Sunday, July 31, 2011

Observations from the Shore 7.31, Final Edition

I always hate leaving the shore, I'm really just so much more at peace when I am there. That may sound deep but I really can't think of any other way of putting it. My mountains, if I can still call them mine, are like that too but different at the same time. I like to go into the mountains to think but once I drive over the drawbridge into Stone Harbor I don’t think much at all, I just am. So I wasn't too upset yesterday when my plans suddenly changed and I had to stay at the house another day. I took one last swim while I waited for my dad's friend to arrive and but when I got back there was a message on my phone. Due to car problems he wouldn't be down until Sunday and did I mind staying another day? I thought long and hard on that for as long as it took me to return the call, yes I could force myself to stay.


With an extra day I decided to cram in some things I hadn't gotten around to yet. The best was an early dinner at Sylvester’s in Avalon. I have been going there for a dozen years but just didn't feel like driving up this week than decided this must be the reason the gods had immobilized that car. Sylvester’s is a fish market meets back street BYO picnic style diner which also happens to have the best seafood you will find anywhere. Grilled swordfish and two dozen steamed clams put a big smile on my face.

I can still remember the first time my family ate at Sylvester’s. My dad had been looking for a new place to try out and found an ad for Sylvester’s in one of those little beach mags. The kids were both little so we went to eat at 4PM which was when they opened for dinner. To make a long story short it's up 21st street near the bay, has a gravel parking lot, looks like a dive, and has no clientele at 4, but we went in anyway. 'In' isn't the right word because you eat outside under a green tarp roof and are served in styrofoam containers. Until we left the line to get in stretched to the end of the block and I've been back every year since. To this day Sean still talks about working there one summer. I'm not sure if it is for the food, the money they must make in tips, the cool Sylvester’s t-shirts they all wear, or the leggy sun bleached blondes that always seem to be working there.

I also wandered into a new downtown shop called Skirt which I should have stayed out of. It's another designer shop so I really didn't expect to find anything I wanted but I was never in it so I checked it out. I saw some AG jeans in a cut that looked awesome so I tried them on which was a big mistake. Being tall and on the thin side I have a ginormous problem finding jeans that fit me right but these fit like a fine leather glove. I so loved the way they looked but they also cost $165 and there was no effing way I was paying that for jeans. On their website I did find that they make the same cut in 'leatherette' which they describe as a "fabric is coated and brushed to give the surface of this legging a leatherette appearance! They look like they are painted on your body." These I might have to have.

I just wrote about jeans. It really was time to get back to the Village.

Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed