My Fourth, But Not Last, Birthday Dinner This Year.

Our family and friends do like to extend our birthday celebrations with multiple dinners and other excuses to have a good time. This year, my birthday celebration started in early August in Escondido, where Teresa and Matthew cooked me a fabulous feast. Our trip to the Bay Area had already included two wonderful meals alive with piggy goodness and Steve and Michele were planning another for Sunday evening.

 But first a smashing champagne brunch with Aston and Eileen.

Note that no pigs were harmed in the making of this meal. 

Other than the eggs and the idli, everything came from their garden, fresh and delicious.

We were sorry to say goodbye to their spectacular hospitality,
but O's birthday is less than two months away!

My fourth birthday dinner featured a smoky, slow-cooked pork roast.

 
Steve and Michele are both excellent cooks, so we enjoyed a delicious meal with them.
It is so lovely to reconnect with old friends. But all too soon we had to call it a night
so that we would be ready to face the long drive home.

We got up early and drove to San Francisco for breakfast, then hit the road. It took us almost twelve hours, thanks to an unplanned, but beautiful, detour through south Lake Tahoe. Along the way, we stopped at the gravesite of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, Sacgewea's son, just off a lonely stretch of Highway 95 in Oregon. It was a very tranquil spot by the river, marked by a plaque and a tattered American flag.

Later, we were treated to a colorful, multilayered Idaho sunset. A spectacular end to a wonderful weekend.

My final birthday dinner of the year is scheduled for Saturday night, when John and Ophelia will prepare a feast involving, you guessed it, various porcine products.

P.