the fixin's for fish tacos. I made a black bean and corn salad/salsa as the side and everyone (but me) had a piece of carrot cake for dessert. Mark and Guy played indoor cornhole two different times and they were whooping and hollering like kids. Mark told me later that he enjoyed those two games more than anything. He said it felt so good to act like a kid for a little while. He played intramural horseshoes while at Auburn University and he said those skills came in very handy! We all watched the Saturday night sun as it set and it was beautiful. I think the sun set before we ate dinner.

After dinner, dessert, and sun (whatever order) our friends who had driven down for the day left to head home. The four of us remaining sat around and chatted for a few minutes and then we were all in bed by 10:00.

Y'all know that I work on Sundays but I had made arrangements to be off on Sunday morning. This was the only Sunday this year (besides the one in May when we were at a wedding out of state) where I didn't have to set the alarm clock for 5:00 a.m. It was glorious. We sat out on the deck for a while and then moved to the table for some breakfast. Mark and I headed home around 11:30 because I did have to be at a work meeting at 4:00.

It was a much needed respite - a time away filled with the fellowship and love of good friends.