Trip date: October 9, 2016
Receive date: October 19, 2016
Publish date: November 4, 2016
Receive date: October 19, 2016
Publish date: November 4, 2016
CrabFest 2016, Port Angeles
Trip Report by Laura Ramsey
Trip Report by Laura Ramsey
October 9, 7:23pm: Well, I missed the second presidential debate although we had it on the radio in the bus. I couldn’t hear well, so missed most of it. However, the airwaves and print media will be screaming all about it tomorrow. Don’t think I really missed anything.
In talking with Dave Saturday night about today’s trip during our latest “lights out” adventure, he assured me that if five hardy folks showed up before 9:00am in the morning, the trip was a “go.” They did, and it was. The concern, of course, was the strong possibility of rain and whether people who planned to go would do so after the late night.
The power came back on a little after midnight. With lots of help (special thanks to Joan, Jackie, and Rita) we got the carts of “debris” from the Oktober Fest’s delightfully successful party and subsequent lights-out evening stashed in my apartment. By 1:30am, I had all my “stuff” organized for a possible getaway in the morning.
Sure enough, when I got to the B building, Bill and Honey Bear were waiting with Barry. Karen, Pattie, Bill and JoAn soon joined us and Margaret, wisely riding her scooter, joined us and we were off, on time with nary a rain drop in sight. I suspect most of us dozed off sometime during the trip. I did.
Including our usual McDonald’s stop, we made it to Port Angeles around noon and set a return time of 3:30pm. Still no rain, just cloudy, but I was glad I wore my wool cape. (It remained cloudy, no rain, and a little bit of sun--all-in-all a pleasant West Coast Fall day.)
The entire harbor area was awash with vendor tents. There were a lot of vendors I hadn’t seen in previous street fairs this summer. A major player was a vendor with the most outrageous “crab” hats; one of which was adjusted to be worn on a dog’s collar.
And, of my goodness, I have never seen so many four-legged furry friends at a similar event. Dogs were everywhere, but extremely well-behaved, even the little yappy ones that wanted to let the big ones know that they (the little ones) were small only in size! I tagged along with Bill and Honey Bear and watched the show of her greeting her fellow creatures—lots of tail wags and “let’s play” poses. While Bill was chatting with someone, three young Asian tourists, each with a “My Name Is” tour nametag, posed for a camera-phone picture with Honey Bear.
Lots of unique crab-related activities. I never got close enough to figure out was “Catch-A- Crab” was exactly about. You could buy a cooked and cleaned crab for $20 and one of the local colleges had a “Clean Your Crab” concession asking for a $1 donation. The usual big-tent dinner (crab, corn on the cob, coleslaw) had a long line. We got a crab sandwich that was adequate, but would have been better with a white cheese (instead of cheddar) and on a bread roll, rather than the rather sad croissant. But the crab was generous and it came with endless French fries (which we skipped) for $15.
Several people had clam chowder as part of Graham Kerr “Chowder Cook-off.” It was $10 for your choice of five samples of clam chowder (from about eight or nine entrants) and then you voted for your favorite. Graham Kerr had lots of his cookbooks for sale and chatted with people as he autographed their purchase.
We headed back at 3:30pm and took the Bremerton Ferry which only had a one-ferry wait, as opposed to a 2 hour or more wait at Winslow. When we got off the ferry in downtown Seattle, it was pouring rain—of course!
In talking with Dave Saturday night about today’s trip during our latest “lights out” adventure, he assured me that if five hardy folks showed up before 9:00am in the morning, the trip was a “go.” They did, and it was. The concern, of course, was the strong possibility of rain and whether people who planned to go would do so after the late night.
The power came back on a little after midnight. With lots of help (special thanks to Joan, Jackie, and Rita) we got the carts of “debris” from the Oktober Fest’s delightfully successful party and subsequent lights-out evening stashed in my apartment. By 1:30am, I had all my “stuff” organized for a possible getaway in the morning.
Sure enough, when I got to the B building, Bill and Honey Bear were waiting with Barry. Karen, Pattie, Bill and JoAn soon joined us and Margaret, wisely riding her scooter, joined us and we were off, on time with nary a rain drop in sight. I suspect most of us dozed off sometime during the trip. I did.
Including our usual McDonald’s stop, we made it to Port Angeles around noon and set a return time of 3:30pm. Still no rain, just cloudy, but I was glad I wore my wool cape. (It remained cloudy, no rain, and a little bit of sun--all-in-all a pleasant West Coast Fall day.)
The entire harbor area was awash with vendor tents. There were a lot of vendors I hadn’t seen in previous street fairs this summer. A major player was a vendor with the most outrageous “crab” hats; one of which was adjusted to be worn on a dog’s collar.
And, of my goodness, I have never seen so many four-legged furry friends at a similar event. Dogs were everywhere, but extremely well-behaved, even the little yappy ones that wanted to let the big ones know that they (the little ones) were small only in size! I tagged along with Bill and Honey Bear and watched the show of her greeting her fellow creatures—lots of tail wags and “let’s play” poses. While Bill was chatting with someone, three young Asian tourists, each with a “My Name Is” tour nametag, posed for a camera-phone picture with Honey Bear.
Lots of unique crab-related activities. I never got close enough to figure out was “Catch-A- Crab” was exactly about. You could buy a cooked and cleaned crab for $20 and one of the local colleges had a “Clean Your Crab” concession asking for a $1 donation. The usual big-tent dinner (crab, corn on the cob, coleslaw) had a long line. We got a crab sandwich that was adequate, but would have been better with a white cheese (instead of cheddar) and on a bread roll, rather than the rather sad croissant. But the crab was generous and it came with endless French fries (which we skipped) for $15.
Several people had clam chowder as part of Graham Kerr “Chowder Cook-off.” It was $10 for your choice of five samples of clam chowder (from about eight or nine entrants) and then you voted for your favorite. Graham Kerr had lots of his cookbooks for sale and chatted with people as he autographed their purchase.
We headed back at 3:30pm and took the Bremerton Ferry which only had a one-ferry wait, as opposed to a 2 hour or more wait at Winslow. When we got off the ferry in downtown Seattle, it was pouring rain—of course!
RSS Feed