Oyster Festival

These were taken on the long (but enjoyable) walk from the parking lot to the Urbanna Oyster Festival this weekend.  I've never had a bad time at the Oyster Festival (is it even possible?), and this year was no different.  Good food, good fun, a little bit of dancing and lots of people watching--one of my favorite past times.

In other news completely unrelated, this morning my mother goes in for a cardioversion to hopefully correct her heart rate.  My daughter has basketball try outs this afternoon.  And I will begin psyching myself up for a trip to the Outer Banks this weekend to participate in 13.1 miles of sheer torture  my first and likely last half-marathon.

What's happening in your world?

Oyster Festival

This is the Oyster Festival parking lot,
far, far away from the actual event.

This weekend was the Urbanna Oyster Festival.  Although I really just wanted to lie on the couch all day long and do nothing, I forced myself to go. And I'm glad I did.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, not too cold, and not too hot.

This was taken from the bridge at Urbanna Creek.

Just when you think you can't walk any more, they bombard you with fried food.  The guys above are from Mathews; their oysters are farm raised and their french fries are the real deal. Very, very tasty, especially when sprinkled with Old Bay.   Click here for a video which features them showing how to shuck an oyster.

If I ever win the lottery, I want to spend my days dressed up as a dancing oyster--but not just any dancing oyster, this dancing oyster.  A dancing oyster with a tooth and a very festive attitude.  This guy is my favorite part of the Oyster Festival parade.  Last year I danced with him.  This year, I was more subdued.

There were all sorts of characters out and about.
All sorts.
I mean  all sorts.

When I posted these clown pictures on Facebook, I was reminded how many people find clowns rather creepy.  I find them to be hilarious.  In fact, if I won that lottery and couldn't be that dancing oyster character, I might like being a clown.  Except I'm not sure about all the talking I'd have to do to kids and perfect strangers.  So, I'd probably be an introverted clown. And introverted clowns really are creepy.

OK, so never mind on the whole clown thing; I'll stick to the dancing oyster character.  Dancing, snaggle toothed oysters don't have to talk. They just dance.  I can handle that.

And now we come to the end of this brief glimpse into a very troubled mind the Urbanna Oyster Festival.

All in all, it was a great day.

p.s. I have a camera question for those of you who know how to do more than just change the batteries, which is my level of expertise.  I only shoot in Auto mode.  I never manually adjust anything or change any of the settings, because I don't know how.  All of a sudden here lately I've noticed that most of the shots I take on Auto mode come out way darker than they should given the lighting situation. (For example, that last picture and the one of my favorite oyster character were taken in full, bright light, but came out dark.)  

When I press the button to shoot a picture, a message comes up that says Auto ISO - 80. A Google search  said that number should ordinarily be about 100 (or higher).  Why would it be defaulting to 80 even in bright light and how do I fix it?  Help!

Have a great week.

Three Things

Welcome to another Three Thing Thursday, where the goal is to share three thoughts no matter how trivial, mundane, germane, plain Jane or insane scatter brained.

Let's begin.

1.  Last night Chesapeake Bay Son was inducted into the local chapter of the National Beta Club during a ceremony which my parents and I attended.  As we were leaving, I told CB Son how proud I was of him and reminded him that he was carrying on a tradition since I was at one time the state Vice President of the Beta Club. (My duties and responsibilities included the following: Insert sound of crickets here. There were no duties and responsibilities other than to make one speech at the state convention.) Anyway, then CB Mother chimed in, "I was in the Beta Club too!"  Scrunching up his face, Chesapeake Bay Father said, "Hmmm. Well, I can't remember what club I was in." Translation:  He wasn't in the Beta Club, bless his heart.

2.  This weekend is the 54th Annual Oyster Festival in nearby Urbanna. Chesapeake Bay Daughter will be selling baked goods and hot chocolate as part of a school fundraiser.  I hope to be raising a beer at the firemen's dance in attendance at least for part of the festivities, just not sure when I'll get over there.

3. Click here or here or even here to read about past Oyster Festivities.

What's going on in your world?

Belle Isle Saw Mill

This building sits next to the old Gulf station (which is now a Curves) on Route 198 between Hudgins and Blakes. For anyone reading who didn't live around here in the 1970s, Blakes, which had its own zip code, started around Tom Hearn's Corner and ended somewhere before the invisible line where Cobbs Creek begins, roughly the Mathews Chapel vicinity give or take.

Confused? Don't worry. Blakes isn't even remotely germane to this blog post. If you wish to read the cliff notes version, please skip to the * below.

Anyway there's a hard surface road called Belle Isle near this old building, and though I've always thought the name was pretty, I never realized it had any particular significance.

Yesterday before freezing to death standing in cold, horizontal rain at the regional cross country meet which Mathews High School won!, I spent a few hours perusing the archives and files at the Gazette Journal, our local paper.

There, among hundreds of files loaded with local history, I saw a folder labeled Belle Isle.

There were only two items in the file: a very old drawing of a saw mill, and a typewritten note from someone whose last name was Bell.

According to the note, the original Belle Isle house burned in the late 1800s but the saw mill survived for many years afterward. If Queens Creek hadn't been mentioned, I would have quickly put this folder back and declared Belle Isle to be in one of the neighboring counties, since none was specifically mentioned.

However, the note went on to say that a boat hauling goods from the saw mill  capsized before reaching the mouth of the creek--Queens Creek, the very same Queens Creek CBW lives on, which so happens to pass by a road named Belle Isle in the vicinity of the building above.

