Summertime and the Beaches

We've had two weekends at the beach so far this year:

The first, a good time with our friends Paul and Linda Richardson at their beach home in Longport, NJ. A fine Friday evening out at Cookie's restaurant with lovely soft-shell crab and her wonderful blueberry or peach pie, home-made and special. Then good conversation about the sale of James Bond's Aston Martin by friend Jerry Lee, owner of a Philadelphia radio station and founder of the Institute for Criminology. Good wine. Then Saturday a chance to do some reading and get some sun watching over the curve of the Atlantic from their veranda. Ben and Linda had a good walk along the beach in the Sunday morning haze.

We had stopped for our regular coffees in Wilmington both on the way up and back at Brew Haha on Concord Pike and came back with Jersey vegetables from a stand on Route 301 near Longport. Also did our regular reuben and spanakopita at the Sage Diner in Chery Hill.

Our second, a long weekend with friend Tom Brown at his home in Rehoboth Beach. Despite the rain on Saturday, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, seeing old friends Kevin and Tim for dinner one night and enjoying two other dinners, one at the Porcini in Rehoboth Beach, and the second at Mixx right on Baltimore Avenue near the beach. Porcini is good fun with very eclectic menu of small and large plates. The same at Mixx, though Mixx offers flights of wine. My cheap flight at $10 was quite ordinary, but 9 oz of wine for $10 is not bad. Their eggplant tower is lovely, and Ben enjoyed his scallops. John and Tom had the short ribs with mashed potatoes as their main and found it very savory and filling. We had a good afternoon at Poodle Beach, and even made it into the relatively heavy surf and its formidable undertow.

Stopped on the way home for Delaware vegetables which we are now enjoying.

Next week it's off to Rhode Island for a long weekend.