Fish Fry

A few weeks ago Kelly called me. He said that he and Jackie had a bunch of fish in their freezer and asked if we would like to get together for a fish fry. When I talked to David, his response was that he was always up for a fish fry. He and Kelly worked out the details.

Last Saturday we met at David and Staci's home. Duane picked me up and we were glad that we had left early, for about 10 miles from the turn-off on I-94, we encountered traffic moving at a snail's pace, slowed by road construction. Took an hour to go that 10 miles, and at one point we saw a guy walking along the shoulder of the highway. He seemed to be making better time than we were.

It was a perfect summer day. Lots of blue sky and white, fluffy clouds. I love the new deck. It adds so much to David and Staci's house. And it makes a really neat platform for watching the grandkids swim in their pool. The girls swam and dove and splashed and played and Jacob sat in his little floaty boat and pulled himself round and round the pool's edge. Staci said that she was glad that Jacob actually likes to wear his pint-sized life vest. Makes life much easier and he has so much fun in the pool.

David got into the act, getting into the pool to retrieve toys, I think he had nearly as much fun as the kids did!

And then there was the fish. Real honest to goodness northern Minnesota fish, from a real Minnesota lake and not from a box at a supermarket. David made foil packets of fish topped with peppers, onions and spices and cooked them on the grill along with packets of cubed potatoes with garlic and rosemary. Wonderful! Kelly and Jackie also brought a variety of fruit including my personal favorite, blueberries. Duane brought a really good watermelon - you just can't have a picnic without watermelon - and my contribution was a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. It just doesn't get much better than this. One of these days I will remember to take pictures of the food, but this day everything looked so good that taking pictures was the last thing on my mind. Let me at that fish!

We relaxed on the deck, talking and laughing and watching the kids play. There were memories revisited and current topics discussed. My family is so well informed and although now and then opinions differ, they are able to talk of these things without rancor. I love listening to these conversations.

It was getting on to evening when it was time to head home, and after ice cream and root beer floats, Duane and I started back south. I always hate to leave, but the time spent with my family is time well spent. It had been such a good day. Kelly and Jackie.....if you ever find yourselves with an excess amount of fish, give us a call. I'm thinking that we can find a way to help you out with that!