Day 9 Bridge Intro

Last night we ate at The Restaurant. It was very good, of course, but the most interesting part was a appetizer they served using Sterling Caviar. We were not familiar with Sterling, but they are California based and, purportedly, a major producer of American white sturgeon caviar. There is a Missouri based caviar producer (L'Osage Caviar Co) that specializes in Missouri paddlefish which we need to also try.

Today is a really nice quiet day. The seas are more pronounced today with swells of 2.5 meters (~8 ft), colorful white caps and whistling winds (20 mph from the north). Nice day to sit inside and look out.

We rose "early" this morning (7:00 am) so we could go to The Restaurant for breakfast. The Restaurant only serves breakfast between 8:00 am and 9:00 am. This is the first morning we have been up early enough to try them out. It was worthwhile. We were among only a handful of attendees and had a nice quiet, leisurely meal.

Getting this early start on the day, we also decided to attend the daily (9:15 am) Introductory Bridge class. Both T and I have been playing bridge for years (not well, but we have always enjoyed it). A dedicated group of us used to play every day at lunch when I worked down at the Sweeny Complex. Neither T or I have ever been formally taught how to play. My father taught both of us, what he called, the Blackwood convention. Today's introductory class used the Standard American (not to be confused with American Standard, although I was almost ready to flush it) convention. I thought we might be bored with an "Introductory" class...nope! It was a shock.  They don't count points the same way we do and there appears to be a lot of "structure" to this convention to which we are unaccustomed. If we pursue this further, we will have to ditch many of our previous held customs.