Midlife Traveling Mayhem

I know I have talked about instant friends before, but here is another good one. We had only been at our new location for a couple of weeks, and I met a friend at the pool. We clicked immediately, like we had been friends our entire life. She came over one night at about 9:00pm because it was her birthday, and her family did a crab boil to celebrate. 

Now, I grew up nowhere near the coast, so my version of seafood was popcorn shrimp when we would go to the obligatory seafood buffet night while on our beach vacations. Now, I had only seen crab boil on tv but never in person. I had no plans of getting a crab leg and was sticking with the corn and potatoes at this point. I am standing there focused on the experience with my plate in my hand when her father-in-law placed a cluster of crab legs on my plate.  I just stopped and looked at him, with my mouth open wide. I wasn’t sure if he had lost his mind or if I had. Was this really happening???  We just stood there looking at each other awkwardly. I told him I had never even seen those in real life and definitely didn’t know what to do with it. He laughed and proceeded to teach me how to crack them and get the meat out. Wow, that was good, a lot of work, but good! They also had awesome banana pudding.  

Isn’t that what life is all about, connecting with people that feel like “old” friends and trying “new” things. I am so thankful for the friendship, and the push to try new foods, which I am enjoying.