NYC hits Lake Lanier

It’s been ages since I posted something on the blog. Seems like airports are the best places to catch up on personal writing. So here I sit at Hartsfield in Atlanta, while Fay and Olivia are finding food, Justin already left on AirTran and we are all ogling the stud sitting in front of us. But we realized he wasn’t more than eye candy when he pulled out an eight-track cell phone. Hello, no Blackberry or iphone?

See, I’m already loosing my Southern gentility and I’m not even out of Atlanta yet. But lets recount our halcyon weekend, shall we? This was Olivia and Fay’s third annual summer trip to the South. We have spent St. Patrick’s Day here and usually spend a day at the farm riding. But this year was all lake time and it was heaven. We invited Justin for this round and he proved amusing enough to invite back next year! Justin, you at the grocery store causing a debacle with the cashier was classic, not to mention mom and dad adore you.

I arrived on Thursday and took care of lots of friends and family time before the crew descended late Friday night. Justin and I had a drink on the dock at midnight and the girls invaded the now famous gift-wrapping room before we all hit the hay. Saturday morning we lounged, mother made fruit salad and a massive gooey cinnamon-y monkey bread that we devoured. Calories be damned! At 11:30 we headed downtown for lunch with my grandparents, Pop and Dorothy. They had just returned from a three-week tour of South East Asia and the Middle East and provided a cournucopia of stories to regale us with. Justin and Dorothy had especially a lot in common with their shared love and talent in the art world.

After lunch (where we splurged on mozzarella sticks and nachos!) we zoomed back up to the lake for serious respite. Dad took the boat out and we motored over to our favorite spot, Cocktail Cove. There we were both disturbed and delighted by the cigarette boats, massive yachts and barely there bathing suits worn by some of Georgia’s less appealing peaches. Fay’s favorite boat was named ‘Slap & Tickle’, naturally. We took the sun, plunged into the water, drank some Budweiser and simply enjoyed life.

After several hours it was time to putter back for dinner at the club. We bathed, changed, packed up the booze (mother made Charleston Tea, a recipe from Southern Living consisting of whiskey, rum, Triple Sec and iced tea-yes please!) and drove down the road for dinner. Our feast was rather uneventful but pleasant, mostly because we were all stuffing ourselves on steak, potatoes, booze and the salad bar. But once we were wrapping up, a pile of club goers wobbled into the dining room and plopped down at our table. The Duke's and their English friends Robin and Trisha had been drinking from the cup of Bacchus for several hours while making pizzas at the Dukes house (they have a pizza oven in their backyard!) and decided to come by for a hello. Drinks were poured, desserts were ordered and vivacious voices persisted for another hour until we were all fairly tight and decided home was the best idea. Of course with Dad not drinking he was a steady pilot for the five-minute drive home, so Mom could take one more swig of the Charleston Tea!

Fay and Olivia decided the fireplace was the newest spot for a photo shoot and the Missus Clauses’ never looked so good. Justin passed out (that boy can sleep!) and we all had a nightcap and a walk down memory lane in many a scrapbook.

This morning we were awake in time for CBS Sunday Morning, mother made cinnamon toast and we lulled until it was time to head to the dock to lull some more. And that was that really. A weekend of complete relaxation save for the major exercise of fork and cup to mouth repeatedly. We did take a trip to Publix for sammiches for lunch (and where Justin made the cashier turn red with his purchases- hey they are cheaper in the South!) and I took a dip around the dock. But most of the day was simply spent catching up on gossip, on reading, of watching the ducklings patter around and soaking in the sun.

I always promise myself I will come back more often to this land of serenity, silliness and seclusion, here is hoping to one or two more trips before Christmas!

Thanks mom and dad for another love filled Southern sojourn.

Fay and Olivia's Second Annual Southern Excursion

Fay and Olivia made their second annual trip down to Hathaway for a weekend in the country. I picked them up Friday night and we headed back to Hathaway where they dropped their bags, hugged mama and promptly passed out. Saturday morning we were up early and headed out to the farm for a ride. The weather was hot and humid and the horses were not having it! We all had some issues with Zippy, Grulla, Skip and Guido but it ended up being a fun day. Our biggest mistake was taking them out in the hayfields which were three feet tall and thick with gorgeous hay. It was like asking me to walk down a street paved in fried chicken. Forget it. They were so busy eating, no matter how hard I kicked, yelled, prodded, Skip wasn’t moving and neither was Guido. We ended up having a nice time in the back fields and got some good canters in when back in the ring. But just like going out, getting the horses groomed, dressed and petted is usually more fun than the actual ride.

We dashed back home, did a costume change and headed over to Connie and Ben’s for James’ engagement party. I grew up with the Knight’s and when they moved up to the lake it gave us all a reason to get back in touch. Every Boxing Day the Knight's have a swinging party that I usually don’t remember. Kyle was highly amusing as always and she made the margarita’s waaay too strong so after two we were all a bit loopy. We chatted with the gang for a couple of hours and then headed back home for dinner and some down time.

Once home we opened a bottle of wine and had catch up time with mother in the living room while watching the sunset. It was so lovely. We then set the table for dinner, picked an arrangement for the table and opened another bottle and sat outside gossiping. We finally sat for dinner and dove into my favorite meal in the world- Cator Casserole- pasta, cream of mushroom, corn and ground beef baked to yummy goodness. After dinner we popped open the final bottle of wine, giggled around the table and passed out at 11pm. Full day and a perfect day!

On Mother’s Day we woke up late and presented mom with her gift- a phot album of our trip to the Cayman Islands. Her big present was her very own FaceBook page. I created it weeks ago, uploaded loads of photos, asked people to friend her and made status updates about the big surprise. But last week I had a comment on my wall from mom. Ends up she had created her own profile but the present was still a hit. She now uses the one I made for her and me and the girls showed her how to use it. Around 11am Pepe showed up with his two cute kids and we all took a cooler and headed to the boat. Marcus and Ellie were adorable, very well behaved and seemed to have a blast. By the end of the day Ellie wanted to spend the night. Dad let Marcus ‘drive’ the boat out to Cocktail Cove where we dropped anchor, popped open some beers and dove in the water. After talking about swimming the entire ride over, once Ellie stuck one toe in the water there was no way in hell she was getting in. Pepe and I took the plunge to show her it wasn’t that bad but she would have none of it. We all watched the rednecks come and go in their speed boats or broke down houseboats, ate a light and lovely meal made my the one and only Mama Sparks and soaked up some sun before having to head back to NYC. Once Marcus his nap time we headed home, packed everything up, lazily rolled into some civilian clothes and mother drove us to the airport. The girls have been wanting to try boiled peanuts since our last trip to Atlanta so mother swung into Pop’s where I ordered abag from a toothless, but angelic woman. As soon as the girls slurped one down they were over it and passed the bag back. Not their idea. An acquired salt taste I reckin! I ate half the bag on the way downtown and left the rest for dad to enjoy.

Check in was fine and all was calm until I attempted to sit with the girls and offer my seat to one helluva angry Asian chic. She about blew steam when I asked her to sit two seats behind us. It was so funny everyone turned around and looked at her. I asked loudly if she had her britches in a wad and the end of the world wasn’t upon us if she took the seat. So from three rows back she screamed that she did in fact want that seat so I kindly got up and moved and she crashed into her seat next to Fay and Olivia. Bad idea. They got up about 100 times during the flight to thoroughly piss her off and Fay wrestled her for the arm rest for two hours. Don’t mess with Tex!