Thursday, June 20, 2013

Family Time!!!!!

For the past 3 years we have had a reservation at Harbour Pat's B&B in Antigonish for the weekend of May 4th, Grad Weekend at St FX. And ever since, the RSVP's have been trickling in...



Sister Kathy, and hubby John...



Sister Nancy (Nan) and hubby Garth...



Sister Sandy and hubby Ger...



And Sandy and Ger's grandson and Robbie's second cousin, Logan!
And that takes the count to 9 guests and 1 graduate. Quite the party!



We had perfect weather and the Maritimers commented all weekend long on our good fortune. The weather in early May is not always as accommodating.
Here we are at Antigonish Landing, a 4 km walking/cycling trail along the shore of an estuary.



We enjoyed a very delicious dinner at Gabrieau's Bistro celebrating Robbie and being together.



My sisters are beautiful and loyal, and I love that even though I am separated from them by thousands of miles, we can pick right up where we last left off!



Our b&b hosts, Joe and Pat Stewart are very fond of Robbie. They have fed him many a meal during his four years at St FX. They came up with a wonderful plan to have the mother of all meals, an authentic lobster boil to follow the graduation ceremony. A quick call from Joe to his grandson who owns a lobster boat...



...and presto, we are the owners of 35 pounds of this delicacy, straight from the Atlantic. We even had the fun of meeting the boat at Antigonish Harbour as it arrived in from it's very early morning of fishing.



Later on in the day, the boys returned to the boat and hauled in the lobster catch...



...and here is dinner!



Into the car boot they go and Rob and John head back to Joe and Pat's where the rest of the feast is being prepared.



I am so grateful for other kitchen duties besides this one... But Robbie, Joe and John certainly enjoyed prepping and sampling!



Sandy, Ger and Garth - a watched pot never boils - but they have stern instruction from Joe, so they don't dare take their eyes off things.



Everyone had an apron, a bowl of drawn butter, plenty of potato salad, and famous Pat's Pie for dessert. What a great night, following a great day! Oh how sweet to spend quality time with family! I am happy to say that later on this year, I will be able to write another post or two related to 'family time' because the Aussie Birds are flying 'home' for Christmas'13!

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