A Visit With Friends

It was a beautiful morning, just the sort of day that I am glad to have company. Our friend Maryellen (see her blog link to the right) had a friend visiting from Atlanta, and they decided to stop by for a few days and see the western or better part of Sicily. We spent Saturday eating loads of wonderful seafood, and then talking our heads off into, for me, the wee hours of the morning, although really it was barely into the double digits of the evening time.

I got up early Sunday and shot this sunrise picture, which boded well for our planned activities. Maryellen has been around most of the island, however she had not seen Selinunte yet, and she and her friend Susan wanted to visit there. So we got in the car fairly early, stopped by to take a look at the carnivale floats, have a dolce for breakfast, and then got on the road to Selinunte. For the Americans who feel like giants when they visit Sicily, Selinunte is a good place to visit. All you have to do is stand near the temple and feel like a real runt. This is a shot of the two of them standing at the end of the temple that is in the first grouping.

When we finished our tour of both parts of the ruins, it was time for lunch. We went to (yet another) seafood restaurant, this one in Castelvetrano. Silly Maryellen got one of the meat dishes that they grill on a charcoal fire in the dining room, but I had their wonderful risotto with spinach and shrimp, and Susan had a delicious pasta with seafood. It is a fine restaurant, and we were amused by a man who sat and talked to himself throughout his solitary meal. (It was a bit scary as we left the restaurant and saw him getting into his Mercedes Sports Coupe!!) I found myself wondering if that is what I would become like, as I got more and more used to my solitary life. Of course it is the fear of just such a thing happening that made me especially glad to have Susan and Maryellen visiting.

We returned home as the skies got more and more threatening. It was the second night of the parade of carnival floats, so of course the weather would be bad, and try to ruin the work on the floats that the folks for the last three months. The wind became strong and cold, so we decided to stay in, and I cooked a wonderful sausage meal for us. Well, I thought it was wonderful.

The next morning they loaded up some books that Fran and I had finished, and that will be read by all sorts of folks at Sigonella Naval Air Station, and they headed back to the more populated, modern, and touristy part of the island. While they did bring in a load of supplies from the American grocery store on base, I will try to get over to just simply visit them soon, without having to do my usual shopping spree.

Thanks, Maryellen and Susan, for a wonderful weekend.