A Visit to Our Fair City

Seeing a solar eclipse from the zone of totality has long been on my bucket list, so the great 2017 eclipse was a great excuse to visit Pine Lake.

I flew early Friday morning (the 18th of August), which happened to be my birthday. By noon I was in the city.

I unloaded my gear at Barbara Whitlow's house and went inside to cool off. After a while Christine Slocomb came over and they took me to Red Chili Cafe, which lives at the site of the former Wendy's at Memorial and Hambrick.

My Friends Barbara Hayes Whitlow (L) and Christine Slocomb

As you might guess from the name, the restaurant has an Asian theme. Barbara and I had one of the daily specials, a catfish curry over rice and cubes of roasted potatoes. It was, no kidding, the best dish I've had in years.

The prices at Red Chili are quite reasonable, and it's a treasure. Certainly it makes much better use of the building than Wendy's ever did.

After lunch Barbara and Christine gave me a tour of Pine Lake, highlighting changes over the past two years. I used my iPhone to take photos and you will shortly be seeing them here.

Back at Barbara's house we had birthday cupcakes and I was presented with a cute birthday card and bottle of cinnamon schnapps to assist with eclipse watching.

Around five pm my friend Rena came to pick me up and she and I left for our eclipse adventure.

I love hanging out with Barbara and Christine and I only regret our friendship formed late in my time at Pine Lake. I wonder if I can persuade them to move to New Jersey.  Hey! We have a lake mere feet from our house and a guest bedroom! C'mon up! And thank you so much for lunch and cupcakes and schnapps and for showing me such a good time!

Stay tuned to this station for the saga of the cinnamon schnapps.