Mullet Festival

Let me guess, the first thing that comes to mind is a bad 80's haristyle made famous by Billy Ray Cyrus and a festival to celebrate it! Well, I hate to burst the bubble, but it is actually celebrating the fish. Yes, a fish!
There is a sleepy little town on the coast of North Carolina named Swansboro. They claim to be "The Friendly City by the Sea". Their claim is correct; this little town is tucked away and if you blink, you will miss the best part, the historic waterfront. If small coastal shops with little nick-knacks and nautical items are your thing, then you would love it here!

On the second weekend of October, the "friendly city by the sea" host The Mullet Festival. Now, I can only guess that the reason for the festival is to celebrate the mullet (again, the fish, not the hair) and the fishermen who go to sea to catch them. This year was the 56th Mullet Festival, and I swear it gets bigger and bigger every year. The streets are small and the later in the day of the festival, the more crowded the streets get, so as always, try to go early. You don't need to bring much; money, a camera and an appetite.

The most difficult thing about the festical is the parking. Since most of the streets are closed down for the festival and parade (did I mention there was a parade), the best bet is to park and take a shuttle...at least that is what my crew did. The shuttle cost $1.00 per person, per ride (which I think is the deal of the day).

After taking the shuttle, the crew started the 56th Annual Mullet Festival and started cruising the merchandise. Of course, all festivals have very simialr items for sale, but this was a little different. There were vendors selling hand painted glass, bowls, plates, hand crafted stools that looked like turtles and birdhouses that looked like lighthouses. There was a plethera of jewelry vendors; gold jewelry, silver, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, rings, rings made out of shells.
You name it, there was probably a vendor who was selling it. There were more homemade items for sale, rather than the commercial type vendors ( I was shocked, I only saw 1 sunglasses vendor). There were also a lot of local organizations handing out flyers or having raffles to win a trip of a tv ( both would have been nice to win).

After crusing the vendors, we made our way down the street towards the waterfront for our Lunch Adventure. This year's meal deals were a little toned down from previous years. There were no "Alligators on a Stick" or "Chocolate Covered Bacon". There were, however, lots and lots of SEAFOOD!!!

My sister and mom jumped right in line for the shrimp burger; this is nothing more than fried shrimp placed in-between 2 hamburger rolls. Dad wasn't feeling as adventourous, so I walked with him to find the perfect lunch. On our quest, we ran into Fried Crab Cakes, Hot Dogs, Funnel Cakes, Hamburgers, Ribbon Fries covered in Cheese and Bacon, Quesadillas, Burritos, Gyros, Fried Mullet Plates...it was like a buffet on wheels! Not being able to make a decision, we headed back and I ordered dad a hamburger (fail safe) and I ordered the shrimp burger.

As you can tell...I enjoyed the shrimp burger very much. I would have given it Two Thumbs Up...but that would have meant I had to put my shrimp down, and that wasn't going to happen!

After we ate our burgers, Dad and I were informed that Miss North Carolina had suggested that we try the Deep Fried Oreos. Now, I have tried these at the fair and told my family how great they were... I guess it takes a beauty queen to convince them otherwise. So my sister and I scampered off to find the deep fried goodness.

It was a little piece of Heaven!

After getting our grub on, we needed to walk and shop...but first, we had to dance!

The stage was set with beach music groups who played nothing but good music. We aren't the dancing crew, well, my sister is, but none of us knew how to shag...so we stood and listened, along with lots of other folks. Nothing like beach music to put someone in a great mood! We contiued on, ready to shop a little bit (Christmas is close, so good time to get a little shopping done), so we checked out all the small stores. As my sister and dad checked out probably the smallest jewelry shop known to man.....

mom and I took to the waterfront. The tide was up, but it was a beautiful site!

My sister and dad finally emerged and we went to catch the shuttle back to the car, the festival had come to an end for us.

We loaded the shuttle adn talked about the great time we had and the sites and overheard everyone else talk about their great time. The shuttle ride was about 10 minutes as we headed back. Still in a great high from our festival experience...we took some family pictures:

I hope that I have convinced you all to take a trip to the coast and take part in next years Mullet Festival...maybe I will see you there!

And if you go and see the guy in the Mullet hat...tell him Annie sent you!

Slackers......

So we have totally been slack for the past few months and haven't updated...but stay tuned, because we will have some exciting trips coming up to post. There are trips to the mountains and a beach festival and who knows what else.

Stick around :)

All Roads Lead to Ikea....and Starbucks!

So the past couple of months we have been super slack on our blog. What can I say, we suck! But fear not, because we went on a ROAD TRIP!! Here is the incredible journey:

Suzie drove her new car, Millie, to Charlotte to go shopping at Ikea. Now, if you do not know what Ikea is, it is defined as “a privately-held, international home products retailer that sells flat pack furniture, accessories, and bathroom and kitchen items in their retail stores around the world. The company, which pioneered flat-pack design furniture at affordable prices, is now the world's largest furniture retailer.”- Thanks Wikipedia!

