This morning Neil, Rebecca, Frankie (the lovely dog) and I went for a walk in a park nearby. It was nice getting out into green space and having a bit of a stroll through the lush woods that I’ve missed while living in the UK. It was a fairly easy trail with a few hilly parts – about 3 or 4 miles round-trip. We met lots of other dogs and runners along the way and chatted about shared pasts and potential futures. It was an excellent way to start my first day off since last week Sunday.
Here is Frankie looking back as a runner passes him:
And here is the whole family posing mid-walk:
After our walk, we came back, got cleaned up and then ran a few errands before heading to Taste of Marietta – an outdoor street fair focused on BBQ of various kinds. The event was setup in the town square of Marietta, which is a cute old style American town center that has a park and bandstand in the middle and lots of restaurants and shops surrounding it. ToM took over two sides of the square with vendors smoking, grilling, pulling, braising, frying and searing just about every kind of protein from pork to beef to fish. Here are some of the grills and smokers in action:
I had to sample a few things, just so I was sure that it was all good, so I had pulled pork by a vendor who fused Korean and Southern BBQ styles:
I also tried a homemade sausage (on white bread, of course):
And a beef brisket slider:
from Rub your Grub:
I also had some ribs, but I forgot to document that… This kid had a snow cone as big as his head:
Rebecca had a funnel cake:
And Neil and I had ice cream at this amazing place that blends either vanilla or chocolate ice cream with flavorings/toppings of your choice. Here’s my vanilla having almonds and Reece’s Pieces added to it:
And my (child size) portion (which was enough to feed a giant human):
It was all fabulously decadent but I think I’ll be needing to restrict my caloric intake for the next week to recover from it. Now, I’m entering a food coma. Nice.