It's Five O'Clock Somewhere!

I just bet when Alan Jackson sings, "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere", he means he wants to be "somewhere" with his best buddies, kicking back, relaxing and, yes, enjoying his favorite Hurricane.  Of course, the absolute best "somewhere" is at the beach, but if you can't go to the beach, you can still get with your buddies and enjoy yourself anyway.  That is just what we did the other day.  Sherri, Lu and I teamed up with one of our favorite people in the entire world, our best friend and former colleague, Lavinia.  The four of us go waaay back.  Each of us started working at Brownwood at different times, but by 1988, when Lu finally arrived on the scene, we were all teaching together and quickly formed friendships that would last the rest of our lives.  The fun the four of us had, the adventures we shared and all the memories we made will be with us all forevermore.

Now that we have all left Brownwood, we don't see one another on a daily basis, so it is a wonderful treat for all four of us to be able to get together.  This week, we did just that.  Lavinia and I met and drove up to Sherri's house where we picked up Lu and Parker and set off on our little adventure.  As we all piled into Sherri's car, Lavinia pulled out some pictures that really took us back.  She brought two pictures of the four of us, one taken in '88 and the other from '89.  In both pictures we were celebrating "Pajama Day" at Brownwood, so we were decked out in our finest sleepwear.  When you look at these pictures, please keep in mind, this was the late 1980's.  We were lookin' good!  Good, that is, for people who wear their pajamas to work!.  We had a great laugh over our hairstyles, Parker's mullet and red legs, my turtleneck and shoulder pads, Lu's giant hair.  Yes, I did say shoulder pads!  And Parker was looking a lot like Billy Ray Cyrus with her curly mullet!  We were stylin'!  

As we reminisced and Lu drove, we also made decisions about where we should go.  We decided to go to a place in Guntersville called, Somewhere on the Lake, or just Somewhere, for short.  Somewhere is located at the base of Georgia Mountain and at the end of the causeway that slices across Lake Guntersville.  If you pass Somewhere and keep on heading up the mountain, you will pass through Scant City and end up high atop beautiful Brindlee (or Brindley) Mountain in the tiny city of Arab  (pronounced AY-rab and if you are local, you squeeze as many syllables into that two syllable word as you can). The spelling of the mountain's name is a bit controversial.  Over the years it has generally been spelled, Brindlee, but some folks claim this is a misspelling of the name of the pioneer it was named after and should be Brindley.  

But on this day, we did not venture up Georgia Mountain or Brindlee Mountain. Instead we wheeled Sherri's car into Somewhere's parking lot and made our way inside.  On the way in we spoke to some other diners who were heading in and they told us we would not be sorry we had chosen to eat lunch at Somewhere.  

Somewhere sits right on Guntersville Lake and definitely has a Jimmy Buffett vibe going on in a beachy/lakey sort of way.  We were seated at a wooden table near the bar and given menus to peruse.  Because we were starving, we decided to start with an appetizer of bacon wrapped shrimp.  Good choice!  The grilled bacon wrapped shrimp came with a corn and pepper relish and fried polenta cake and were drizzled with a smoky barbecue sauce.  Sometimes when shrimp and bacon are grilled together, the shrimp can be overcooked while the bacon is undercooked.  That was not the case with these yummy bites.  The relish and smoky sauce provided just the right pop of color and zing and the polenta was crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside.  We were off to a great start. 

Since we were Somewhere and we were sure it must be 5 o'clock even though we were eating lunch, we decided to try some of the happy sounding drinks on the menu.  With names like Lake Water, Some Punch and Lazy Pontoon, who could resist!  They were all fruity and refreshing.

 Now that we were refreshed, we were ready to decide on our entrees.  Luanne decided to get grilled catfish with hushpuppies and asparagus.

Lavinia chose grilled shrimp with fried onion rings.

If Parker can find grilled and stuffed shrimp on the menu, you can bet that is what she is going with and she did! Her fat, stuffed shrimp were accompanied by grilled asparagus and fried onion rings.

 Can you guess what I had?

Yep...grilled fish tacos! I really should name this blog, Richi's Taco Tour!  My tacos were made with grilled tilapia and came with fried onion rings.  Everything we had was delicious and perfectly cooked.  Lavinia and Lu cleaned their plates, but Parker and I had so much we brought to go boxes home with us.

In the interest of thorough reporting, we just had to try a dessert.  Even though the waitress highly recommended the fried Moon Pie, we went instead with a stacked brownie layered with ice cream and whipping cream. The brownie was homemade goodness.  The perfect ending to our trip to Somewhere.

 Somewhere is located on a little bit of paradise known as Lake Guntersville.  You should go...it's five o'clock Somewhere!

Three Friends and a Fork and our dear, sweet friend, Lavinia, give Somewhere three Happy Yums UP!