In-laws on the road

My mother and father-in-law are pulling out this morning headed back to PA.  This week we didn’t see much of them as they were doing their own thing.  The one day they took a day trip to Key West and didn’t enjoy it.  Then Wednesday they went to the Edison Ford Estate in Fort Myers and loved it.  We met up with them for dinner after work.

We went to a newly opened Carraba’s.  I wanted to check it out.  We got there early, like 5:15.  We were a bit flabbergasted to see a big crowd of gray haired prunes already waiting outside.   Damn snowbirds have flocked back already.  I couldn’t believe it was that full on a Thursday at 5:15.  When we got inside it was snowbirds wall to wall.  Well even with the crowd they said it would be like a 35-40 minute wait, not horrible. 

Instead of giving out the standard pager thing to let you know when your table is ready, they hand you a little piece of paper with a number on it.  They have a few electronic boards spread around the place that flash the numbers up.  I thought that was a bit stupid.  You had to be constantly checking the number board to see if you are up, if you happen to miss it you could be sitting there forever.  This Carrabba’s was bigger than my favorite one and the layout was much more an open space.  It was nice but not as nice as the older location.

We passed the time indulging in the two for one happy hour.  Ali’s parents seemed to be the happiest we had seen them the entire trip.  They said how they really enjoyed their time down here and in fact may have been the best time they had in decades.  I was glad to hear they enjoyed things.  We had a good meal.  I picked up the check since Ali’s parents paid for nearly everything we did together.  I threw a 10 dollar tip on the 72 dollar meal.  After doing so I thought it may have been a bit light, a little under 15%, but our server was polite but not spectacular and I figured compared to the tips he gets from most of the snowbirds, I still would appear generous.

We went back to Ali’s work to pick up Nicki and said our goodbyes to Ali’s parents.  It could be awhile until we see them again.  If a year passed I would not be surprised.  All in all it worked out ok.

This weekend is gonna be busy for me.  I have to come in to a new branch to check up on a state install, take down the christmas decorations and various other to do’s.  The big Eagles game is late Sunday, I can’t wait.  Ali said yesterday she wanted to get to the beach but she may have to just settle for pool time instead until this branch install is done in a couple of weeks. I am starting to investigate the logistics with installing a lawn sprinkler setup. Oh we plan to go see the new Rocky movie this weekend too.