Full Up, At Last

Don is allergic to seafood - not just shellfish, but ALL fish, fish of any kind, fish, fish, fish. He won't even kiss me if I've eaten seafood. So, when he's not with us, like those trips to Grandma and Grandpa Doughty's with just the kids, we tend to take advantage of the opportunity to get seafood. Then there was last summer at the beach. I picked up freshly-steamed, seasoned shrimp at the grocery store twice, then made cocktail sauce and kicked back on the couch, suckin' down shrimp while watching T.V. Ah, bliss. I couldn't have done this if Don was with us. I can't even put seafood in the fridge. He says it taints the taste and smell of everything else in the refrigerator or freezer.

But Don's allergy isn't the problem. The real issue is, Dane's favorite food in the whole world is . . . you guessed it - seafood. Specifically, shrimp scampi. I don't quite remember how he discovered shrimp scampi, but suffice it to say that Daelyn, from the age of 2, referred to Red Lobster as Shrimp Scampi each week as we passed it on our way to Sunday School, church, and choir practice.

Friday night I decided to take the kids out to dinner since we were one family member short. It was Don's last night in C0lorado and I thought it would be fun for us to go out for an early dinner. Deanna commented that we should go out for seafood. I hadn't thought of that but immediately realized that was the perfect plan.

When we arrived at Red Lobster early so we could beat the weekend crowd and get in and out in a relatively short time, we were immediately seated. Our waitress told us that this was the final weekend for the "Endless Shrimp" promotion. Dane's eyes lit up.

Although it was a little pricey (especially for a 9-yr. old) at $15.99 a head, we chose the Endless Shrimp for Dane. It included two types of shrimp (which they would refill endlessly), a salad and a side dish. I decided I would eat Dane's salad and baked potato so he could concentrate on shrimp. He chose the Cajun Shrimp and, of course, Scampi.

Without going into all the details, I'll just say that 5 servings of shrimp later (yes, I said 5!), Dane finally admitted to having his fill of shrimp. For his last serving, he chose the Cajun, then dunked them into the sauce left from two servings of scampi so he got the best of both kinds. Deanna had taken along a book and she used it. We all sat, trying to wait patiently, as Dane ate and ATE AND ATE!

I have to admit, I don't think I would have felt that I got my money's worth if he had stopped much sooner, but I was a little surprised at how much shrimp this boy could polish off. There had been a joke in our family up til now that it was impossible to "fill" Dane up on shrimp. It was nice to see it actually happen.

I told Don about his son yesterday after he got home from his trip.

"What did the waitress say?" he asked.

Nothing, I told him. But when she saw Deanna pull out her book, I'm quite certain she knew we were there for the long haul.