A Very Southern... Tradition (Part 2 - cont'd)

Arriving by noon, the three of us were the first to arrive at the beach house and while David's father inspected the house and kept one eye the driveway for incoming arrivals, I wasted no time "settling in."

a thorough inspection of the beds

was necessary...

It wasn't until late afternoon that the whole lot of David's family had arrived and with four boys and three teenagers in the mix, David's mother decided a "pizza night" would be best for our first night at the house. However, my trusty brother-in-law, Brad, arrived with a fully-stocked bar via one heavy cardboard box; he'd previously asked David and I if we had any druthers regarding the bar, but I figured I'd be easy and stick to gin or wine for the remainder of the trip. When Brad pulled out a gallon-jug of Tito's vodka, I decided on a pizza and wine night.

I'd be down for that

After most of Sunday was spent lazing about on the beach, come Monday morning, David and I were up early donning suit pants and ties for a surprise anniversary mass for David's parents. Last year was the 50th wedding anniversary of David's parents, but as the date of their anniversary happened to fall upon the same year that David and I were having our wedding, they both decided to postpone a celebration until a later date. By late last year, David and his siblings were already talking of celebrating the anniversary this summer at the beach house.

most of David's family were somewhat
suspicious of our menu until...

After a very intimate 8 a. m. mass, we all headed west along Perdido Beach Boulevard toward Brick & Spoon for brunch (I am so one with this family)! Upon arriving at the restaurant, David and I rushed in, ahead of everyone else and set the table with arrangements of blue hydrangeas--one of the colors from the wedding.

bubbly with brunch was followed by
more bubbly at dinner

The brunch could not have gone better and was complete with toasts by all of the children, including in-laws (by now, I'm nearly good at giving toasts). Afterward, David and I went straightaway to preparing lunch in order to be finished by 4 p. m. As had been the case in previous years, each night's dinner at the beach house was to be prepared by one of the five siblings; but somehow, David and I had skirted that task each previous year and it was well past nigh that we took our turn in the kitchen!

Once David and I learned that we wouldn't be getting out of cooking this year, we'd hemmed and hawed over what the final menu would be; finally, the one thing that we could both agree upon was finger sandwiches. The rest of the menu branched out from there.

50th Anniversary Menu 

• crudité with homemade blue cheese dip
• pickled vegetable plate  

• "home-seasoned" hummus
• herbed goat cheese and crackers  

• cucumber & dill yogurt canapés
• egg salad on cocktail toast
• lox with scallion cream cheese on pumpernickel 

• roast beef brioche sliders with horseradish
• pimento cheese on pumpernickel triangles

Much to our relief, our menu was mainly a success, even unto David's dad saying, You better take a picture of the food! Afterward, David and I put out plates of fresh melon and a cake picked up by his sister. The remainder of the afternoon was spent drinking the Veuve du Vernay that Brad had stuffed in his traveling bar.

the weekend was filled with plenty of 

book breaks on the rear deck

COME TUESDAY, it was--sadly--my final day at the beach house. While David would stay on with his family through Saturday, I had to return to New York the following morning for work. Ever a mensch, Brad had made plans for a night out... just the adults (sixteen and over).

a waterfront 'happy hour' al fresco

By 6 p. m. Tuesday night, all that were sixteen-years-of-age-or-older headed east on Perdidio Beach Boulevard for dinner at the outdoor-only seating restaurant, The Gulf. Surprisingly, it was the most northern-seeming place that I'd been to since a week earlier; both the bar and the kitchen menus made me feel like I was back in New York with beer, wine, mojitos and burgers among the first things I had noticed. (Oddly enough, during the last few days I'd started craving pancakes--which I never eat; they seemed like the furthest thing from the standard fare I had been consuming all week.)

Good Times

So it seems--whether consciously or not--that I was "prepping myself" for my return north, especially when I'd requested a play of Madonna's debut album (which was atop a stack of vinyls near the d.j.) and it played for a good twenty minutes or so. Later that night, I retired myself early for a 6 a. m. cab ride to Pensacola Airport--I'd insisted that the family sleep in...

By 3 p. m.:

You can take a girl out of New York, but you can't take New York out of the girl. Get outta my way!