The Feast, Part II
The trip to Clearwater was uneventful. We arrived after a 9½ hour trip and found our keys in the pickup box at the realty agent office. As we searched for our condo, we passed a particularly hideous green-colored condo unit and I mused that I sure would hate to stay in a place that looked like that. We drove on down Gulf Boulevard for a bit searching for number 20000. We soon discovered that we had passed it so we turned around and made our way back south. What was the number 20000 attached to? Why the particularly hideous green-colored condo unit of course! After checking the baggage to make sure I had packed humility, we proceeded up the elevator. We checked the condo out and found it passable, but not up to the usual expectations. Then Summer turned on the water. The wonderful aroma of eggs with a long expired “use by” date wafted out of the bath room faucet – and the kitchen faucet and both tub faucets. Our stomachs began to feel like we had just feasted on a finely prepared plate of salmonella. What to do.
A phone call to the realty answering service netted a return call from maintenance. The solution was to drain the hot water tank. Obviously the unit had not been used in quite a while and I am not sure it had been fully cleaned either. I am glad forbearance was hidden in one of those bags.
After wasting good beach walking time with those housekeeping chores, we decided to check out the Salt Rock Grill for dinner. The parking lot was packed; the wait was 20 minutes. We asked for non-smoking; we were seated by the bar with the smokers and the drunks. What a way to start the feast – getting a full frontal view of an obnoxiously inebriated woman whose expletives, sadly, had not been deleted; having the eyes seared by the vision of bar stools filled with vacant-eyed single guys with nothing to do with their Sunday nights except drink; and having to watch the sordid display of a young woman pouring herself over a coolly disinterested male companion. The whole scene was as bad as being flashed by a 90 year old 323 pound woman.
I consoled myself with the fact that the feast had not started yet. We were a full twenty-four hours early and God, obviously, had not placed His name on the Salt Rock Grill.
Monday dawned hot and humid. I got in a nice walk up the nearly deserted beach and was settling in to frying my flesh when Summer buzzed me with news that I needed to meet Gina M. and her mother at our condo. Mrs. M. brought this delicious tray of assorted baklava for us to feast on. Let the Feast begin! We learned that services were going to be early this year – 7 PM and 10 AM – so we rushed out for a second trip to the grocery store and to get Summer’s hair cut. We didn’t have time for dinner before services; we felt we needed to get to services in plenty of time since it was rumored that 1400 were going to be in attendance at Clearwater. We saw so many faces we had not seen in a number of years. It was great getting reacquainted with those we had seen at numerous other Florida feasts. The opening messages were good. It appeared that attendance was a bit short of projections. A number came in late, possibly not being aware of the earlier start time. We learned later that our high attendance was a little over 900. That was plenty for the site. Seating and parking were not problems with the number we had. After services, Summer, Ben, Gina and I went to Shells for a late dinner. The place was nearly empty, but the food was pretty good.
The highlight of the Feast was the quality of the messages we heard. Every message we heard had excellent content. It was a real treat to hear three live sermons from Mr. Meredith. We did not expect to see Mr. Ames in Clearwater. His sermon, which I think was also given at Myrtle Beach, was the best I have ever heard him give. The subject, Training to be Royal Teachers, was timely and the presentation was excellent. He regaled us with a story about some goooood Georgia Mountain white lightnin’ he tasted on a baptizing trip and he read a strip from my favorite, Calvin and Hobbes. I could not believe that Mr. Ames was reading the same strip I had posted in my office at Tamassee-Salem High School. We also had sermons from Mssrs. Rod Reynolds, Phil Sena, and Martin Fannin. There was much given to study and meditate on for a long time. Now that the feast is over, I have been trying to go through my sermon notes to gain a deeper benefit from the time spent. Since I have retired, it has been much easier to get in more Bible study.
We know that when we go to a beach site for the Feast in September-October there is always the chance for hurricanes. This year was no exception. Tropical Storm Wilma was just a little blip in the Caribbean early on. But Wilma got my attention in a big way when she turned into a category 5 with 175 mile per hour winds literally overnight. In past years, we have been to feast sites after hurricanes have blown through or been on the fringes as one hits nearby. One year at St. Pete the wind and rain were heavy in the early morning of the Last Great Day. We had to battle torrential rains driving up I-75 that night on the way home. Three years ago a storm threatened Family Day at Panama City Beach, but the event went on as planned. I have pictures of heavy surf, but we were not bothered by the storm. This year has not been a normal year, so the category 5 status raised my level of concern. But as the days passed, the forecasted landfall in Florida kept changing times. After camping out over the Yucatan Peninsula and being downgraded upon reentering the Gulf, things began to look up. Finally Wilma hit early Monday morning south of us. On Sunday, we had some light rain and strong winds. There were threats of tornados in the Tampa area, but none came near us. The heavy winds were the only negative that we experienced, but even they brought a benefit – the temperature cooled and the heavy humidity vanished. So I wondered why I was ever concerned about having to evacuate. The Feast went on uninterrupted as it has every year in modern times.
