Brooke & Nancy

I had the great pleasure of breaking bread with my good friend Brooke and her mom, Nancy, last night. They were in town for a long weekend to attend an immunization seminar in Bethesda. Earlier in the day I was scrapbooking with one of my good D.C. area friends Deb. She is a terrific scrapbooker, so I enjoy trying to learn new techniques from her and try to suck in as much as I can by pure osmosis. While Deb was busy actually making some beautiful pages I was sorting through pictures. I came across a handful of Brooke and I. Most of them were from our high school days, although we've known each other since we were tumbling two year old at Mountain Gymnastics. I have so many great memories growing up with Brooke and her entire family. It was fun going through the pictures and anticipating our dinner meeting. Anyway, we planned on going to The Sequoia restaurant in Georgetown. It is a beautiful, top-notch restaurant that overlooks the Potomac River. Unfortunately, when I called for reservations they were closed for a private party. Nancy, had seen something mentioning a restaurant called the "Bethesda Crab House." So, I called to make a reservation. I was hoping it was one of those restaurants with newspaper covered tables, where they hand you a wooden mallet and a pile of crabs. When the gentleman answered the phone I immediately asked if they took reservations. He said, "for crabs." I was a little thrown off my game, but eventually he took over and reserved me 12 medium crabs for 8:30. So, I met Brooke and Nancy at their hotel for a drink and some reminiscing. They were so glad to see the pictures I brought and we spent that time catching up on our lives and talking about the past a little. We decided to walk to the restaurant because the weather was fairly mild. We walked past some great shops and restaurants that I would love to go back and try--any takers??? When I thought we were coming to a construction dead end I saw the blue awning for our restaurant. We passed through a screened in porch with picnic tables and entered a fairly small, well lit restaurant, with a bar to the left and a huge drink refrigerator right inside the door. past the entrance there were probably 10 booths and a few long tables for big parties. And guess what? There was newspaper lining every table and a bundle of wooden mallets, too! Nancy and I were excited, and Brooke was intrigued. We ordered some cold beers, a dozen raw oysters, corn on the cob and cole slaw. All of it was great! Then our waitress brought out a big plate of 12 steamed crabs with what looked like a cup of Old Bay seasoning dumped on top. It was so great. None of us had been to a place like this at all. I felt sort of like a fraud, since I've lived here for almost 4 years now, and I'm glad I was able to check this experience off my list. as for cracking the crabs open and dealing with what was inside the shell (lungs, intestines, other assorted organs) I would say Nancy was not at all bothered, Brooke was slightly bothered and I was somewhere in between. I think Nancy and I finished off the most. The place wreaked of crabs and opening steaming "carcuses" at our table didn't help. Our fingers were completely covered in crab gook. As Brooke put it, "This place stinks like s**t and my mom just put some in her mouth...something about this just isn't right."We made an executive decision that we were done working for our food around 10:00. I think we will all be finding crab parts in our coats and purses for the next few months, as stuff was flying everywhere. And, in normal fashion, we were all "helpfully" offering our expert crab cracking advice to each other. It was quite a scene. On our way back to the hotel we stopped in at a Mexican restaurant and had a plate of mini sopapillas (sp?). Nancy decided at this point that she should prank her youngest daughter from my phone. As soon as Nancy lowered her voice in disguise Brooke and I began to laugh uncontrollably, falling off our stools and gasping for air. It was a funny and perfect end to a great evening. Brooke and I even made plans to meet for a drink with her sister and her sister's friend Melody next week when I am hope for the holiday. I can't wait!