(First?) (Annual?) Bloggerpalooza

Anne Marie and I took in a long weekend retreat with a group of progressive-thinking bloggers in Lewes, Delaware. It was a gathering of 20-25 people, most of whom (coincidentally) happened to be gay married couples. From all reports on the other blogs, it appears that everyone had a good time.

We were the first to arrive at The Inn at Canal Square on Friday afternoon, having the luxury of getting the entire day off work to travel. Ours was a very nice room with a relaxing view of the canal. Since it is the off season, the canal was not busy with the usual touristy events of small boats traveling up and down. Our room was also afforded a view of the Captain’s Suite in a separate building across the parking area. A few members of the group had rented out this space as the central gathering place for our group; thus we could see who was coming and going, and know when would be the best time to congregate there.

One of those who rented this space was Cubby, who must have brought along his entire liquor supply for the weekend. It was understood that all of this booze would be consumed by the end of the weekend. We gave it our very best effort, and I tried to keep up with the rest of the crowd; but alas, in the end, Cubby ended up taking some of his supply home with him. With sincere apologies to Cubby — who was a great and very gracious host — we will all have to work on building up our liquor consumption before we meet again.

Anne Marie and I walked around Lewes on Saturday morning, investigating the quaint shops and boutiques. A bookstore, liquor emporium, several restaurants and cafes, chocolate store, a yarn store, antiques here and there, and no room for any chain outlets. Not a McDonalds or Starbucks in sight!  We didn’t miss them at all!

Lunched at A Touch of Italy on their tomato bisque soup, and couldn’t pass up a meatball parm hero. In retrospect, I ate too much. No problem; its times like this that God created Alka-Seltzer ®.

A banquet on Saturday night afforded another opportunity to mingle. Gifts were given to the guest of honor, a blogger known as Dr. Spo. Having traveled from Phoenix with his husband (known to bloggers as Someone or Harper's Keeper), they had traversed the greatest distance for our gathering. I found Spo to be soft-spoken, but with a razor sharp wit matched only by his intelligence. I have listened to Anne Marie talk about her blogger friends for the last three years or so, and it was great to have an opportunity to match names with faces.

Anne Marie also received a few gifts, one of which was a witch’s hat. I called out that she should wear this hat every Monday morning from now on, usually because her personality matches a witch’s mood on the first day of every work week.  Her response of “Shut up” brought the house down.

Afterward, more drinking and socializing at the Captain’s Suite. Sassybear proved he was God’s gift to cosmo makers everywhere by whipping up several batches for all. The dancing that had been talked about on some of the group's previous blogs never happened; the group was content to drink, sit around, drink, talk, and drink some more.

Sunday morning and check-out time came too soon. We all said our goodbyes and the revelers departed to all points on the compass. The farewells were punctuated with wishes to do this all again soon. Anne Marie and I had hopes of staying until Monday morning — yes we arranged that day off too — but an early spring snowstorm forced us to travel home Sunday night.

Thanks again to Cubby for his hospitality, and to Ron, an employee at the Inn, for arranging everything. It was a great time with too much good food and liquor (I gained eight pounds over the course of the weekend). I sincerely hope that this group of friends can gather again very soon.

(Thank you for reading.)