This feast provided opportunities for personal growth. We were the only ones from the Anderson church at Clearwater. I don’t think I have ever been to a feast site where there was no one else from the local church. For the extroverts and outgoing, that is no big deal. For the painfully shy, it is. Thankfully, I was able to meet and talk to more new people this year than perhaps ever. As you get older, you begin to face new stages and challenges in life. One of those is the transition from family existence to being alone. Nearly every older person in our society faces some time in their lives when they have to go it alone. So it was an interesting experience for me to go out to eat by myself one night. I chose the Wine Cellar which is one of my favorite places in the area. The food was fine but the service left much to be desired.
The highlights of the Feast physically were two special nights out. On Thursday evening, Desirée, Carrie, Elizabeth, Tom, Steven, Tad, and I went out to the Wine Cellar. This time the food and service were excellent and we had a wonderful time. They had a keyboard player performing some cheesy piano bar music. We got up and danced – even line danced to his music. We had the staff and the customers all looking on. It was absolutely great.
The next night Aaron had reservations at Bern’s Steak House in Tampa. (If you visit the area, you have to go to Bern’s.) Aaron, Summer, Ben, Elizabeth and I enjoyed a wonderful evening. The food was good and the wine list was unfathomable. We were able to take a tour of their kitchen and their wine cellar. Then we went upstairs to their special dessert rooms. I think that was the highlight of the evening. It was difficult choosing a dessert, even more difficult choosing a drink to accompany it. The waiter was excellent and gave really good advice on the selections. He suggested 30-year old Taylor-Fladgate port to go with the Turkish White Fig Almond Cake I had chosen. It was excellent. That was the first time I had had port. I have been missing out. Their cappuccino was excellent too. Some part of it had been fermented for 10 weeks. That night of good food, drink, and lots of laughs will be remembered for a long time.
Summer, Ben and I enjoyed a good evening at Watercolours at the Marriott. We were on the bay and the lightning was flashing as Wilma began to come in to the south.
Desirée, Summer and I went to the Wine Cellar after services on the Last Great Day to bring the feast to a close. All in all it was a very good feast.
The next morning we packed the Jetta for the return trip home. On our way back, it was a real treat to be able to go through Augusta, GA and have dinner with Heather and Christian at their new apartment. We enjoyed a good meal, some North Georgia wine, and a good visit that we had to put an end to too soon. I dropped Summer off at Converse and arrived back home after midnight. It was a good trip, but it was also good to be back home to my own bed for another year.
A phone call to the realty answering service netted a return call from maintenance. The solution was to drain the hot water tank. Obviously the unit had not been used in quite a while and I am not sure it had been fully cleaned either. I am glad forbearance was hidden in one of those bags.
After wasting good beach walking time with those housekeeping chores, we decided to check out the Salt Rock Grill for dinner. The parking lot was packed; the wait was 20 minutes. We asked for non-smoking; we were seated by the bar with the smokers and the drunks. What a way to start the feast – getting a full frontal view of an obnoxiously inebriated woman whose expletives, sadly, had not been deleted; having the eyes seared by the vision of bar stools filled with vacant-eyed single guys with nothing to do with their Sunday nights except drink; and having to watch the sordid display of a young woman pouring herself over a coolly disinterested male companion. The whole scene was as bad as being flashed by a 90 year old 323 pound woman.
I consoled myself with the fact that the feast had not started yet. We were a full twenty-four hours early and God, obviously, had not placed His name on the Salt Rock Grill.
Monday dawned hot and humid. I got in a nice walk up the nearly deserted beach and was settling in to frying my flesh when Summer buzzed me with news that I needed to meet Gina M. and her mother at our condo. Mrs. M. brought this delicious tray of assorted baklava for us to feast on. Let the Feast begin! We learned that services were going to be early this year – 7 PM and 10 AM – so we rushed out for a second trip to the grocery store and to get Summer’s hair cut. We didn’t have time for dinner before services; we felt we needed to get to services in plenty of time since it was rumored that 1400 were going to be in attendance at Clearwater. We saw so many faces we had not seen in a number of years. It was great getting reacquainted with those we had seen at numerous other Florida feasts. The opening messages were good. It appeared that attendance was a bit short of projections. A number came in late, possibly not being aware of the earlier start time. We learned later that our high attendance was a little over 900. That was plenty for the site. Seating and parking were not problems with the number we had. After services, Summer, Ben, Gina and I went to Shells for a late dinner. The place was nearly empty, but the food was pretty good.
