Waiting for a great lunch at High Tide Take Out

You know you’re on vacation when:

• You can’t remember your home phone number.
• You can’t remember WHY you were so stressed out just before you left for vacation.
• The red wine with dinner tastes extra mellow as you swish it around with a great meal of grilled pork tenderloin, fresh corn on the cob and salad.
• Cleaning up after dinner isn’t such a drag.
• You stop to watch the sunset and smell the evening dew on the green slope.
• You’re happy to see your mother-in-law.

All these things are true for me today. We’ve had an interesting 36 hours. About 16 of those hours were spent driving. Fortunately, not all at once. The trip to Western Massachusetts to stay for a few nights with my mother-in-law wasn’t stressful, despite the usual North Jersey traffic. It was especially not stressful after a I made a phone call to my neighbor to ask if she could go into our house and make sure I turned the upstairs fan in my office off. Don’t you hate when that happens?  I remembered just about every detail in planning this trip away, but couldn’t remember if I turned the fan off.  Arriving at my mother-in-law’s after dinner was pleasant, though we were exhausted. Both of us worked and packed at the same time up until the time we walked out the door leaving South Jersey behind for a well-deserved respite. I’m just waiting for the respite part. The first part of this break involved a day trip from Western Massachusetts to the Lakes Region in New Hampshire and back. We picked up our son from camp where he spent the past three weeks. I swear he’s a little taller; his voice a little deeper his descriptions about what he did with his camp buds the past days a little more detailed. The best part of the day was when he asked me if I wanted to walk to his bunk with him while Doug brought the car down to pick up Adam’s gear. It’s nice to be asked to do something by your 15-year-old son.

Our stop for lunch at High Tide Take-Out in Hillsborough, NH was also a big highlight. There’s nothing more typical of New England than a great roadside clam bar. High Tide steps it up just a little with a huge screened porch dining area. Outside there’s a playground for the kids and some tables and umbrellas under the trees. On this day, it was a bit cooler after morning showers. We arrived during lunch hour and there were others joining our zest in a awaiting a High Tide meal. I noticed the specials before Doug asking him if he wanted a lobster roll, or better yet the lobster “lunch” for $13.99. The lunch was a 1 1/4 pound steamed lobster, cole slaw like no other cole slaw you ever tasted and onion rings, done just right in fresh oil and lightly breaded. You have got to be kidding–a lobster dinner for $13.99? My husband can tear through a lobster and never get one squirt on himself. He does NOT wear a lobster bib. There’s nothing like watching someone enjoy a great meal. I settled on the cup of clam chowder, a BLT and cole slaw. Adam dug into a cajun salmon roll (very tasty, he said) and french fries, again done in that clean, fresh cooking oil. Adam and I treated ourselves to dessert. Adam enjoyed a cookie dough ice cream cone; me, a cup of chocolate-peanut butter yogurt. Unbelievable.

Now after that nice dinner back in Massachusetts, my son’s days of camp crud is being washed away in the laundry and I sense we may be turning in early tonight. The respite will surely begin as we move toward the weekend and the journey back to New Hampshire for a week by the lake in Freedom.