SeaZen

After a fine day of a butt hurting, boring long drive we stopped at one of my mom’s cousin’s house. We called them a few times to get directions to their house. But going back about a few months: mom met them for the first time at the Newport Boat Show by chance.

You see, my paternal grandfather’s family is Irish and really big. It’s hard to know all your cousins in a big Irish family. Mamie stopped in my mom’s booth to admire a pottery platter. They got to talking and somehow realized that Tom and mom were cousins. When Mamie called to Tom and he turned around, Mom saw that he looked just like all the Nagles do. Tom loves to sail and followed the Sea Zen blog from the beginning because he would like to go off cruising someday.

Mom had to deliver a platter that they bought at the boat show so she called to see if we could meet up. We went to see them our first night on the road and it was wonderful, to say the least! We first arrived about 4:00pm and walked in and said hellos and we started swapping stories about sailing and we found out that they wanted to do an ICW (Intrcoastal Waterway) trip to Florida. We told them about the ups and downs of the trip we had. The sights the sounds and the hardships of the trip we had to the south. Telling them about Jersey (look on the blog for this story) and what ports to avoid.

Then came dinner.  Mamie is a culinary genius! Amazing salads, chutney, chicken that Mamie made especially for dad since he is gluten-free now, dips, and a wonderful o-m-g pasta -cheese creation. To be honest, I don’t remember what she called it I was too busy staring in awe! Last, but not least: éclairs! Wonderful, beautiful, scrumptious éclairs! I put them together so as to help Mamie with dinner. Everything was… was…. there isn’t a word or term to describe how absolutely amazing/wonderful/scrumptious/delicious the whole feast was. Mamie, if you are reading this, a job well done! After dinner we had coffee and tea and chatted some more. We talked about many things; sailing, what home was like, Florida and how the ICW was in our perspective. I went to bed and watched TV for about an hour before falling asleep.

When I awoke, lofty smells were beckoning me down stairs to the kitchen like a wispy cartoon finger. When I arrived there was a quiche and bread I later found out was called “Irish Bread.” It was like fruit cake. I didn’t want to leave. It was Mamie’s special recipe that she made in her grandmother’s pan.

I really, really didn’t want to leave but we had to go.

What an amazing and very special way to start our trip.Thanks, guys!