8/7/2010 Seafood & Arts Festival

After we got done our morning stuff, weed whacking, reservation cards, clearing the sites with the check in booth and our weekly laundry day we got ready to go the Seafood & Arts Festival over at the Indian River Marina.

This is just across the river from where we are so it was only a matter of going across the bridge to get there. This is only the second year for this festival but the crowd was bigger than last year from what we heard.

As soon as we got out of the truck we could hear the steel drums. Bob and I could listen to this for hour upon hour, ever since we first heard them when we were in St. Croix. Of course as soon as we got to the bandstand they went on the break.

We could see a line of white tents and open booths and decided to just start at one end and work our way down the line.

There were several booths with paintings by local artists and we saw about a dozen that we would have liked to be able to call ours but there just isn’t a whole lot of room in an RV. Here’s The Tan One checking out the beach scenes.

I’d like for you to meet Gary Pearson. We loved his metal work!

Now that I think about it, we have a fellow in Arizona with the same name who teaches painting classes to the residents. I wonder if in some ancient language if garypearson means artist?

I had the chance to talk with him for a bit and found out that he used to drive a truck over the road for 15 years. He said he had met many a RV’er and when he would come across one in trouble he often stopped to help. He said he met the most amazing people and I knew exactly what he meant.

As I said we just love metal work and Gary’s had a beach flair to it.

If you have a beach house and want some really unique wall decorations let me know and I’ll put you in touch with him. Or better yet, just go to his website …. www.garypearsonart.com

I just loved the seahorse!

Of course as soon as Bob got near the restaurant it was time for him eat. Get him anywhere near a sausage, pepper and onion sandwich and the man is suddenly starving.

While I sat with him I took notice of these people standing on a surfboard like board and paddling around the marina.

I’ve seen two different references to this activity now. stand boarding and paddle boarding. Whatever you call it, it seems to be the next big thing on the water.

Emily, the Volunteer Coordinator for Parks and Recreation stopped by to say hello. She got into the spirit of the festival and had her face painted by Lollipop the Clown.

Lollipop had a quite a few faces to paint.

This is Reed and he was transformed into Spiderman right before my eyes.

Oh yes, Lollipop was kept quite busy.

The steel band had come back to work so we listened to them for awhile before moving on to check out the rest of the festival. This band is made up of high school kids that learned how to play these drums starting in the fourth and fifth grades.

If anyone is in need of a mirror framed in shells, just let me know and I’ll hook ya up!

The next booth that really caught our attention was the Creations in Wood booth. This is another place that if we had the right place, we could spend a lot of money.

Metal work blue claw crabs mounted on crab basket lids seemed to be a big seller. We saw several of these that we liked.

This caught everyone’s attention, the HAMMERHEAD SHARK!

We walked down to the end of the docks and saw this boat in dry dock.

The EVANGELINE TRAIL was brought in a couple of years ago to have the engine worked on and the man who owns it….well, he seems to have just disappeared. So if you own this boat, please contact the marina as they have had several inquiries from people about buying it!

As we were making our way up to the other end, we passed this one lady who was just plum tuckered out. Sorry Lois, blame your daughter, she said I could do this!

A view of the marina….

We were trying to decide which one of the ones below we wanted but then figured we would be way over a hundred feet long if we towed it behind the 5th wheel. It would just be too hard to make corners.

We watched the Capt. Bob II come in to see what was caught.

This was the heaviest fish caught and all the guys on the boat threw some money in the pot….I was surprised to find out that they stick the money to the fish for pictures. These are 20’s stuck to this fish and there’s a wad in the mouth!

As we were leaving Bob nudged me and said,,,there’s blog material. He was so right! I met this fellow who had a very unique way of acknowledging his children. He said he didn’t know why he didn’t have their dates of birth put on when he had them done but he is going to have that done some day. He told me these were taken right from their birth certificates. Look at the difference in size between the top one and bottom one on his left leg.

So this was our day at the Seafood & Arts Festival. By the way, they did have seafood there but it was a little on the pricey side so we didn’t even go there. Besides, good seafood served in a Styrofoam container, well, that just doesn’t sit well.

We’re glad we went and we can see where this festival will grow nicely. Next time we’re back here at this time of year we’ll make sure we get to this one .

Yep, a very pleasant afternoon.

Ahhhh,,but the evening was just as pleasant.

Look at tonight’s sunset.  Doubleclick on the pictures.