Newport~Lobster

While in Newport I wanted to do touristy things...see the mansions, visit a few vineyards, see the church where JFK and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier were married, and of course eat a whole lobster. So on Saturday after a long day of seeing the sights we ran into the visitor information center to get our parking validated and asked for recommendations of where to go for dinner. Seeing as we were not really dressed for dinner and we had no reservations we were pointed in the direction of the Landing at the end of Bowen‘s Wharf . We walk in and are seated right away on an outside patio overlooking the pier. We order cocktails, some crab cakes and sit back to enjoy the live music as the sun is beginning to set. While waiting for our drinks we perused the menu a bit, but I knew what I was having...the Lobster. I was a bit nervous when I saw the words market price. These lobsters averaged 2-3 lbs, in Colorado market price on a lobster that size is going to run you well over a 100 bucks. Turns out market price on a giant lobster in Newport is 40 bucks. Boyfriend ordered the broiled scallops in a wine citrus butter and we agreed to share. I am excited because I have never had lobster prepared this way. And then out comes the food. Boyfriend dives right into the scallops, which had to be over 2 inches in diameter. I just sat there staring at my lobster wondering how in the world am I supposed to eat this thing. Images of the dinner scene from the movie Splash are running through my head. I decide the best course of action is to just dive in. Now for those of you that have had this experience know that there is no lady like way to go about dismantling a giant sea bug. One thing you don't think about is that your dinner still has all of it's insides. This is something I realize after forgoing the provided bib. Surprisingly I am able to walk out of there not covered in lobster guts. (Lobster is much larger than it appears, photo does not do it justice) It is true that seafood on the coast is way better than anything you can get in middle America. Everything we had was phenomenal. It was a perfect date night...drinks, great seafood, live music, a beautiful sunset and the first unsolicited "I love you" from Boyfriend. What more could a girls ask for. I was very happy, see take a look... ...or maybe it was the 5 Long Island ice teas!

Delayed

Boyfriend and I are sitting on the plane in Providence waiting to push back from the gate. Our Captain comes on and says that we have a weather delay due to winds in Chicago. I look at Boyfriend as we both narrow our eyes and and hiss "Chicago" ala Jerry Seinfeld saying Newman. I have flown all around the world and every missed connection, every delay, every lost bag...Chicago. Now I am not bashing the City itself, it is my hometown after all. I am just not sure what the deal is with O'Hare. It is the place where even the best laid travel plans are smashed to bits. If I am going to have a problem traveling there is a 99.5% chance it is going to happen there. So the hour delay in Providence means we will miss our connection to Denver. We hope to get lucky and our connecting flight will also be delayed. We arrive in Chicago with a whole 7 minutes to run across the terminal and board the next plane. Our bags won't make it but at least we won't get stuck in Chicago. We thought we got lucky...we should have known better. The plane is full with 254 passengers eagerly waiting to get on our way. 10 minutes go by, then 20. The purser keeps making announcements, something about a mechanical problem, no big deal and we should be on our way shortly. Then the lights in cabin come back on. I turn to Boyfriend and jokingly say that they are going to make us get off this plane. No sooner is that last word out of my mouth than the purser comes back on to announce that we are going to have to deplane due to a dented wing and tail. A small part of me is thinking better safe than sorry while the other much larger part is thinking O'Hare has struck again. Once back in the gate area we are told that we they will continue to work on the aircraft we were on while trying to get us a back up. They are hoping to have us on our way by 9:30 PM, a little over an hour and a half delay, not too shabby. So we sit down and wait, and wait and wait. Several hours and announcements later we are able to reboard at 12:30 am. We arrive in Denver at 2:30 am, a full 5 hours late. Silver lining is that we got home safe...although I will venture to say that working 11 hours today on only 2.5 hours of sleep really sucked balls.

Gigidy, Gigidy All Right

I am headed out to Rhode Island tomorrow to see Boyfriend who has been out there for the past 2 weeks on "business". Having not ever been to Rhode Island the only frame of reference I have is the fictional town of Quahog on the Family Guy. I wonder how many of the men will have chins that look like testicles... Peter Griffin, Family Guy