Dinner At Michael's

Arriving at Michael's we were greeted with some of his Moonshine purchases on his recent road trip back east.  While Damon and Michael enjoyed the tasting, I stuck with a nice vodka tonic.  We played a game or two of Blockus to kick off the afternoon.

Michael does love his dogs and they love him and all his friends in return.  On the left is Little Miss and on the right is Hank.  I am so surprised at how Hank has mellowed over the years.  My first meeting was his escaping Michael's truck in Astoria and running all over the neighborhood and we were exhausted by the time he decided the game was over.  Ah, memories!

Damon brought in a beautiful lap quilt that my sister, Janet made.  Damon loves pigs and she had a piece of material (in the center) of pigs flying.  Well, it was the inspiration and she did an amazing job.  All the quilting on three sides is of my hand and Damon's hand connected like wings.  The fourth side she quilted "When Pigs Fly" into it.  He was stunned and so happy with it.  It was a belated birthday present he was all too happy to wait for. 

Food time and there is just something about ribs that brings out the caveman in all of us and who better to show that than Damon.  He was loving the ribs and oh boy I sure did as well.  Michael did a mixed grill of pork ribs, beef ribs and chicken brats.  A salad was added and it was amazing.  By the way, he cooked the pork ribs in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour and get this, all he used to spice them up was Lipton onion soup mix.  A recipe from his mother and they were simply amazing!

It was a meal fit for a king and yes, in the end even the dogs got to enjoy some.  Both Damon and I deferred to Michael to feed the dogs so they know who was in charge as it should be.  What a wonderful experience it was.

Late getting back to the motel and thankfully we had a fan in the room as none of the motels in Long Beach have AC and there was no wind to speak of, thus the room was a tad on the warm side.  The next morning had us enjoying a morning of play and leisure before meeting Michael for a brunch at 42nd Street Bistro.  Then it was time for good-byes and back to Seattle.  Traffic was not bad until we got to Olympia and then it got nasty, but we did get home by 2:30pm and got to have the afternoon to play and nap and be lazy.  A perfect end to a perfect weekend.