Two week recap

I'm feeling lazy and not wanting to post multiple messages, so I decided to combine them all into one. Sorry!

Two weeks ago we went to Grand Ridge for the 3rd annual "Party Til the Cows Come Home". For the past 3 years Chip and I have gone to Grand Ridge with our friends Mark & Emma and Austin & Ashley to Ashley's parent's house to swim in their pool, bbq, and have fun. Ashley's mom always makes us homemade ice cream in chocolate and vanilla, and I always eat 4 bowls. Emma and I also have a diving contest. No winner is ever named, but she kicks my butt in technique. I'd like to think I get her in creativity. I like to name my dives.

As always, fun was had by all - even Frank. We swam most of the day, ate a lot, and had fun spending time together. This, unfortunately, marks the last year we will have this party. Austin and Ashley moved to Jacksonville a year ago and will be moving within the next year to wherever Austin gets accepted to medical school. Mark and Emma are moving to Ohio in 2 months. Mark is in the Air Force and got orders to go to his next station. It is sad we will all be in different locations, but at least we had 3 years of fun.

Here is a picture of us all - the trifecta, as Emma refers to us all. Good times, good memories!

In other news, I celebrated my 28th birthday on Friday. Am I seriously 28?! Where has the time gone? I had a pretty good day. For my birthday I asked Chip if we could do a double-feature at the movies. So we saw The Dark Knight and the X Files movie. I enjoyed both. It was fun spending the day, literally, at the movies. The last time I did a double-feature was about 8 years ago when Bethany and I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Gift in one day. Both were totally different movies, but they were good. I recommend trying a double-feature movie day in the near future if you haven't ever done that.

The day after my birthday we went to Mobile, AL to see what's there. Chip and I had never been before and decided it would be fun to check out. Our first stop was the Eastern Shore Center. It is a big outdoor mall-type place. It was ok. We then drove around some more and got stuck in some traffic around the George Wallace Tunnel.

One of the things I was looking forward to on our trip to Mobile was stopping at the Dew Drop Inn. Our neighbor recommended eating there because the food is good. He even gave us a cooler and some money to buy him a few of their hot dogs. Apparently this restaurant serves excellent ones. It also happens to be Mobile's oldest restaurant. So we find our way there and pull into the parking lot. I go to get out of the car and notice a girl is outside turning the open sign to closed. WHAT!! I look at the sign and see that they close at 3 pm on Saturday. I glance at the clock and it is 2:55!!! GRR!! We just missed it. I was crushed!

So we leave disappointed and probably destined for something lame like Krystal hamburgers. We get back on the interstate and make our way back to Niceville. We see a sign a few miles away for a bunch of food at the next exit. Since we were starving we decided to stop. We start driving down the road, but nothing jumps out at me. Since I was so bummed, nothing sounded good. We keep driving and driving and end up nearly to Foley. I remembered our other neighbors, Mike & Stephanie, talking about a place in Foley where they throw rolls. So we call them up and get directions to the restaurant.

It's called Lambert's and they really do throw rolls. We get there about 4 pm and there are literally a hundred people waiting outside to get in!! Something tells me it must be pretty good for so many people to be willing to wait. We had to wait 45 minutes before we got seated.

Lambert's prides themselves on big portions of southern style food. Chip got country fried steak and I got meatloaf. We both got mashed potatoes and fried apples as our sides. The servers bring "pass arounds" to all patrons. These include fried okra, black-eyed peas, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes and onions, and the aforementioned rolls. The roll guy comes to the front of the dining room and all you have to do is raise your hand if you want a roll and he'll throw you one. It was quite funny to see bread flying through the air!

The rolls are quite large - one did me in, but boy was it good! All the food we ate there was quite good. Real mashed potatoes, yummy gravy, a huge piece a meatloaf. I was stuffed! It was good and helped sooth the disappointment of the Dew Drop being closed.

Well, I think I've hit the highlights of the past 2 weeks. At the end of this week I will be going to Kansas City to see my parents. It'll be nice to get away for a few days. I'm sure I have more stories to tell when I get back!