February 28, 2017. Playa Royale, Mexico. Fruit.

When you leave the Riviera Grill restaurant, you are given a piece of fruit.  The custom is charming.  While we were still eating,  "The Old Man"brought over a papaya and put it on the table.   We thanked him but we wondered how we could carry it home as it was about a foot long.  Then on the way out, we noticed a bin containing oranges, with a sign saying "please take some oranges", so we did.  Right beside the opening to the street was a table of small watermelons with a sign saying "Help Yourself". By the time we were on the bike path starting to walk home, we realized we had a watermelon, a papaya and 6 oranges, all courtesy of the Riviera Grill and our friend "The Old Man".

Fortunately Ken was using the walker so we put the oranges in his basket and the papaya on the seat. Doreen carried the watermelon.  We have been eating on the fruit ever since.

Ken and I have wondered if the fruit comes from the old man's garden.  He started the custom four years ago and has kept it going ever since.  The gesture of being given  fruit when you leave is delightful.  You feel as if you want to return, which of course is the whole purpose.  But it is unusual.  Normally we leave the Riviera Grill with two oranges but on Sunday we had a bonanza.  But we only did as we were asked to do on the signs but we might have outdone ourselves.   We were happy to have all the fruit but we did giggle at ourselves for coming home with so much fruit.  We were just big kids.