I LOVE this festival. It is out in the middle of NO-WHERE, and somehow each year the residents of Grant put on this kick ass seafood and music festival. This year was no exception. The only problem is that Grant must be located in a black hole of some kind--the weather EVERY single year is problematic. Every single year I have done the show, we lose at least one day to bad weather--WIND, rain, thunderstorms, tornadoes. You name, it, we have experienced it at this show.
But, THIS year we talked my husband into coming to the show. Mom and I handled the setup, and since Dad was still experiencing the bad ringing in the years from watching a too loud Slumdog Millionaire, he stayed home Friday and planned on coming with Rod. SO, Mom and I did the Friday night work and then found a place to eat before doing some shopping in Melbourne at the Mall.
Saturday was supposed to be great weather...and it was!! The crowds were bigger than I have ever seen there and my sales were pretty good too. It was just a perfect day--warm and sunny and people were out enjoying the seafood and the music. They were busing in people from the airport parking in big Greyhound charter buses. It was all pretty smooth. AND the guy manning the back door of the fried shrimp place fell victim to my womanly charms (!!!) and even gave us about FOUR extra bowls of shrimp. LOL I swear it is the best fried shrimp in the state. The Clam Chowder is pretty good too!
Rod and Dad arrived about 11 a.m. and got right into the spirit of the festival. Rod grabbed a beer, Dad started making the rounds of the crafters he knew to say HI...and Mom and I were able to get away from the booth for a bit to explore. The guys stayed until almost 5 p.m. and then headed back to Orlando. Mom and I did a nice dinner out...kinda late though as the show was not over until 7 p.m. this year. It got too dark at 6 p.m., so we packed up shortly after that. We headed back to the room after dinner and watched a movie at the hotel.
Sunday was forecast to be very windy--it was--and possibly rainy. We definitely got the wind and as usual every one's tents were shaking. My soap tent is very prone to shaking since I don't hang things on the sides--like the photographers and painters do. Everything is kept in place by stakes and tie-downs. Unfortunately once my neighbor decided to leave about noon, I lost some of my wind buffer and I was afraid the tent would be next. Which would then leave my soap exposed without any protection. Not a good thing when you have soap. It's not like wood stuff, that you can wipe dry. Or cloth stuff which can be dried. SOAP DISSOLVES...so I don't take any chances with my inventory.
We were packed up by 1:30 and ready to use up the rest of our seafood tickets. The fish kabobs were great as was the smoked fish dip. Those are new things for me to try this year and I am glad I was brave. I was sleepy on the trip back to Orlando, but, we made it in no time and with no incident. Rod and Dad made dinner that night, so we were all happy, happy, happy!
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