The mission:Drive 3 hours to Charlotte for the pure delight of shopping in a store with the best assemble yourself furniture Sweden has to offer. How could we go wrong? Oh yea, the weather was reporting snow and sleet in the areas we had to drive. How exciting!

Our journey started at about 7:00 a.m. We couldn’t function without some Starbucks (especially since one of us thought it was a smart idea to see a late movie the night before) So, we stopped in and grabbed our coffee and respective dessert and then we seriously got on the road after that. No road trip is complete without some good music. So, my job the night before was to make a playlist. I got a little carried away and the playlist ended up being 6 Cd's worth. Oops J, but not a problem with a six disc changer. The drive down went so quickly listening to music and talking and just having a great time.

I have to say, leaving early in the morning is a great advantage,there was no one on the road!

Every time we got to a spot where there should have been major traffic, there was none!No cars as far as the eye could see. I don’t know if it was the threat of winter weather the night before or everyone just wanted to sleep in, but hey, whatever it was awesome and we liked it!
The drive went by pretty fast with only making one potty break in Davidson County…

By the way, the real bathrooms are closed for remodel so you only have this one building, just a little FYI for you!

We googled how to get to IKEA (no navigation system needed for those who can still read a map) and the directions were really good. We didn’t have to venture off any of the main interstates, just I40 to I85. It got a little tricky in Greensboro, but that’s why you always make sure to bring a long a co-pilot who knows what the difference between the green I85 and the blue I85 is.

Finally...we see the exit… IKEA BLVD/CITY BLVD! Suzie merged like a mad woman over to our exit, the excitement building! Once on the exit and turning left, we see it in all of its blue and yellow glory!

Suzie again driving like mad woman swooped through the parking lot! We had arrived! We made it at 10am, right when they opened (TIP:we never checked what time the store opened before we left, so it worked out, but make sure you always find out what time the store opens before you travel to it). I couldn’t control myself!

Once we went in, we stood there in complete awe (it might have been a little confusion too) as we tried to decide our plan of attack! There was an IKEA worker handling a huge bin of yellow tarps. The sign above the bin of tarps told us to take a bag, so we took a yellow tarp bag, a map and pencil and started our way up the escalator. It was like a warehouse, but not so opened and empty. When we got off the escalator we had two choices to make: go look at the rooms or go eat at the café (yes…there is a straight up café in the store). We chose shopping.

We started off looking at bedroom furniture. Everything set up in the displays was available for purchase! Even the light fixtures!!! The rooms flowed with great ideas. We saw at least 5 rooms we wanted, including a fantastic library! One thing I noticed while walking the showroom: no one was walking against traffic (except for us at times.) We tried to follow the path and it took us in and out of all various rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, offices and the places where they had shelves and storage cabinets. It was nice and roomy; we never felt crowded or rushed.

The last stop on the top floor was the children’s rooms and décor. We had so much fun looking around and seeing what we could buy for our niece and nephews. There were stuffed animals, bedding, toys, cribs, lights and nightlights (by the way…I bought a chandelier in that section…it is awesome.) The only weird part was when some kid came up to me and said, “Mom, can we get these plates? I like them and I think we should get them.” I looked down at him and said, “I’m not your mom.” And he left somewhat confused to go find his mom…crazy!

We then took the steps down where there was a little bistro/bakery that smelled amazing. We found the textiles there, as well as all sorts of kitchen gadgets (Suzie stocked up), fabrics, bedding, beds, pillows, rugs, bathroom accessories, lighting, picture frames, art work, and everything else that would go in or out of a house.

The last stop before the check out was the HUGE open warehouse where you picked up your furniture, since you assemble it yourself.

By the time we got done, we were pooped. We guessed how much we thought we had spent and checked out. Each of us came in under the total we had guessed and we headed to the exiting complete awe of our first IKEA experience. It was complete and totally worth the three hour drive.

We walked back to “Millie” with big blue tarp bag in hand and smiles on our faces. We didn’t have to say anything to each other, but we both knew the other one was planning the next trip to IKEA.

We suck, we know!

Sorry we have been slack! We just finished with a road trip, so we will be posting soon! Hang in there!!

Annie & Suzie

Seafood and People Watching

I woke up excited, Saturday Oct. 3- the first weekend in October. I jumped in the car with my parents to embark on a 2 hour drive down to Morehead City for the 23rd Annual Seafood Festival. What could be better than a Saturday filled with all sorts of seafood and people and bonus...the beach!

