Isabelle and her daddy are sleeping in a tent right now. Outside, where it’s muggy. Meanwhile Mommy and Corban are in the cool air-conditioned basement of our bed-and-breakfast, lunch and dinner (aka Nana’s house).
Today packed a double-punch of summer fun — date day and camping in the backyard.
Phil and I dropped the kids off with their grandparents and headed to 
Sterling to eat at The Candlelight Inn. The Candlelight isn’t on our usual tour of food when we come home. Typically, we take a date night to Salamandra’s, but that restaurant is closed right now for kitchen renovation. So, we moved to plan B. Chicken George. 
It’s been years since I’ve eaten Chicken George. And for those of you who don’t know what it is, I don’t know how to describe it, except to say it’s the best chicken strips I’ve ever eaten, and the Jan sauce is simply delicious and hard to duplicate. We’ve tried and it never tastes quite like the original. It was a lovely sit-down lunch for us.
After lunch, we had some time to kill before the movie started, so we went to the mall to walk around. Little did we know it was Senior Showcase day, so the mall was filled with vendors and senior citizens. We ran into some friends and former co-workers. Unexpected, but fun.
Finally, it was on to the movie theater to see “Dinner For Schmucks.” A bonus, besides paying the matinée price, was the $1 popcorn and drinks. Rarely can I watch a movie without popcorn. I had high hopes for laughter during the movie. After watching two hilarious previews, I wondered if those would be the only laughs of the next couple of hours, but “Dinner” didn’t disappoint. My husband and I are sort of Steve Carell junkies in withdrawal this summer without new episodes of “The Office.”
We ended the day having a picnic/fire/campout in the backyard of my parents’ house. Brats, chips and dip, chips and salsa for supper. Pool time for the children. S’mores and campfire pies cooked on the open flame. Mmm, mmm, good. We’ll see how long the sleeping outside lasts for the 2-year-old and her daddy. If this experiment is successful, our next campout might actually be at a park instead of a backyard.
