Vacation's End

Today was my final day of vacation in RI, and it was terrific! I did not, however, take many pictures (other than this one on the ferry this morning, to document how calm it was) … thought I’d give it a break for the day. That being said, Dad video’d Mom and I making like kabuki players and creating cuh-razy shadows on the ferry wall during the trip back to the island tonight (we were looking very Beavis & Butt-Headish). We then returned the favor while he did the same. It was only after our hilarity petered out that we realized the folk in the next bay had a full view of our show and were filming also!

Hey, we do aim to please our audience!

We were all a bit tipsy after having cocktails and dinner at Persimmon, this spectacularly out-of-our-league Bristol restaurant to which we had a hefty gift certificate (what can I say? Friends are awesome!). We had:

• Passion fruit mojitos and gin martinis.
• House salad greens with crumbled blue cheese in a soy/vinaigrette.
• Cool cucumber and Jonah crab salad with citrus and young herbs.
• Mosaic of fresh melon, melon sorbets, coppa salumi, and calaminth.
• Pacific halibut filet crusted with Niçoise olives and fresh herbs, fresh-dug potatoes, greens and native vegetables, with tomato consommé.
• Grilled daycatch wolfish filet, sweet corn, squash and chanterelle mushroom ragout, light butter sauce with fresh tarragon.
• All natural young chicken cuit sous vide, stuffed morel mushrooms, potato purée, creamy mushroom emulsion with black garlic.
• Warm peanut and banana cake with banana ice cream, caramel and chocolate sauces.
• Yogurt and vanilla panna cotta with native mixed berries, berry sorbet and shortbread crumbs.
• House-made coffee ice cream with chocolate sauce.

Are you jealous yet? Because you should be!

Luckily Persimmon is just up the road from the ferry (e.g., within walking distance); we stumbled back to the Landing in time for the last ferry back to Prudence, during which we put on the show for our fellow travelers. Then got back to the house and promptly ordered up a PPV movie (Knowing), which we’ve been watching with giant bowls of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce … apparently we need ice cream after fine dining and cocktails!!

But prior to all that, I had left the island on the 10:30am ferry to meet up with childhood friends I last saw for a couple hours 10 years ago, and not for at least 7 years prior to that (I’m saying “prior to that” a lot in this post!).

Although Jules had to leave early for her youngest daughter’s big softball tourney 100 miles away (an all weekend affair), Cathy and I were still gabbing out on her deck five hours later, when I had to leave to meet Mom and Dad for dinner.

Getting back in touch was wonderful! We talked about a hundred different things, but really just barely touched the surface of memories and current lives and blah, blah, blah, blibitty blah. I can’t get over how very much, yet very little, Julie and Cathy have changed! I can’t wait to see them again. Thank goodness for the internet, no? This way we can keep in touch easily until my next visit to the Northeast.

So I fly back out to MO tomorrow, then have Sunday as my last real day of vacation, then it’s back to the daily grind until January/February timeframe … vacation has accomplished all I needed it to: bring it on!

Now I have to get off the computer because a HUGE spider was stalking up and down the wall to my left and I’ve lost track of him and now must get kitted out for big game and go on a large-scale hunting expedition to rid my demesnes of his presence! Until then I’ll keep feeling imaginary somethings crawling across my feet, or up my legs, or around my neck and down my shoulders … eeeek!