Good Morning, Darien, CT

Dinner Out With Our Grandson, Mitchell, and Mimi

Morning On St. Nicholas Drive

No curtains in my bedroom, so I was awake early, around 5:30 as I forgot that the sunrise here on the east coast is much earlier than at Chautauqua Lake, about twenty minutes earlier as I recall.  It's 59º here, the same as the lake, and partly cloudy.  It looks like a pleasant but different Memorial Day for us.  For example, Mitch, our grandson, a junior at Darien High School, has a final school volleyball match this morning at 10:30.  I have rarely heard of high school matches on school holidays, so this is a first.  He has a team breakfast at 8:00, then the match, then a picnic at home with the family.  It should be a fun day.

We left from Virginia yesterday around 8:30, and already miss Hayden and Halle.  And, just as expected, the drive, most likely our final one from Bristow to Darien because the Albarran's are moving to Dallas, was pleasant, through the beautiful hills of Virginia and Pennsylvania, to the more crowded and busy highways of New Jersey.  Crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge is always exciting as is trying to find the Merritt Freeway instead of Interstate 95.  We had a couple of stops at Mc Donald's, our go to place on trips, and arrived in Darien, at 2:45, a little over six hours on the road.  We knew Beth and Rami would not be home until this morning, as they were visiting friends in the New London area for a party and staying the night.  Mitch, however, was home and he and his girlfriend Mimi were making cupcakes when we arrived.  And cookies, so we had a tasty snack after our drive.

Making Cupcakes

We hung out during the afternoon, just relaxing, watching some TV, and of course, taking my good dog Cody for his first walk in weeks.  It's amazing to see the change from our stay her in March, when it was cold and snow covered our entire time.  Now everything is green, the road umbrellaed by trees, the rhododendrons, dogwoods, and wisteria in full bloom.

Doing Dishes

We took Mitch and Mimi out to dinner at Bodega, a fairly new Mexican place in town that people have liked.  It had a nice atmosphere, but the portions of a variety of tacos, were ridiculously small, the beers expensive, and the bill shocking.  Welcome to Darien.  Still, it was fun to be with Mitch and Mimi and they enjoyed it, dinning with their cheap, curmudgeon of a grandfather.  Give me Jamestown's Taco Hut, three tacos for 2.99.

We came home to a quiet house as Mitch went over to Mimi's to watch a movie.  So, we watched most of the Cavs game until I got tired of watching them play poorly and did not really care at that point if they won or lost so we both went up to bed around 10:45.  I am starting Obama's chief strategeist, David Axelrod's, memoir, BELIEVER: MY FORTY YEARS IN POLITICS.  It has gotten good reviews, especially if you want to understand the political process, what it takes to energize the masses and get elected.  So far, it's very readable and interesting even though I have yet to get to the Obama years.

It's now just 7:00 and Mitch is up.  Beth, Rami and Marisa should be back in a couple of hours because they want to be back in time for the volleyball game.  We cannot wait to see them.