cww.blog!

As predicted by Tamara, I ate tons of shellfish while I was in Massachusetts.

It started with a dodgy place in Salisbury called the Olde Town Tavern, that served televised Keno and a casserole of scallops and shellfish, with a side of three lobsters for the price of two. The casserole was, um, "interesting", and somewhere near two-thirds through it, I decided I didn't want any more. But, the lobsters saved the day with buttery goodness, and although I didn't actually order them, my mom did, and she happened to be sitting next to me.

In Newburyport, I ate world famous (partly because I tell everyone about it) clam chowder at The Grog, followed by two heaping lobster rolls. Unlike many places where lobster rolls are on the affordable side of expensive, these actually have lots and lots and lots of real lobster meat in them. I dare say they could even use a little more mayonnaise. They also come with a reasonable amount of French fries, with which I ordered mayonnaise and refused the ketchup. I was feeling a little Dutch, perhaps?

And, to top off the shellfish extravaganza, upon noticing I had a little less than two hours before my flight back to Pittsburgh today, I wandered a few gates over to Legal Seafood and ate their cherrystone clams on the half shell while drinking gin and tonic and reading Stranger in a Strange Land. I don't normally like Legal's fish, but I thought their raw bar would be pretty good, and I was quite correct. What a wonderful way to top off a vacation that had undertones of shellfish!

As for the rest of the trip, it was really great to see Taylor off to college (her dorm room looks really cool), and the family gathering (including Fritz) was wonderful. Hurricane Ernesto also dropped a bunch of windy drizzle on the island on Sunday, so that cooled things down to sweatshirt-wearing weather. Overall, very nice!