Dinner Hour

When Kaitlin and Jon arrived they brought sensational weather with them. The past three days have been stellar with light breezes, clear skies, no humidity and high temperatures around 80. Consequently we have spent most of our days outside either on the lake, in it, or sitting around gazing at it. There has been fishing, kayaks, paddle boards, power boat rides, floating and swimming. We’ve gone in to Camden once for breakfast and a couple hours of shopping. All of this fresh air has resulted in a vitalization of our taste buds. Everything taste better at the lake. No where is this phenomenon more evident than at dinner.

The last three nights we have eaten dinner around 7:30 or so outside at the table on the deck. First of all you will note the late dinner hour. There are several reasons for this but none of them make much sense. Part of it is that time flies up here. By the time someone thinks to ask what time it is the answer is “Quarter after one”, to which we all say, “Whattt?? So, we end up eating lunch at 1:30. Then, around the time we would normally eat dinner, everybody is floating on the lake and too annoyed by the prospect of having to remove ourselves from the flotation devices long enough to make dinner. So, we bargain with each other saying, “well, we just had lunch like five minutes ago…” The end result is that by the time we have found the motivation to start making dinner its dang near 8 o’clock before its served and we are all starving. The payoff is…everything is delicious. Last night I grilled some chicken and Pam and Kaitlin made this insanely glorious salad thing with grilled corn, tomatoes, some sort of homemade basil dressing and crouton-sized chunks of rosemary and olive oil infused bread which had been cooked on the grill. Essentially a bread salad. Not sure what it sounds like, but I am here to testify that it tasted better than any salad I have ever eaten.

After dinner we all ventured out on the still as glass lake in an assortment of crafts to watch the sunset from the middle of the lake so we could see the 360 degree perspective. I could show you a dozen or more pictures of the explosion of color. I could attempt to describe how amazing it was when a swarm of swallows flew overhead, the humming sound their wings made as they flew past. But I will only include one picture. It perfectly captures the magic of the moment. It also serves as a reminder of why we do this, why we spend so much money to spend six weeks up here. Nobody loves this more than Pam Dunnevant…