Friends & Food

Saturday, 21 April 2018
JBSA Fort Sam Houston FamCamp — San Antonio, Texas
Temps: 81F (27C) / 64F (18C)

Overcast … drizzly.  That’s the weather we woke up to.  The yucky day and my slightly achy body made the decision to stay home easy.  Mui went off to run errands before Petroleum Drive was closed down for an hour at 8:30a.  My aches easily managed with a couple of Ibuprofen, I checked in with my family, did a couple of loads of laundry, and worked on some overseas travel plans. Before I knew it, the morning was gone … the afternoon half over.

I promised a photo or two of the famcamp and some words to describe to friends Sue and Mo what to expect when they stop by for a night or two next year.  So here they are.

Yucky day photo … Plenty of space between sites at the FamCamp.

Despite calling in at the last minute to add a night to our stay, we scored a great site … #12.  Not that any site here is bad, but being at the end means no neighbors on the patio side.  The sites are all oversized, and the concrete pads are level and staggered so rigs aren’t lined up side by side.  FHU … 50A.  An amazing amount of green space makes the setting really great.  Best of all … our side of the famcamp gets the morning sun — that’s a definite plus in warmer weather.  All this for the bargain price of $20/night.

I should note that this is a mostly-quiet campground.  The only noise comes from the trains that go by … fairly infrequently … horns tooting, of course.  But trains never bother us, so we don’t consider that a problem … others might disagree.

Looking into the future … so to speak.  Panorama taken tomorrow ,-)

Back to the story of our day.  The sun did make an appearance late in the afternoon … too late to go sightseeing.  But it was under clear skies that we set out with the Sweets to have dinner with the Days … friends we met on our first Antarctica expedition back in 2007.  Bill and Marjie had steered us to two great dining experiences in El Paso, so I asked them to pick tonight’s dinner venue in San Antonio — Azuca … serving what the proprietor terms Nuevo Latino [new Latin] cuisine.  They done good!

We were quite pleased with our meal selections — grilled salmon for me; grilled octopus with Spanish chorizo for Mui.  But it was the ‘sweet endings’ that stole the show.  The bite-size chocolate truffles Mui and I ordered were custom made … in our case, rolled in crushed pecans.  It was an explosion of creamy chocolate delight that packed quite a punch.  Glad we ordered only one each … more than that would have been over-the-top.  I made mine last through multiple bites, savoring the chocolaty goodness.

But it wasn’t our dessert that had us nearly falling off our chairs when it arrived at the table … it was Bill and Marjie’s tropical fruit brûlée.  The waiter had warned them that it was big, but none of us expected a medium-pizza-sized dessert platter.  The thin layer of custard was topped with a variety of fruits that were lightly torched!  B&M shared this delectable dessert with the table … all agreed it was very tasty … and worthy of the calories ;-)

I forgot to get a photo of the six of us … but did remember to take a photo of the brûlée!

As good as the food was, however, what made the evening special was the camaraderie and laughter … incomparable.  Bringing together couples who don’t know each other doesn’t always work out well.  That was not the case tonight.  All in all a great evening was had by everyone.

The weather is looking good for tomorrow.  We definitely want to get out and do a bit of sightseeing … maybe we’ll finally get to the Alamo!

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