Jackson Creek, Piankatank River

Well,  another family day has finally arrived -- Rachel Jon and Scarlett join us today -- the trip from Charlottesville is a few hours, so we don't expect to see them until about 1pm.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast for the weekend was dismal --cloudy skies and 70% chance of rain for both days.  Going out on the boat wasn't going to make much sense, so Sue's plan was to take them to "land" activities -- the Deltaville Maritime Museum  this afternoon and an annual "all-you-can-eat", $30 per head Crabfeast at a local firehouse for dinner -- this was a great plan -- it immunized us from rain getting in the way of having a good time and included participating with the locals in their annual event -- what more could you ask for.

The morning began with our moving the boat to a slip in the marina -- this would make it easy for us to get Rachel's crew on and off the boat. When they arrived we "re-acquainted" them with the boat (we had taken them out last year for an afternoon sail but it was "curtailed" when Scarlett had a meltdown -- this time and a year older, she was fine with the boat and in fact, was fascinated with the head and couldn't get enough of going up and down the companionway stairs).

Scarlett just loved going up and down !!

After the "tour", we had a picnic lunch and celebrated Sue's birthday in the cockpit -- this was the first time Rachel had seen Sue since her birthday, so she brought a cake and some presents to have some fun -- Scarlett really enjoyed "reading" the card (which she made) and opening the presents at Sue's party :-)

"Dear Grandma, Happy Birthday, I love You"

Grandma reacting to Rachel's guessing her age

The "Healthy" Birthday Cake

In its heyday, Deltaville was a big center for shipbuilding on the Chesapeake -- they were particularly noted for building "dead rise" boats -- made of wood and with a "V" shaped hull, these were the "work horse" boats for the oyster and crabbing industries. As might be expected, the museum had a collection of such boats, including some afloat in a creek on the museum grounds. They also had an exhibit of paintings by John Barber, a well-known local artist who specializes in Maritime art -- indeed, Walter Cronkite had commissioned him to paint a picture of his yacht. Barber's paintings are very realistic -- almost photographic quality -- quite nice.

Of course, Scarlett wasn't interested in any of this -- she (briefly) liked seeing the boats but was much more interested in exploring the child's garden and fountain on the grounds and particularly liked an (empty) stage down by the creek that enabled her to "dance" and "sing" (largely unintelligible lyrics to herself) -- she put on quite the show.

Testing to see whether Mr. Frog is real

Petting Mr. Dolphin who is giving Scarlett's doggie a ride

Mom & Dad in the garden

"Dancing" much too fast for me to get a good picture

Grandma joins the show

After leaving the museum, we made a West Marine and grocery run (always good to take advantage of a car when you have access to one) and on the way back to the boat, happened to pass the Crabfeast firehouse. We were happy to see the tents up (keep us dry of it rained) but were amazed at how large they were (2 HUGE tents) and even more amazed that a line was already forming to get in (the "fest" wasn't scheduled to start for another hour). We wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.

We soon found out -- returning about 1.5 hours later, we were directed (by volunteers) to park under a tree at the rear of a large field behind the firehouse -- it was a long walk back to the Crabfeast entrance. To say the place was mobbed wouldn't do it justice -- when we got in, we found long lines of picnic tables strung together as far as the eye could see, all of which were filled with people and each of which was piled high with Maryland style steamed crabs; people were grabbing crabs to eat from their "communal" pile and volunteers were scurrying about everywhere with huge trays of new crabs to make sure that no pile was ever depleted. This was "all-you-can-eat" on a grand scale -- and in a noisy, messy medieval setting -- crab shards were all over the tables, the floors, the seats and the people -- there was no doubt about it, if we wanted to eat, we had to find an empty spot on some table and just "dig-in".

The crowd at the crab feast -- note the tents in the distance

A volunteer making a delivery

At this point, some of you must be wondering whether we actually planned to feed Scarlett, a 4 year old, crabs drowned in Old Bay seasoning and steamed in beer -- well, no -- we (and the VFD) had more sense than that --Rachel had fed her some dinner before we left and hamburgers, hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob were also on all-you-can-eat menu -- we had Scarlett covered.

So, after finding a table where the 5 of us could squeeze in (without missing a chew, the two other gents at our table assured us that the previous foursome had already left), and cleaning off the pile of "crab shards" the previous occupants had left behind, we got something to drink (beer and wine were available at a cash bar) and "dug in". Jon, being from the western part of the state, had never had crabs before so we gave him a lesson is "dis-assembling" a crab -- while he complained a lot that it was hard work for a relatively small reward, I soon lost sight of him across the table as his shard pile grew -- he was clearly enjoying himself.

Aftermath -- crab shards everywhere

You might think that this was enough excitement for one evening, but it didn't quite turn out that way. You see Scarlett was restless, so we all took turns taking her for a "walk/run" around the tents and the tables and the stage (a Band was scheduled to come on at 8pm). She loved wandering around the crowd, "dancing" in front of the stage, talking to the crab lady (a volunteer, dressed up in a "Crab suit" and helping to sell 50/50 tickets) and "watching" the few other kids her age capering about (she is still somewhat shy).

We were all careful about holding her hand and/or escorting her closely to ensure that she didn't wander off unattended -- it was a big noisy crowd and well, "you never know", even at a local Crabfest in rural Virginia. Scarlett, imp that she is, did manage to "escape" from Sue on one of these excursions  -- immediate panic set in -- the search parties (us) were sent out in search of her -- Sue's DYFAS (Division of Youth & Family Services) training immediately kicked in -- she had cops posted at the exits (many VFD members were also cops) and had the band ( who had started playing shortly before) make multiple announcements over the speaker system -- it was an agonizing 5 minutes or so, but Rachel eventually found her in corner with some other kids -- she was fine (although she did get reprimanded and reminded us many times on the trip home and the next day that she "would never wander away from an adult again". Lesson learned.

Having Scarlett again firmly in our grasp, we hung out waiting for the 50/50 winner announcement -- we had all purchased tickets and since it was a very large crowd, we anticipated a very large payout and were anxious to see whether any of us had won. We were  told that the winner would be picked at 8, but that time came and went and the band was playing but nothing was happening. Eventually, Sue left all of our tickets with one of the organizers along with a phone number to call should we have won -- then we left -- our evening was done.

Oh, just in case you were wondering, we never got a call -- doesn't matter -- we had a great time and happy to help the VFD (this was their major annual fund raiser). And one more thing, 70% chance of rain, but it never did.

Happy Birthday Mom -- hope you enjoyed the day with Scarlett :-)