Years ago, Bapa and Ryan joined me for a golf getaway on the Monterey Peninsula for what we dubbed 3 Generations Golf Getaway (3G3). It also happens to be the story of my first blog here. (scroll all the way down… March 27 2023). We are so fortunate to again have an opportunity for the same three generations to gather here on the right coast, as Ryan arrives from California! As we all know, the Ryder Cup starts on Friday at Bethpage Black, and we have quite a day of camaraderie and family time planned for the final round on Sunday. The menu includes Bapa’s famous homemade chili and my seafood gumbo. On Wednesdays, Mimi and Bapa work for the second time each week, delivering to various customers of Meals On Wheels across Scituate. They graciously offered me their kitchen for making that gumbo while they were out. Thank you Mimi and Bapa!
Back in 1994, I was the Supply Officer on the fast-attack submarine USS PHILADELPHIA (SSN-690). During that tour, the cooks worked for me, and one of them from Mississippi asked if he could introduce his own gumbo recipe to the menu for the crew. I happily agreed, and he introduced two versions – chicken/sausage and seafood. When in Rome, you do what Romans do. When in Scituate, you opt for seafood! Stacey got me the base ingredients from Shaw’s grocery store and I picked up fresh seafood from Mullaney’s Fish Market here in the harbor. For this version, we have halibut, shrimp and lobster! It was so nice to have room at Camp Mimi-Bapa to spread out and work efficiently. The Harbor Hideaway (HH) is quite cozy, but the kitchen is rather small. So I took advantage of the generous offer and slayed that seafood gumbo!
Once complete, I cleaned up and we headed back to HH once Stacey pulled a fresh load of clean laundry from the dryer. As we arrived at home, we realized that for the very first time in September, we had locked ourselves out. 😞 The fretting didn’t last long, as Stacey displayed incredible athleticism and a curious comfort in climbing through the window to let ourselves in. Thanks Stacey!
Of course, in order to do 3G3 properly, you need all three generations. Ryan was due to land in Boston just after 5 PM, so Stacey and I planned to pick him up and head to the North End for dinner. Emily had eaten at a new place to us while visiting her friend Callie, and recommended Casarecce to us. It is now up there with Al Dente as one of our favorites. Benissimo!
We took Ryan to his lodging on Hazel Ave and headed in for a visit. Decades ago, Bapa and Ryan started a tradition of enjoying root beer floats together. I believe they still hold the official South Shore of Boston record of 11 consecutive days enjoying one together! The tradition continued as we caught up on West Coast life. We missed Melissa, who had to work for this trip. Next time Melissa!
This morning, the guys were scheduled to play golf at Widow’s Walk. We are beginning our preparations for the trip of a lifetime for golfers next June. We will be headed over to play a few rounds in Ireland and a couple more in Scotland. The trip has already been named – 3 Generations Golf Getaway on Isles of Britain (3GIB). See the June of 2026 blog next summer for more on that!
Anyway, one of our first prep rounds was not meant to be here in Scituate today. A thick fog turned to a heavy, then steady rain. Both Mimi and Stacey warned that we shouldn’t play in it, and they were right – again. We postponed, and had some trouble finding a tee time in the area. We finally found one at a course called Olde Scotland Links on Monday – PERFECT!
Plan B was quickly enacted, and started with breakfast back at Voyage. Neither Bapa nor Ryan had been there for breakfast, so Bapa went with the traditional Irish Breakfast. Here he is, donning his Yankees shirt in celebration of them jumping back in to first place last night!
Bapa laughed me off as I suggested that it seemed like an excessive amount of food, and essentially joined the clean plate club at Voyage. We had a wonderful visit while the rain fell steadily on the streets of Humarock outside our window seats.
Dashboard dining has been a tradition for Mimi & Bapa for many decades. They get their meals and drive to favorite locations along the South Shore to eat and enjoy the view. So, we asked Bapa to take us on a drive to see some of those things. One of our first stops was Blakeman’s in Duxbury Beach. This spot is infamous in our family lore. A tradition for us has been to buy lobsters and steamers to cook at home and enjoy on the porch on Hazel Ave. But a few years ago, we decided that we would do our lobster dinner out, and we chose Blakeman’s as our spot to dig in to a traditional feast. As the waitress took our orders, Bapa was politely the last to go. “I’ll have the fried seafood tower” he stated. That does not have lobster! He was warned vociferously that this was it – this was our lobster dinner for the week. I know you had to be there, but the memory still makes me chuckle!
We did some touring and found some very interesting things. I did not realize how significant the oyster industry is here in Duxbury. Bapa is a wealth of knowledge and explained how it all works, then brought us down to the ramp by the HarborMaster to see if we might see one of the skiffs come in with oysters for the truck. Who would have doubted Bapa’s ability to make just that happen!
We really had a great time taking advantage of our rained out round of golf! Looks like it should be a beautiful day Monday for our makeup round! Thanks for a fun day!
