Mom and Dad suffered a burst radiator hose on the way down, just east of Lucedale, Mississippi. Some very nice folks helped them out and the fellow who replaced their hose (bypassing the heater core, which seems to be the real problem) only charged Dad $1.00. They arrived here at 7:30 or so, and we warmed up some turkey, spinach and purple hull peas for them. We watched a bit of the Olympics and turned in.
After a solid night's sleep, we had orange danish, bacon, scrambled eggs and canteloupe for breakfast Sunday morning. A leisurely morning was then spent reading the paper and talking.
Around noon, we drove down to Seville Square in the heart of historic Pensacola to browse the booths and have lunch at the 23rd annual Pensacola Seafood Festival. Mom and Emily ate Grits-a-Ya-Ya, a combination of grits, gouda cheese, spinach, shrimp, mussels and scallops. Dad and I, suspecting that more seafood lay in our future, had chicken gyros.
Sure enough, after eating and listening to some music, we drove down to Joe Patti's, a fabulous dockside fish market, where Emily picked out some sizeable shrimp for dinner. Then back home for more Olympics and relaxation.
Emily prepared the shrimp in an alfredo sauce over noodles and charmed Mom into preparing some Waldorf salad. Paul made the salad and Dad played "Red River Valley" on the piano.
After dinner, of course, came bridge which we playing while keeping our eyes on the Olympics. Mom and Dad won the first game, Paul and Emily won the second. We had a 90 leg in the third game when Dad bid and made a daring three no-trump. Rubber to the elder Willifords!
Monday morning. Paul turns 40. Emily lets the old fellow sleep in while she makes some nice birthday signs that have no trace of taunting in them.
And the paper brings a nice surprise: a picture of Paul and Mom (and a very small part of Baw-Paw) at the Seafood Festival (in the photo shown above). I'm in the red T-shirt at the upper right and Mom is in the pink shirt beside me. The bit of white under Mom's chin is Dad's shirt. I'm also attaching the article that accompanied the picture.
According to Emily tradition, one birthday present is opened in the morning. I opened one from Betsy which had a coffee mug and six Bigma-style juice glasses (with red cherries on them). Very fun!
Then we went off to breakfast at Napoleon Bakery downtown, which has marvelous French pastries and breads. Paul and Dad, watching their diets, had bran muffins and cranberry scones. Mom and Emily, abandoning theirs, had Cocque-Madames (a poached egg and ham on a French bun covered with bechamel sauce). Emily really buried all sense of propriety by going back for a pain au chocolat. She also picked up my birthday cake (chocolate truffle cake) to be eaten later.
Back home for a potty and toothbrush break (not together and not necessarily in that order) and to put the cake in the fridge. While Dad did a thorough job on his pearly whites, I played a little bit on the piano and Mom read her book.
Then we hopped in the car and drove down to the National Museum of Naval Aviation. We arrived just as the guided tour was starting and spent the next hour and a half looking at airplanes and learning about their evolution, led by a former navy flier named Roger Boh who was both entertaining and informative. Dad surprised all of us by not asking a single question.
Not far away is the Pensacola lighthouse, constructed in 1825. We walked around it and its grounds.
Then home for a lunch of turkey sandwiches and Waldorf salad. Emily napped, Mom read and spoke with Hope Byars on the phone, and Dad did a thorough job on his pearly whites while I started composing this log.
A little later, we'll drive down to Boy on a Dolphin, a sound-side restaurant with a Mediterranean sensibility for dinner, then back for bridge and birthday cake.