Sunday brunch and a dog day afternoon

I love breakfast. I don't love fixing breakfast. In fact, I detest fixing breakfast. Nothing's ever done at the same time and my kitchen usually winds up looking like Hiroshima after the bomb.

It was gorgeous today, so we decided to take Rhett out for a spin...and find some breakfast on the way.

We didn't have to go far...just up the road about a mile or so. We hit The Lighthouse, 15616 N. River Beach Drive for their Sunday Brunch...a true all you can eat bargain at only $7.50. Pastries, toast, two types of perfectly-scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy (mine's better...but theirs was perfectly acceptable), fresh fruit, corned beef hash...the list goes on and on.

Brunch is on Sundays only, from 9 to 1. We give it two thumbs up.

The service was good. The food was great. But the view from their newly-renovated deck...well, it can't be beat.




Da Zigster proclaimed their Bloody Marys "a cut above"...served in a chilled glass, rimmed with celery salt, spicy but not overpoweringly so, and garnished with celery and a couple green olives.


After brunch, we took a leisurely drive up Galena Road (no...the construction's not done yet) over the bridge, through Washington and East Peoria, back over the bridge, meandered around Peoria a bit, down Grandview Drive and back home.

Slightly sunburned, bellies still full from brunch, we retired to our own deck and watched the river go by.

This is the "dog day afternoon" part...



Our neighbor, Coco, aka "Coco-licious", aka "Coco-loco" took a much-needed break from swimming in the river and dragging dead Asian Carp into our yard to stop by for her daily biscuit.