When I was younger, my dad and I would take a trip out of the suburbs into the big city, and BOY did I look forward to it. An hour later in the car and BOOM - there was the beautiful skyline - my heart would skip a bit and I would get excited. I LOVED our trips to the city! We would leave early in the morning and hit the fresh fish market first. We got crab legs, then we were off to Stanley's - the fruit and vegetable market. It was brightly lit and had EVERYTHING imaginable - just fruit and veggies. It was like a candy store only BETTER. Sometimes, they had chocolate covered strawberries OR caramel covered apples and I would get one of those as a treat. Lastly, heading out of the city, I was treated to a CHICAGO style hotdog. And boy were they YUMMY - with a capital Y. I inhaled it each and everytime.
Oddly enough, years later, turns out I live a couple of miles away from Stanley's and everytime I walk through those doors, I think of dad and our trips to the city. Who would know that after all this time, I would frequent a place often visited.
Over the summer, we were spoiled, I didn't have to make a single trip to Stanley's. My dad grew the most amazing garden EVA and we were treated to fresh goodies - you name it - he sent us home with okra, pears, tomatos, lettuce, onions, jalepenos, eggplant, peppers, peaches, pumpkins, cabbage, cherry tomatos and the list goes on and on.
I just got home from my first trip to Stanleys after a long summer of goodies out of the garden. I have to admit, the goodies from Stanleys don't taste as good as out of the garden - if only we could have warm weather all year round!
Even BAXIE loves vegetables!
