Tonight's Dinner: Brought to You by the Color Brown

The family-friendly portion of the day

Downtown Raleigh is recognized for throwing the secondlargest St. Patrick’s Day Parade and celebration in the Southeastern USA. Mycondo is actually located two blocks from the parade route’s end. From mybalcony, I can see participants jumping from their floats ducking into the TirNa Nog Irish Pub for refreshment or scattering into the streets to continuetheir revelry. By the time the dregs of the parade reach my building, there isnothing but empty floats and exhausted high school marching bands. 

The rest of the day is a celebration of all things Irish(music, crafts, food, beer, whiskey, etc.) The streets and Moore Square Parkare taken over by those proudly wearing the green.  For one day everyone in Downtown is an honorary Irishman. 

Supplies for a long weekend

This year, Carl and I decided to skip the revelry and headto the mountains to open up the campsite. Over the last few weeks, Carl hasbeen mulling what to do with the campsite – keep it another year or put it upfor sale. So, with Spring just around the corner, we (he) had to make a decision. 

We left town late Thursday afternoon and arrived at thecampsite around 10:00 PM.  Brrrr, it wasa bit chilly. Carl turned on the heat and we started unpacking. Oddly, thecamper was not getting warm. Carl fiddled with the gas and checked the fuses,but still no heat. Of course, I was huddled next to the space heater playingwith my iPhone – my brain shuts down when the temperature goes below 40 degrees(5C). After a few false starts, Carl realized the gas tanks were empty.Luckily, he had an extra tank attached to the gas grill!  A few minutes later we had heat!

Halfway there: Mount Pilot

I worked on Friday as Carl took the tanks to be refilled andthen de-winterized everything. During our afternoon golf cart ride around thecampground, we ran into Ronnie who invited us to a fish fry at the Raetown Ruritanclub. We politely declined since Carl doesn’t eat anything raised in the water.Ronnie re-extended the invitation with the added information that the menuincluded fried chicken fingers, so we decided to come along. In the end, therewere seven of us heading over to Raetown for all-you-can-eat crispy brown food(fish, shrimp, chicken fingers, fries, hushpuppies) plus sides of coleslaw anddessert.

To say the seven of us stood out in the crowd would be anunderstatement. Most everyone there was a local and they all knew each other.Seating was at long rows of fold-up tables, so we had an opportunity to get upclose and personal with our fellow diners – once we pushed our way in. Ourfriend Tip (yep, it's really Tip), seemed right at home, and started up a conversation with the folksacross from him who, coincidentally were from the same town as his parents(small world, indeed). The other locals at our table simply leaned as far awayas possible to prevent having to speak. LOL

Not quite Spring, but getting close

The fish fry was scheduled to end at 7:30 and right on schedulethe food disappeared – including desserts and beverages. There was to be nolingering in the dining hall over another glass of lemonade.

So, full and tired we made an emergency liquor store run, hitthe tavern for a nightcap, then it was off to bed. We had a big day planned tocelebrate St. Patrick’s Day.