Dinner At The Casino

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Welcome to Charles Town Chatter.  We have decided to do occasional pieces now that we have almost settled into life in the USA. We were home for four days before heading to Minnesota for the dedication of a bench in Cindy’s dad’s honor.  He was one of the early environmentalists and an avid protector of bluebirds. They had a bench placed at the head of what will be the Vern Emmans Bluebird Trail and they placed a plaque on the bench in Vern’s memory.  It was a delightful ceremony and everyone there had lovely things to say about Vern, including Cindy and me.

While Cindy helped her mother clean out ‘stuff’ from her basement, I used the time to requalify as a pilot.  It had been three years since my last flight so I needed a few hours of ground school to review airspace, charts, navigation, etc. and three hours of flight.  The fun, of course, was flying.  I had to do all the things I had to do to become a pilot and it felt wonderful and completely natural.  I hadn’t lost much but I surely did appreciate the guidance of a young and talented flight instructor.  I can tell you that the area around Cindy’s hometown of Anoka is as flat as a pancake and at 3,500 feet I could see the Empire State Building to the East and the Rockies to the west.  It sure makes navigation easy since you can just follow major highways in all cardinal directions.

We did no fine dining, with the exception of a 24-hour trip that we took with Brent and Kari.  We drove in Brent’s beautiful Jaguar along the Mississippi on the Wisconsin side until we got to Pepin, where we were to have dinner at The Harbor View Café, overlooking Lake Pepin.  The ride was lovely and filled with bald eagle sightings, beautiful vistas and lovely little towns.  We checked into our motel, The Great River Amish Inn, which was quaint, clean and perfect for our needs since it was only a short walk to the restaurant. We took a bit of a walk for a while and decided to reward our efforts with a cold Leinenkugel beer, a Wisconsin favorite. We found a quintessential Wisconsin bar: filled with families, dark, smelling of popcorn and fried food, with friendly barkeepers. It was a most satisfactory experience.

Cindy and I had not been to the Harbor View since July 14, 1983, the day we were married in Winona MN.  Our witnesses were our neighbors, Jack and Pat Lucas, and they drove us there for our wedding luncheon. It was a wonderful experience and we were thrilled to be back with B&K.  It was, as usual, very crowded and since they don’t take reservations you just put your name on a list and sit around outside with a drink while you wait for your table.  Dinner was lovely, innovative and lively, just like it was twenty-eight years ago.

We flew home on a Tuesday and arrived at the house at about six. We unpacked and decided to go to the restaurant, Final Cut, which is at the Casino.  Cindy picks up the story.

Dinner at the Casino

Wm so wanted to bring me to “Final Cut” - the new steakhouse at the Charles Town casino - but alas it’s closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  We went to the Sundance Grill instead, which was just fine … but picture this:

An elegant white rectangular plate with a beautiful filet of salmon garnished with a citrus glaze, a twisted confit of orange slice, and four tiny spears of asparagus.  Next to that was a mound of mashed red jacket garlic potatoes (to fast forward a bit, everything was simply delicious).  Next to the potatoes was nestled a small metal container that might have contained salad dressing - but I hadn’t ordered salad and the contents were too dark to be a citrus glaze.  ????  I stuck my fork into the brown sauce and discovered it was gravy!  Yes, beef gravy to go with the mashed potatoes.  Incongruous to say the least, and we couldn’t help but giggle.

Back to Wm: We’ll be posting our musings at www.ctchatter.blogspot.com.  Not sure we’ll always use email so bookmark this address and check every Monday or so.  We are very happy, we sleep well past eight every morning, we exercise daily, garden and do yard work until we collapse, cook great dinners with fresh vegetables, drink fine wine, and can’t remember being more delighted with our lives. Best wishes to all, Cindy and Wm.

From CC: Does this mean we’re getting old, when pulling weeds is more satisfying than a great museum or a classical concert??  I like to think of this as a fabulous respite, and we’ll expand our activities in a few months (but we won’t move!).