*So to summarize:

1. CBW always liked the name Belle Isle but never realized it had any particular significance before yesterday.
2. Heretofore, nothing of any historical significance seems to have happened on Queens Creek unless you count the Army Corps of Engineers' involvement in dredging the mouth of the creek at Cow Point, and we don't really.  However we're highly appreciative of those efforts otherwise nary a boat (pronounced locally as "nare boat") could pass through.
3. Heretofore? Really? And nary? (Pronounced "nare" though, seriously.)
3. I would never have known there was a saw mill at a place called Belle Isle on Queens Creek just down the road from me if  not for the treasure trove of history at the Gazette Journal,'s library,  where I will spend every Thursday and Friday from here until the year 2025 or my death, whichever comes first.
4. Congratulations to Emily Brown of Mathews, a freshman who easily snagged first place in yesterday's regional cross country meet.
5. Congratulations to Coach Greve and all the runners for their much-deserved regional championship.
6. If I don't force myself to stop, this list will go until Tuesday or number 3,658, whichever comes later.
7. Therefore (as opposed to heretofore), Happy Weekend to all and to all a happy weekend.

p.s. If you're in Urbanna this weekend for the Oyster Festival, look for the frazzled, frizzy-haired woman wearing a crab hat while tossing back oyster fritters. Then run in the other direction.

Oyster Shells

The other day I went for a walk down Williams Wharf Road.  Stepping out of the car, I was greeted by this scene. The sunlight was perfect and the colors were radiant.

These next two are the same two poles from a different angle.

Do you see all the oyster shells there in the mud?  That's reason enough to have No Swimming signs posted all over the place down here, even though most of us already know that the combination of creek/river mud and oyster shells is a recipe for disaster when it comes to bare feet.  Those shells will slice you wide open if you aren't careful.

Still, a few cuts and sliced off toes were never enough to prevent the Chesapeake Bay Sisters from swimming in the creek - only the stinging nettles could do that.  To avoid the dreaded shells, we used to slip on an old pair of tennis shoes and jump right on in.  This was well before the days of electricity the aqua shoes that are so prominent on beaches these days.

(You'll never catch me in a pair of those things, thank you very much.  I'd sooner put on a pair of sandals and white tube socks than wear aqua shoes, and could someone please--please!--explain why anyone wearing sandals would ever wear socks, much less white tube socks?  Isn't that defeating the whole purpose of sandals? But this is really not what we're here to talk about.)

I'd wager one good oyster shell could put a hurtin' on those thin-soled aqua shoes.  Give me the good old tennis shoes any day.

Speaking of oyster shells, but not about white tube socks and sandals,  the 53rd Urbanna Oyster Festival is this Friday and Saturday.  I think it's time to pull out the ole crab hat, because I will wear one of those.  Proudly.

Have you ever worn shoes while swimming?

Have you ever worn white socks with sandals? 

Do you know why people might wear socks with sandals?

While I have a very strong opinion on the subject, I would never judge anyone except Chesapeake Bay Middle Sister, who used to wear white tube socks with Tevas back in the 1990s!

But then again, I wear a crab hat, so to each his own.

Three Things

Although I thought I just typed these exact same words day before yesterday, it's Thursday once again, which means it's Three Thing Thursday, which means we share three things and wonder where on Earth all of our writing and grammar skills went to allow such a meandering sentence. It's shameful, really. And yet I do nothing to stop/correct it.

Let's begin.

1. This weekend is the county's biggest event of the year, Mathews Market Days. It's sort of like our version of the Urbanna Oyster Festival, only without the oysters and the Fireman's Parade. And the boats. However, we have something the Oyster Festival doesn't have: the Saturday night street dance. Baby Sister always jokingly refers to this as the Barn Dance (even though it's not held in a barn), sort of like the ones they used to portray on the Waltons, one of my favorite old TV shows. (Stop laughing. I mean it.) See? Once again with the meandering sentences.

2. I am very, very excited to say that I am attending Saturday night's festivities with an old friend from high school whose name in high school Spanish was Renata (pronounced with the rolling "r," Rrrrrrrrrrenata). By the way, I hated my name in Spanish: Juana. Plain Jane Juana (no offense to any Juanas or Janes out there). The teacher wouldn't let me pick my name because my real name--according to her--translated closest to Juana. In French, though, the teacher let me choose whatever I wanted, and I wanted Chantal. I loved the name Chantal. Juana? Hated it. But really this is not about made-up names in foreign language class. It's about reuniting with an old friend whose name was way better than yours in Spanish class.

3. I am also hoping to meet up with another high school friend who was a genius (seriously) musician and drummer. He wants to talk about a business proposition that sounds muy interesante. To let you in on just how unusual this prospect is, one of the job requirements is "Not afraid to shoot a pistol."

Trust me when I tell you that if CBW could share even half of what really goes on in her day-to-day life nobody would believe a word of it, and yet the stuff still keeps happening to her. She needs to consider starting another blog under a new name with no way of tracing her identity. The next thing she needs to do is stop referring to herself in the third person. I wish her good luck with that one.

4. (I don't do well with rules. Three is merely a guideline.) The Mathews High School Cross Country team won last night's opening meet against King William and West Point at Beaverdam in Gloucester. At some point I'll do a proper post on the team, but they are an amazing group of young adults with a fantastic coach. Also, I saw Reader/Commenter Baybrowder and tried to talk him into volunteering for the team since he used to coach CC. But so far I've not convinced him. I love a good challenge - and he'd make a fantastic assistant, particularly in the spring track season.

And now it's your turn to share three things. Whatever you want, anything at all.