Dad and Grandma Gallant come for a visit

On a last minute charter deal, my dad and his sister, Marie came for a quick week long visit. This was my dad's first time here and Grandma Gallant's second. With most of our construction projects finished we could all take time to enjoy their visit. They joined us for our Cafe con Leche coffee group and we joined some friends for a pizza night. We took them down to meet friends at Samara beach where we learned how to play Mexican train dominoes. John took my Dad for a quad ride.

We went cashew picking and then learned how to process the cashews. Once you see those pictures you'll understand why they're so expensive! We picked the fruit at Josue's house where we met his father, Victor, wife Cecilia and little boy George. Josue climbed the tree to pick us some Zapote fruit as well. We picked a couple of mangos but the mango crop has not been good this year due to the high winds we experienced in early March. There goes my mango margaritas!

With the cashews, here's how the process goes: The fruit is squeezed for the juice and then the squished fruit can be stewed with brown sugar and brandy for a lovely dessert (especially over ice cream). The cashew nut needs to be roasted over a fire allowing the toxic resin inside to sizzle and steam away until the entire nut is charred. Then quickly douse the flames to stop the roasting process. Next use a hammer to hit the end of the nut to crack it and then pry out your nut. Viola, you have cashews. See our little pile' emphasis on little. It took quite awhile to get a dessert bowl full but they were delicious and we had quite the time learning how to roast them. Our friend Gretchen and her son, Nahim, showed us. See my dad cracking the cashews.

We also went up to our condo lot for a look around and Dad and the boys rode in the back which Dad thought was terrific as he could see everything better. Pretty good for 79 years old I think. The boys had a ball with him. We had the neighbours over for a cocktail party to meet both of them and we went to the Shepherd's for a visit one day too. Before we knew it the week was over and back to the airport we went. Short but definitely very sweet.