All-in-All, a Good Summer...

Jan (aka Junie) and Jeff (aka Barker) just drove off in Jeff's (newly waxed and shiny) Lexus--a very comfortable car to ride in. Anyway, they stopped back in at our place for coffee/tea this morning, before driving back up to Longmont where they're meeting Jeff's son, Kyle, for lunch. What a good time we had--I'm so happy that they decided to drive down to see us.

We had a delicious meal at Alys's Fireside Cafe, the only *good restaurant in our town--but if you have to only have *one, this is a good one to have. Thankgawd Jeff was there, he knows wine, and he chose a wonderful pinot noir, David Bryce, or something like that, from the Russian River region? All I know is it was a perfect pairing with our meals. (Junie, the designated driver, and John, for medical reasons, not partaking). Jeff had rack of lamb, Jan had this awesome ravioli, done with some sort of mushrooms and port--the bite she gave me tasted fantastic. I had quail, roasted perfectly, a hint of teryaki sp? in the glaze. John had the grouper. Soup was called Italian Onion, and it was also delicious. Of course there was Alys's bread, baked daily, by herself, and I always feel I could eat a whole loaf of it (but don't, of course). For dessert Jeff had espresso and some kind of strange-named confection, something with chopped nuts, a word like Panucho, but that's not quite it. Good, whatever it's called. Jan had cheesecake w/blueberries. The blueberries were small as caviar, and we talked about that, how blueberries seem to have gotten so BIG, these days, but these seemed out of the old days. John and I split a brownie sundae w/amaretto-fudge, and all of our desserts came with freshly made whipped cream. I openly swooned eating my half. YUM!

Anyway, before this sumptious meal, we'd hung out for a little while at the lake, called Lathrop, a State Park, but it was hot and kind of muggy, so feeling melty we soon piled into Jeff's Lexus, and went to their room at the Rio Cucharas Inn, to play games and get out of the heat. After Jeff finished renegotiating the price of his room, for which I can't blame him, as he was told they'd have a King Suite for only 75 dollars, and what they got was a standard room with two queen beds, nothing fancy, so the guy at the desk changed the price to 50 bucks. Can't beat that! The room was big, if a little dimly lit and dated, but 50 bucks, and just outside the french-esque doors was a terrific view of the Spanish Peaks and other mountains. We munched on grapes and sipped on beer and wine, played this game I'd made up, called "Who Said That?", which involved quotes and marbles, while we waited for time to go to our dinner at Alys's. It worked out, we laughed a lot, got a little bit buzzed but not too-too, and Jan drove us in the Lexus to dinner, John sitting shotgun and Jeff and I lolling in the back seat, which seemed right because we were maybe 3/4 of a sheet to the wind. We proceded to add more sheets at the restaurant, where I became pleasantly tipsy and by the end of the meal, downright drunk. It was fun. So, we went back to the room, played a little trivia pursuit. After some lazy dice-rolling, some hard to see and grasp questions, (Junie brought out a little flashlight), all of us scrambling for our cheater glasses, John pretty much won the game. Junie, once again the sober chauffeur sp?, (Jeff and I almost catatonic in the back seat) drove John and I home, and we were all in bed by midnight or so. Mostly, it was just good to see them, laugh and kibbitz around like we always do--a fun day and evening.

I was telling Jan that I had a good feeling, a feeling of satisfaction about the summer, so far, since we'd been lucky enough to have visits by many friends this year. David and Evelyn, and their son Kenny visited for a few days, and Darrol visited twice, and we got to see Jan and Jeff twice, once when we took the Royal Gorge train in Canon City, and again this weekend. I went to San Diego for a week to see my kids, and my sister, and her two daughters, and meet Mike, who is Nikki's love interest, and where all-in-all I had a GREAT time. Since John's family is here in our town, we got to see them quite a bit, too. The only plan that didn't come about was a trip down to Roswell, to see my mom and brother. With the VW acting up, we'll see. If it is less to repair than we suspect it will be, then perhaps we can still get in a visit to them.

That's about it. Oh, John has a newly-found half-aunt, named Susan, from Georgia, who is coming to CO with his other aunt, Janet (she comes out almost every year), who lives in St. Pete's, FLA, to meet John's mom. Janet and Bev have never met this half-sister of theirs, child from their father's second marriage, and it's a long story, but Nana, the first wife and mother of Janet and Bev, had told them their father was dead, something like 20 years before he actually did die. Weird. So, for Janet and Bev, this will be a big deal. For us, and John's sister and brother, not so much, but I'm sure we'll end up spending time with this Aunt Susan.

Das es alles! I'll probably post again around the time the snow begins to fly. Heheheh.