Oysterfest

The Fulton, TX volunteer fire department put on, as they do every year, the 2012 Oysterfest this past weekend.  This year they will be raising money for a new fire station.  It sounded like a good time and, believe it or not, I don't think I've ever eaten an oyster!  So bright and early on Saturday morning we headed back to the mainland to check it out.

Not knowing how crowded it would be, we parked at a parking lot that was on the main drag.  We then had to walk a looooong way to get to Beach Street, by the water, to watch the parade. 

Again, there were the usual floats...

A golf boat

From the Bark Park

Notice the tails

Pirates

There's a car underneath here

The sea

A very old lady

some cars....

Antique car

Bonnie and Clyde's car

Bonnie

Antique Fiat

A WWII veteran, I assume

the Shriners...

The guy was as big as the car!

Shriner float

and some really interesting people.

Just clownin' around

You need a hat like this!

We tried to convince Sid he needed one of these wigs





Elvis is not dead

Since beads had been thrown at the Mardi Gras parades we've been to, I was sure that they would throw pearls (from oysters, get it?) in this parade.  And I was right!

"Pearls"

They also threw lots and lots of candy, but the only piece I got was rejected by the kids around me as being GROSS!  I did like the name, however.

Oysterfest candy

The parade over, it was another long walk to the festival grounds, beer and food tent and vendor area.  But we got there a little ahead of the crowd (by skipping the end of the parade, but don't tell anyone!).  Food and drinks were extremely expensive ($3 for a little bitty cup of beer), but, courtesy of Bob, I did get to try a fried oyster.  Personally, I think they're a little bit better than chicken gizzards (read the post about that here), but not much. 

So, we decided to head over to China A, a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet that we had heard was really good.  First, though, we had to get back to the car, a trip that seemed miles long by now after all the walking we had already done.  There was a free shuttle back to the parking lot, but we had just missed it.  After waiting for a while, we jumped on a golf cart shuttle that wouldn't get us back to where we had started, but was better than waiting for the next shuttle with the other bazillion people.

After some sweet talking by Nancy, the driver, a Rockport-Fulton resident, took us almost all the way back to the truck.  Nice, nice lady!

Now, on to the buffet.  It was really, really good and had, in addition to the normal Chinese items, all kinds of shrimp, clams, oysters and crab prepared in every imaginable manner.  They even had frog legs and, yes, I did eat a FROG'S LEG!!!!  It's true what they say - it tastes like chicken.

Before eating the frog's leg

Stuffed, we headed back to the trailer, another day in paradise completed.  But before I leave blogland, I wanted to include some random pictures from other days.

My favorite store 

The wind was blowing so hard!

A busy channel day - 4 ferries and a ship, all at the same time

I know, another bird, but this is cool

The palm tree by our trailer

The beach, on a sunny day this time

A ship in the channel

And, finally, a video showing the dolphins playing in front of the ship.  It only took several days to get this shot and I'm still learning, but hey, you couldn't be here, so this will have to do.



Tomorrow, Nancy and I leave for 8 days in New Orleans.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!