Crackers

By the end of last week I really craved sunshine and finally got it. On Saturday when we had plans to go up to Cathlamet, Washington for the Crab and Oyster feed, Mary Ann, the organizer of this big  outing, suggested that, since the weather was so great, we stop for a hike on our way, so we stopped at the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge where the sun was shining brightly, the sky was a brilliant blue and we took a good walk through the wetlands and marshes and saw birds and little wildflowers and drank in the sunshine. Then we journeyed on to the cute little Norse Hall for the main event.

For some of us this was our first time and Mary Ann emailed and told us we needed to bring our own implements, condiments and carb crackers. I thought the last was a little odd—aren't all crackers carbs? I guessed that all we were getting were oysters and crab, so maybe a cracker or bread might be good with the seafood. I stuck in a box of crackers. When we arrived we were getting our supplies out of the trunk of our friends' car and I pulled out the box of crackers. My friend looked at me oddly. "Mary Ann said to bring crackers" I said, in explanation.  Paula looked me in the eye and said, "Crab crackers." And suddenly the light came on—crab crackers, not carb crackers! Duh. We laughed about my crackers all afternoon.

Fortunately, I also had a nifty red cracker of the correct kind that I had packed.

Ray, the pragmatist, brought his own favorite crab tool.

We also had our long, pointy forks and our "Can't believe it's not Butter" for dipping and we were set. Then we went inside and met the folks who were old hands at the Crab and Oyster Feed game. They had little candle-fueled butter warmers; and buckets for their shells; and crazy hats; and aprons to protect themselves from all the seawater juiciness of the oysters; and oyster knives; and wooden mallets;  and cocktail sauce and lemons and hot sauce and big tubs of wet wipes. We were clearly minimally equipped amateurs, but we managed to gorge ourselves on seafood and coleslaw and potato salad and beans and that kind of melted-butter-sogged garlic bread that reminds me of my childhood, and beer or wine to wash it all down with. Next year we'll know better and have all the accoutrements. Maybe not the hats...

More on the adventure on Howard's blog, from whom I stole the hat photo.

This was just what I needed after the week I'd had. Yay for sunshine and friends and crab!