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