An.... interesting experience

So, last night Dan and I decided to venture out of our typical routine and try a new restaurant. We had a coupon for The Beach House Restaurant in McFarland, and the description sounded really cool; right on the lake, serving lots of steak and seafood. So we drive out to McFarland (about 15 minutes from Madison) and things started pretty much going downhill from the start.

First, I forgot you can smoke in restaurants in McFarland. UGH. I am the hugest proponent of smoking bans, seriously. I LOVE Madison (and the whole state of Utah!) since you cannot smoke in public. So when I venture outside of Madison's walls, I am quickly reminded that not everyone has the same standards. I think my hair still smells like cigarette smoke.

Then, no one paid attention to us. There wasn't a hostess stand or anything, and three or four employees walked by us without asking, "Can we help you?" We almost left, but we were hungry and the food was supposed to be really good there, so we decided to stick it out. I finally found someone with a clipboard and asked her, "Do we need to put our name in, or....?" She wasn't very friendly (no "Oh, sure!" or "Welcome!") but at least she got us seated right away.

Third, our server was really friendly, but SO slow. She would disappear for like 15 minutes, and then just take care of all her tables in one fell swoop. Dan and I were like, what is she doing? The restaurant is not that big, so she must have been hanging out in the back or something.

Fourth, the people behind us were SO drunk and SO obnoxious. I think they were already smashed when they got there, and the waitress kept the drinks flowing! (Anyone who knows me knows I'm not being sanctimonious or self-righteous; I enjoy a good drink as much as anyone, but there is such a thing as taking it too far!) The table consisted of two couples in their 50s (probably; maybe early 60s?) and the people right behind us were practically having sex at their table. I'm not even kidding; my back was to them, and all of a sudden I heard this sucking sound right in my ear, so I turned around. Holy hell! They were sucking face not one foot from me. I just looked at Dan, and he's like, "Jeez, you'd think they'd get a room." He didn't mean to say it loudly, but he did, and they kind of looked at us, but whatever.

That wasn't the worst of it. THEN they started talking about their sex life, and being really graphic about it!

Dan and I couldn't decide whether to laugh or turn around and tell them to shut the hell up. We chose the first option (although he said that if we had kids, he would have told them to cool it. I do not need my [hypothetical at this point] children hearing stuff like that).

So it was an interesting experience. Overall, the food was good (I had the coconut shrimp, and Dan had the fish fry), and it was some of the best seafood I'd ever had. I don't know if we'll go back there, though, because of the service (and especially if those drunk, obnoxious people are regulars there, which it seemed like they were, because they were on a first-name basis with everyone!) Oh, and the straw that broke the camel's back was that we didn't notice on the coupon that it said, "Not valid on Fridays." *Sigh* But yeah, like I said.... it was an interesting night.