Rainy-Vacation-Journal-Log:  Day One.  Eleventh Hour.  Twenty-Ninth Minute.

Yep, that’s right.  My summer vacation at the river and the forecast is calling for rain all week.  So I’m making the most of it.  I am yet to have anything exciting to share with you so how about a weekend recap?  

My friend Kim decided she would be my date for the evening.  I needed to go check out the restaurant I am 95% positive we will have our wedding rehearsal dinner at, The Conch & Bucket, in downtown Hampton, VA.  It’s got a bit of flair and a really great wine list… what more could a girl ask for?

So we went.  We ate.  We drank.  We indulged in dessert.

It may not look so hefty but it packed a wallop.  I should’ve thought through my photog skills a bit more and included my jeep in the picture.  That alone would prove to you the actual size and girth of this pile.

Moving it to the street was a workout.  And you know how much I hate working out.  But you want to know what I hate more than working out?  Finding slugs in my hair after said workout.    Pretty positive I will be sticking with the gym from this point forth.  That pectoral fly machine might be bad but I’ve never walked away from it with escargot in my hair.  Just sayin.

Then the weekend started.  Our river cottage on the weekend vastly resembles a dog pound.  At any moment’s notice you are probably going to find more dogs than humans.   The smell of wet dog wafts through the house as tumble weed furballs roll across the screen porch.  And yes, there is that one dog who firmly believes the picnic table is her pirate lookout perch.  

Then we drink Spiked Riverwater.  You cannot, and will not, go wrong with Firefly and lemonade.  The liquid in the glass may look like you scooped it straight from the Perquimans River but it tastes a trillion times sweeter.  And has less seagrass.

So we celebrated with moonshine and a bonfire.  Because what else do you do to celebrate three straight hours of no rain?

As the rain returned on Sunday, my family and friends left.  They left me, the two cats and chloe in a big, quiet, river house.  The quiet and the rain were getting to me, so I went to my grandmother’s house for a visit.  And had such a wonderful time.

We sat and chatted on her dock (when the rain let up for about 20 minutes).  Then she offered me an italian dinner and booze.   The was the first time in my entire life I have had a margarita with chicken parmesan.  I will say, it’s not my favorite combination, HOWEVER Narnie’s Italian food goes well with anything under the sun.

Note to Readers:  You will NEVER have better Italian food than the Italian food my English Grandmother makes.  I am not sure where she got it from but this woman could outshine Marie Barone in an Italian bake off.  Here’s hoping I inherited more than her ability to politely curse in the midst of a casual conversation…