Heat relief at Scarborough Beach

We’ve seen warmer weather to be sure but this past weekend has been brutally hot if only because it’s only June. (photo: Barbara holding the ever-present Mr. Gray.)

Susie and I were planning on spending Saturday working at home (me thinking about options and her testing scone recipes) when Andrea called and asked if we wanted to come down to her mother’s place on the beach in Narragansett for dinner and cool ocean breezes.

“What can we bring?”  was the first question I asked and the answer was, simply: sparkling wine – a burden we were only too happy to bear.

So as the sun slid ever further west, and with three bottles of Spanish Cava resting quietly on ice in the cooler, and wearing our best summer togs, we left the apartment about 4pm. The car was pointed straight south down I-95 to Route 4 and then over to Route 138, inching ever closer to the relief of the ocean and  Scarborough Beach.

We arrived a little after 5 and met the other dinner guests for the evening: HK and his wife Nancy who had broken free of the heat in Houston (Texas that is) and headed north, spending a night in RI before crawling further north to the coasts of Maine.

Photos above: HK and Nancy.

Barbara, aided and abetted by her daughter Andrea (that's her in the photo below, center stage), prepared yet another flawless meal – seared, breaded sea scallops picked fresh that morning from a fish shop in nearby Galilee, and matched with a tasty spaghetti in a light, scrumptious cream and asparagus sauce.

We sat and ate on the porch, of course, overlooking the water barely a stone’s throw away.

The evening was about as perfect as one is apt to find, and we chatted about one thing or another, opening and closing one bottle of cava after another. Sparkling wine just seemed to fit the evening, the food and the group’s sensibilities.

The drive was unremarkable except for the feeling of satisfaction that one gets after spending a few hours balancing delicious food with  lively conversation.