Wind, Waves, Rain, Oyster Cookoff

In my last blog I posted some beach and sky photos and mentioned the storm predicted for that evening. Although the storm did not reach the intensity that was threatened, it was a humdinger; about 2 inches of rain and pretty incredible winds that knocked branches off the longleaf pines around and over our camper, bounced their huge pinecones off our aluminum roof, sounding as though we were being pelted with baseballs, and scattered palm fronds shelter-skelter in the road and in campsites.  The wind knocked down 5 power poles, cutting off electricity to the campground and the nearest city for the entire day, well into the evening. (I know, you hardcore campers are sobbing in your beer, thinking: "those poor Greenfields, having to do without electricity for 20 hours").  The scene the following morning was almost unrecognizable, 10-15 ft. waves crashing onto the beach, wiping it clean of all the shells and other detritus that I mentioned in the earlier post, diminishing the formerly 30' wide beach to about a 3-5' stretch of wet sand covered with rolling sandy foam generated by the extreme wave action.    Fun tho'!   Isn't Nature grand?

Yesterday we attended the Apalachicola Oyster cookoff, which reminded us both of Rib Fest at home in Kalamazoo, with oysters and shrimp replacing the pork.  Live music (pretty good band), BEAUTIFUL day weather-wise, long lines of experienced shuckers and cooks preparing the oysters and shrimp, and based on the dishes we tasted - great, simple food! We sat on a dock with our feet dangling over the edge to enjoy our raw oysters (SO good) and good local beer (Oyster City summer beer Mill Pond Dirty Blonde), later oyster stew (heavy on the artichokes, but good broth tho' short on oysters).  Fishing/shrimping/oyster boats bobbing in the water by the dock....people having a good time....amazing array of well-behaved dogs enjoying the outing with their owners, interesting little "tourist" shops in town living side by jowl with rough and ready fishing shacks, fishing boats, and a funky little seafood shop called 13 Mile Seafood, where we picked up what will be tonight's dinner, a lovely red snapper. Altogether a lovely outing.  Would do it again in a heartbeat!

That evening's sunset at the campground beach was beautiful, and due to the MLK long weekend the campground was full, so people were lined up on the beach watching this sunset as tho' it was a recent-release movie.