A.W.O.L.

I missed a day. Dan and Max and I are spending the long weekend in Virginia Beach, VA., in an oceanfront suite that really is six steps off the sand, and we're having so much fun and eating so much great food that I have to admit that I missed a day.

We found this weird little dive called Jewish Mother where we had breakfast yesterday. It's a live music venue at night, but the rest of the day, it's a purportedly Jewish deli where, mysteriously, they serve bacon and sausage and ham. Dan had corned beef hash, and after briefly considering a Jewish Mother omelet (fresh avacado and mushrooms), I ordered a hot corned beef sandwich on Russian rye bread with swiss cheese and cole slaw, and a side of fries. Max had a hot dog, as he often will when left to his own devices. It came to the table as two hot dogs on a piece of homemade French bread, which was light and crispy and apparently buttered lightly with a touch of black tar heroin, because I haven't stopped thinking about that bread since yesterday. The hot dogs were amazing, those killer kosher deli ones with the casing that snaps when you bite into them. Yummy. And don't get me started on the pickles.

We ate dinner at a pizza place called Shorebreak that was recommended to me as particularly family-friendly. Tucked between three different military posts, it was jam-packed to the gills with soldiers on a Saturday night and their families. Itresembles a Hooters, based on the waitresses seriously skimpy outfits and the myriad of TVs showing sports around the room. We ordered a thin crust sausage-and-mushroom pizza and despite it not being made from particularly remarkable ingredients--canned mushrooms, for example--it was delicious. Great sauce, great crust, great everything. The game room was overcrowded and there wasn't any chance that we were going to get a shot at playing skee ball, but the noise level wasn't unreasonable and I appreciated the fact that it wasn't a tourist joint; that they didn't seem to be out to soak us for as little bad-tasting food as possible for as much money as they could squeeze out of us. We ran into that situation multiple times in Ocean City, Maryland.

Last night I asked Dan at dinner, "How is it that we keep going on vacation to places I feel like I could live at?" It's really true. It is beautiful here and it seems to be a place where people really live, as opposed to a place where people only visit. I highly recommend Virginia Beach as a vacation destination. If I could get away with not having a job, I would live here happily. Unfortunately, I have a job that I love that will not easily travel from Washington D.C. to Virginia Beach, and I am not yet willing to give up expensive cheese or buying kitchen gadgets at will.

I will return later with two recipes, one for yesterday and one for today. I promise to think of something wonderful, too, as the only cooking we are currently doing is sandwiches in the hotel room.