We walked over to Pop’s for breakfast at the crack of 11:30 a.m. to start the festivities for Mom’s big day. Grits and scrambled eggs for both of us, plus I splurged on a glass of delicious Florida orange juice. It was funny to see the place in the day since Monday was a dark and stormy night. It’s overlooking the causeway which of course we couldn’t see when we arrived in the dark.
It seems a little ironic that we hung out on the beach, my favorite thing, for Mom’s special day. A nice man made a valiant attempt to screw the umbrella down into the sand and it stayed up for a while but I’ve never had any luck with beach umbrellas. But here we are in the brief moment while it was upright.
After the beach we went to…the beach. This time Venice Beach, where we met Lori Ann and Bill and attempted to eat at Sharkey’s, a very very popular place on the water. First, we watched the sunset. There were many people in the background but Lori Ann has an iphone 16 and was able to get rid of them all with a swoosh. Very impressive.
I walked out on Venice Pier and that was beautiful. Very crowded, though. Also kind of chilly with a brisk wind whipping all around.
I love it that wherever I happen to go to see the sun set, everybody cheers. It’s comforting, somehow, that we all have that in common.
Out wait at Sharkey’s proved to be daunting. The wind whipped around some more and the line was ridiculously long so we opted to head the the fancier restaurant upstairs, Fin’s.
I got a mock cocktail that had an edible straw and that we my favorite part of the evening. I realize that when they serve you a mock cocktail it’s really just a fruity shake. Yum. Because it was such a ritzy place, they brought out four types of dips to go with our bread. Olive tapenade, butter with something in it, hummus, spinach and artichoke. It was all so delicious that I demanded that the waiter bring us more bread in order to keep eating the dips.
The waiter brought out a giant birthday creme puff with strawberries floating on a chocolate sea and I completely forgot about it til now because I didn’t take a picture, I was too busy scooping up the deliciousness. That was for sure the best part of the meal. I’d like to go back somebody just for one of those delectable cream puffs.
Afterwards we headed over to the Zebra Lounge, a funky place where Lori Ann frequently performs Karaoke. The guy on the piano used to be in marketing in NYC, I’m assuming just like Mad Men even though I’ve never actually watched the show. After that, he started being the guy who flies around the country to present people with giant Publisher’s Clearinghouse checks. Really?! Seriously??!!! So somebody is really getting the giant checks. I love that. It seems that’d be fun, showing up at a person’s door with a big check. Everybody must be so happy to see him.
I was kind of annoyed because as Lori Ann performed, people kept chit chatting away. I wanted to yell, “Pay attention!” But I didn’t.
After a while, Lori Ann led everybody in a hearty “Happy Birthday” to Mom but somehow I didn’t hit the button on the phone to record it so all I got was the end, when Mom was clapping and swaying. Oh well, you can picture how it went.
I’d heard about Venice FL for such a long time and in my mind it was funky and cool, but it was more like Naples FL, filled with fancy little shops filled with fancy people buying expensive stuff. A lovely town, just not how I’d pictured it in my mind. This makes sense, because there probably aren’t any more laid-back little towns on the coast of Florida anymore.
Anyway, a thoroughly good time was had by all yet again.
Ok then,
Mrs. H.