The highlight of the Feast was the quality of the messages we heard. Every message we heard had excellent content. It was a real treat to hear three live sermons from Mr. Meredith. We did not expect to see Mr. Ames in Clearwater. His sermon, which I think was also given at Myrtle Beach, was the best I have ever heard him give. The subject, Training to be Royal Teachers, was timely and the presentation was excellent. He regaled us with a story about some goooood Georgia Mountain white lightnin’ he tasted on a baptizing trip and he read a strip from my favorite, Calvin and Hobbes. I could not believe that Mr. Ames was reading the same strip I had posted in my office at Tamassee-Salem High School. We also had sermons from Mssrs. Rod Reynolds, Phil Sena, and Martin Fannin. There was much given to study and meditate on for a long time. Now that the feast is over, I have been trying to go through my sermon notes to gain a deeper benefit from the time spent. Since I have retired, it has been much easier to get in more Bible study.
We know that when we go to a beach site for the Feast in September-October there is always the chance for hurricanes. This year was no exception. Tropical Storm Wilma was just a little blip in the Caribbean early on. But Wilma got my attention in a big way when she turned into a category 5 with 175 mile per hour winds literally overnight. In past years, we have been to feast sites after hurricanes have blown through or been on the fringes as one hits nearby. One year at St. Pete the wind and rain were heavy in the early morning of the Last Great Day. We had to battle torrential rains driving up I-75 that night on the way home. Three years ago a storm threatened Family Day at Panama City Beach, but the event went on as planned. I have pictures of heavy surf, but we were not bothered by the storm. This year has not been a normal year, so the category 5 status raised my level of concern. But as the days passed, the forecasted landfall in Florida kept changing times. After camping out over the Yucatan Peninsula and being downgraded upon reentering the Gulf, things began to look up. Finally Wilma hit early Monday morning south of us. On Sunday, we had some light rain and strong winds. There were threats of tornados in the Tampa area, but none came near us. The heavy winds were the only negative that we experienced, but even they brought a benefit – the temperature cooled and the heavy humidity vanished. So I wondered why I was ever concerned about having to evacuate. The Feast went on uninterrupted as it has every year in modern times.
This feast provided opportunities for personal growth. We were the only ones from the Anderson church at Clearwater. I don’t think I have ever been to a feast site where there was no one else from the local church. For the extroverts and outgoing, that is no big deal. For the painfully shy, it is. Thankfully, I was able to meet and talk to more new people this year than perhaps ever. As you get older, you begin to face new stages and challenges in life. One of those is the transition from family existence to being alone. Nearly every older person in our society faces some time in their lives when they have to go it alone. So it was an interesting experience for me to go out to eat by myself one night. I chose the Wine Cellar which is one of my favorite places in the area. The food was fine but the service left much to be desired.
The highlights of the Feast physically were two special nights out. On Thursday evening, Desirée, Carrie, Elizabeth, Tom, Steven, Tad, and I went out to the Wine Cellar. This time the food and service were excellent and we had a wonderful time. They had a keyboard player performing some cheesy piano bar music. We got up and danced – even line danced to his music. We had the staff and the customers all looking on. It was absolutely great.
The next night Aaron had reservations at Bern’s Steak House in Tampa. (If you visit the area, you have to go to Bern’s.) Aaron, Summer, Ben, Elizabeth and I enjoyed a wonderful evening. The food was good and the wine list was unfathomable. We were able to take a tour of their kitchen and their wine cellar. Then we went upstairs to their special dessert rooms. I think that was the highlight of the evening. It was difficult choosing a dessert, even more difficult choosing a drink to accompany it. The waiter was excellent and gave really good advice on the selections. He suggested 30-year old Taylor-Fladgate port to go with the Turkish White Fig Almond Cake I had chosen. It was excellent. That was the first time I had had port. I have been missing out. Their cappuccino was excellent too. Some part of it had been fermented for 10 weeks. That night of good food, drink, and lots of laughs will be remembered for a long time.
Summer, Ben and I enjoyed a good evening at Watercolours at the Marriott. We were on the bay and the lightning was flashing as Wilma began to come in to the south.
Desirée, Summer and I went to the Wine Cellar after services on the Last Great Day to bring the feast to a close. All in all it was a very good feast.
The next morning we packed the Jetta for the return trip home. On our way back, it was a real treat to be able to go through Augusta, GA and have dinner with Heather and Christian at their new apartment. We enjoyed a good meal, some North Georgia wine, and a good visit that we had to put an end to too soon. I dropped Summer off at Converse and arrived back home after midnight. It was a good trip, but it was also good to be back home to my own bed for another year.
posted by Manuel at 11:26 PM
2 Comments:
How many parts are you going to have to your Feast?
A most excellent post sir. I found myself laughing out loud at several parts, particularly your description of the Salt Rock Grill.
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