Seafood Festival and Lunch

Saturday, February 23
Foley, Alabama


     A Seafood festival, craft fair and car show were advertised as an even to go to today.  It was in Orange Beach.  We loaded up the map and headed out.  As we got closer to the sportsplex where the event was taking place, we saw a parking lot with a "free shuttle ride" to the festival.  Since we did not know what kind of parking was available in the area, we decided to just hop on the shuttle.  There were about 100 people in front of us when we got in line, so knew it would take a little bit to get there.  After waiting about 10 minutes, we saw two little 12 passenger vans pull up and start loading people.  We were astounded, but hopeful that a big bus would show up at any minute.  We waited about another 15 mins, and realized that it was hopeless.  We would just take our chances at finding parking.  By now there were at least 200 people in line, most of them older than us and just getting into the vans could be a challenge for some.   It took us a while in bumper to bumper traffic and crawling speed, but we found a parking space at the sportsplex.

Just a bit of the line we got out of.

     It was not a very big car show, much to Al's disappointment and my delight!

     We wandered around the booths and managed to pick up some yard art.  Did not think to get a picture of it.  The one we bought is all packaged up for travel.  We were hoping to get some seafood at the seafood festival, but all we found was one trailer that had fried shrimp, oysters and some kind of fish.  Was not what we were looking for.  There was also a jambalaya that they were cooking in a huge wok type kettle, but it was only sausage and chicken.  Coming from Oklahoma, we wanted seafood.   Our friends from the RV park, Anne and Dan were there and we decided to find a nice restaurant, so headed out.
     The Cosmos Restaurant had been recommended and it was just down the canal road.

     I had the Mardi Gras beer and Crawfish Pot Pie!  Very good on both counts.

Sunday February 23, 2014

     It started raining last night about 3 a.m. and poured and poured with tons of thunder.  Beau was in the room like a shot at the first thunder, and barking of course.  We finally got him up on the bed (he is not real keen on jumping on the bed when he knows Cujo (Babe) is up there.  He slept on one side of Al and Babe was between us by our knees on the other side.  Not real comfy in a queen bed, but at least he settled down.  It raind all morning.  We got the dogs out and decided to go to a new place I read about on a blog.  Cafe Beignets
is a nice small little place with no menus.  Beignets plain or filled.  We tried an order of each.  Vanilla filled were ok, but we really liked the plain the best.  They were hot and chewy!  We even managed to eat them without being covered in powdered sugar, which was a good thing as Al had on a navy blue sweater.  Luckily, my blouse was white so he couldn't really tell if I was messy!  Unlike the time we went to Dink's BBQ and I wore my white capris and dropped a huge messy rib with lots of extra sauce right in my lap.  No way to get out of there discreetly.

     The next place we went was Al's 5 and 10 which has everything you could possibly ever want.  I saw yarn I have not seen in Hobby Lobby or Michaels.   Every color of the mesh netting that people are making the wreaths from.   It was fun to wander around.

  On the way back to the Foley, we decided to stop at the Gulf State Pier.  It costs $2 a person to walk on it and sightsee and more if you want to fish.  We went as far as we could without paying.  Not that we are cheap, but figured this was something to do when our friends come this week.  There was a pic opt!

     By the time we got back to the iHome, it was pouring again.  We stayed in and watched a little basketball, golf and Olympics.  At 2 p.m. at the club house there was cake and ice cream to celebrate all the February birthdays.  It was poorly attended, but I think that was because of the rain.  Everyone was just having a lazy day at home.  They were also showing the Daytona 500 on the big screen, but I think it was in a rain delay also.

     We had quite the sugar rush day.  Beignets for breakfast and cake and ice cream for lunch.  I did make a chicken noodle casserole for dinner and we even had a salad.  And oh, of course, wine.