Charlotte and close friends

April 22, 2010

Charlotte

We have returned to North Carloina. Today is friends day. Ben visited an old law firm friend, while John went to see his “auntie”, a close friend of his mother's who is in a nursing home. The drive up from Columbia is flat and boring, 90 miles of freeway and trees. Charlotte is a vibrant business center but the drive out to Matthews where John went this afternoon shows how the recession has hit stores and auto dealers, many are closed up along the main road.

We are in the Westin, a large, comfortable convention hotel where our friend David is the convention manager. We have stayed here before and enjoyed it.

Dinner at the hotel's Ember restaurant gave the chance to the chef to show off his stuff. The whole meal was very very good and esthetically beautiful. We started with a flatbread with various veggies and three cheeses to go with the gin and vodka, then on to the menu for the mains. Scallops with leaks and foraged mushrooms for me, steak for David and a piece of halibut for Ben. To go with: an Oregon pinot noir, Domaine Serene. We even enjoyed dessert, Ben and David with blueberry cobbler, and I several beignets with lovely zabaglione and raspberry jam.

Much family conversation. Although John and David are not blood relations they go back far enough to be almost cousins.