Once we made it to the coast and after a 30 minute rest stop at the little family owned cottage to meet up with the sis, brother-in-law and the cutie nephew, we started on an adventure.

The day was beautiful! Parking was crazy! Let me tell you now, and if you don't remember anything from this entry, remember this...GO EARLY! We got there at 10:30 (it started at 11am)...and there were a ton of people! We had to park a good 6 blocks on the other side of the road, opposite of where the festival was. You could see all these empty lots and think you could park there, but in reality you could only park there if you had $5 handy. Free is for me! So once we found a free space we headed to the waterfront.

Right away you could smell that smell in the air. You know the smell. The combination of fried foods, funnel cakes and salt air hits you about 2 blocks away. My heart skipped a beat and I felt like running. Then I remembered that it wasn't going anywhere, so I got a hold of myself and calmed down. And finally, among some strangers, I could see the tents of arts and crafts and home decor, and mini yard sales and I knew you was close!

We started our trek by the free wine tasting. Come on, how could we pass that up! We walked down a row of local NC vendors promoting their wine. I looked around to my surroundings to a sea of fannie packs and senior citizens, it was then that I realized where the older generations priorities were. When we came off wino row, we saw a huge white tent staring at us, that was to be our next adventure- "the education tent." Inside was everything you needed to know about the sea and the food that lived in it. My sister picked up a lot of great information for her classroom. They also had cooking demonstrations going on. It was pretty interesting- we got our fill and kept rolling (we had the cutie nephew in the stroller, hints rolling).

Finally.... the waterfront! On the left were vendors and on the right, a few more white tents for more educational items. Now, these vendors are always the same. Do you need a toilet paper holder made out of carved wood? How about sunglasses that promise HD quality? Don't forget about the hand made pot holders! The Aquarium from Pine Knoll Shores was also there (so was a shark.) We skipped along taking in the sights; food and people for miles!


So now it was for me to eat. This was the hardest decision...what do we want to eat? Too many choices! Crab cakes, fried shrimp, scallops, clam strips, fish sandwiches, funnel cakes, french fries, crab balls, pizza, nachos...the list goes on and on! I decided to take a stab at the Cajun Shrimp in a Pita Pocket. It was amazing! The shrimp was sauteed in a cajun rub, then placed in a warm pita bread with shredded lettuce. I melted right there. It was delish! My sister tried the crab balls and she said she could have stood at that vendor and ate all day. We all tried something a little different and everyone was happy.

All in all, the Seafood Festival was fantastic! Super crowed though, so if you ever decide to venture out, remember what I said...go early (that way you can see all the crazy folks!)

-Annie

Our Dirty Name

As you have probably found yourself wondering what a strange name for a blog and why am I here reading it? Annie and I thought it'd be best to explain the name.

Once upon a time...circa 2005... a couple of Art students liked to skip class. Why? you might ask. Well, because we were punk ass kids with cameras and we wanted to take photos of something other than the Art building of our lovely college and the woods surrounding it. Also, there were a few strange birds at that college that we didn't want to spend much time around, in class or not. "Skip" may be too strong of a word anyway; our truancy was instructor sanctioned for the most part. As in we said, "hey we're out of here," and our instructor didn't really say or do much about it, other than remind us when our projects were due.

In our grand search for something interesting to capture, and because Annie's boss at the time requested a picture of the "Welcome to North Carolina" sign, she and I endeavored to drive two hours to the South Carolina boarder. We're no strangers to road trips and usually jump at the chance to get out of the general vicinity of the greater Raleigh area, so of course using any lame excuse to go... we went. We've taken the trip south a few times, making the inevitable stop at South of the Boarder to visit our good friend Pedro and eat lunch.

However, on this trip down we started to notice all of the "No Tell" motels lining I-95, including the now dilapidated Queen Anne Motel. It was then that one of us (and given the years I don't remember which) said, "that's the kind of place where you'd need to bring your own sheets."

In a stroke of what I think is genius (and maybe a little crazy wishful thinking), we decided that if we ever had a show on the Travel Channel it would center on us trying to make it across country on as little money as possible, staying in skeezy places like the Queen Anne. Of course the show would have to be titled "Bring Your Own Sheets!"

Life went on and we both work full time now, but there is still a wish to meander our way out of our respective niches, if only on weekends and federally recognized holidays. A TV show is a bit far fetched, but a blog is pretty reasonable. So, in an attempt to relieve us of the burdens of our Monday-Friday lives we decided that maybe our crazy/genius idea was worth a shot. If not, at least it's an excuse to just go and these days excuses, given the influx of "responsibility", are a little more difficult to come by.

We may one day actually make it across country, but for now we'll share any trips and adventures we can. The point being that time, distance, and luxury aren't everything. Sometimes all you need is good company, a camera, and of course something to cover up with.

Suzie