Jude and the boys left the cabin we rented in Sewage this morning, shortly before noon. I let the cabin a little while later in search of a cup of coffee. My tentative plan was to stop in at the Blue Chair, a joint on the outskirts of Sewanee's campus. Truthfully, I wasn't too excited about the atmosphere, because a glimpse inside yesterday revealed an ice cream and smoothie shop that happened to make coffee, too. Not my kind of coffeeshop, for sure.
When I got out of my car, I walked up the sidewalk across the street to look in at Julia's - a restaurant that was open when we were here last summer, but appeared to be closed and abandoned now. There was a note on the door from March 2016 advising that the owner - Julia, no less - had been hired as general manager at Sterling's Coffeehouse on Georgia Avenue, as a result of which she was closing her restaurant and catering business.
Sterling's Coffeehouse? This sounds promising, I thought. I immediately decided I had to find Georgia Avenue. Surely Julia wouldn't close her restaurant to work at Stirling's unless it was a hell of a place, right?
I drove through Sewanee's campus, which I love, past Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina Avenues. Finally, I came to Georgia Avenue. I turned right, drove a few blocks and there it was - a big, yellow house with a sign out front that said "Stirling's Coffeehouse." There were people sitting a tables on the front porch and at tables on the front lawn. I saw a couple of girls lounging on a porch swing, drinking coffee. It reminded me of Bongo Java. My kind of place.
I parked my truck in the parking lot on the side of the building. As I walked inside, I was greeted by the smell of coffee and the Mumford and Sons playing loudly in the kitchen and front room. I'm home, I thought, smiling. It's a nice feeling.
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Yesterday, my 50th birthday, was a quiet, uneventful day with Jude and the boys, which was exactly what I wanted.
I slept in until 8:30 p.m., and arose to the sounds of "Breakfast at Wimbledon" in the loft above the kitchen and Jude and J.P. making me breakfast. J.P. and Joe escorted me down the hall and giggled as I looked at the streamers they had hung in the den and from the railing in the loft. Jude and J.P. made scrambled eggs and chocolate chip pancakes, which we at while we cheered as Serena Williams won her 7th championship at Wimbledon.
(Guess what? I just saw Julia! Tall, long graying hair pulled back in a ponytail, awkward and somewhat harried looking. What do you know?)
Mis-Morning, we drove to campus with plans to go to the Sewanee football field. Upon arrival, we saw that Sewanee was hosting a high school football camp. While Jude and Joe went to look around, J.P. and sat in the stands, while he intently watched the receivers run routes. He was fascinated, which would have horrified Jude, since she she is almost as opposed to our boys playing football as she is to guns. Next, we walked over to Abbo's Alley for a creak walk. The boys couldn't get enough of the creek and even saw a crawdad.
After we finished the creek walk, we wandered over to the athletic facility in search of the gym. J.P., especially, was impressed with the facility - indoor track, indoor tennis courts, gym and an indoor swimming pool with a diving well. We gazed at old photographs of Sewanee athletes and trophies from the distant past. Then, it was home for lunch and naps for Jude and the boys.
I ventured out with plans to run in Abbo's Alley. That didn't work out well, as I got turned around several times in the Alley, which I realized is not very long, anyway. I found my way out of the Alley to University Avenue and walked to my car, having run just over one mile. As I told Jude last night, I hope my 50th birthday run isn't a metaphor of my life after 50 or a sign of things to come.
We had a nice dinner at Shenanigan's, an eclectic restaurant in a blue house on University Avenue. When we arrived home, the boys "surprised" me with a birthday cake that had been "hidden" in the refrigerator since they arrived under a towel. J.P. delighted in pulling the cords on the "poppers" Jude had picked up for the occasion (I hadn't seen those things in a long, long time). Joe helped me blow out the candles on the cake. As a final birthday treat, I got to read the boys their bedtime story - one of the Berenstain Bears' books (they're big into those lately, especially Joe). I did "tricks" for them, and off to bed they went.
I finished off Jude in a game of Gin (Rummy) we started Friday night to win the Championship of the Cumberland Plateau. As a guilty pleasure - a very embarrassing, guilty pleasure - I watched the first two episodes of the second season of "Heart of Dixie."
I looked at my watch and it was 12:05 a.m. My 50th birthday was over and "the Decade of Dominance" had begun.
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