On Wednesday, we made the 55 mile drive from Oscar Scherer State Park to Ft. De Soto County Park in St. Petersburg. After setting up camp and checking out the camp store, where they have WiFi, we decided to skip cooking dinner and find the Drunken Clam, a watering hole recommended by my friend, Mark.
We found the place without incident, thanks to the GPS, and after checking out the menu, decided to have dinner. Marsha had fried shrimp and I had clams in butter & garlic and shrimp broiled in butter & garlic. Good stuff! The Yuengling draft was good, too!
Thursday was uneventful, mostly due to the cold, windy weather. We did ride the bikes around the campground, but ended up eating hot soup & salad for dinner instead of cooking outside as we usually do. The temperature was in the low 50's and the 15 mph wind off the water made it pretty chilly.
Friday, we went to Walmart to do some last minute grocery shopping for the upcoming reunion. After that, we decided to have a late seafood lunch somewhere and what do you know? We checked the GPS and up popped Crabby Bill's, another place recommended by Mark. I had conch chowder and garlic broiled shrimp (yeah, I like it). Marsha had a shark sandwich. Pretty daring, for her, but she enjoyed it.
We had been invited to share a campfire with some newly found friends that evening, but when we got home, there was a note on the door that said that if they had the campfire, it wouldn't be until after nine o'clock. Well, that's past our bedtime when we're camping, so we didn't make it.
Saturday was reunion day! We headed for New Port Richey where cousin Alan lives and picked up the hamburger patties I had ordered. Then it was off to Alan and Alex's temporary home for the reunion. Yes, their beautiful home suffered extensive water damage during hurricane Irma last September. A do-it-yourself construction flaw, by the previous owner, in the widow's watch above the third floor caused water to come gushing down into the house after the drains were overwhelmed. The water caused MAJOR damage to their gorgeous six-bedroom house. All the wallboard, floors, kitchen cabinets, etc. etc. must be replaced.
The reunion was smaller this year because a few regulars couldn't make it for various reasons. One pretty cool thing was that we added an attendee on the fly! This year, the only cousins who were scheduled to attend were Alan, Russ (for the first time), Gary and Scot. After Alan, Russ and I arrived, Russ asked where Dean (another cousin) was these days. Alan said that he heard that Dean was living about twenty minutes down the road, but with the house problems, etc., he hadn't had a chance to look up a way to contact him. Russ said, "Get him up here!" So, I found him on Facebook and PM'd him. About 30 minutes later he was knocking on the door! It had been about sixty years since the last time I saw Dean!
It was a great afternoon. A lot of stories were told and a lot of laughing went on, especially when Dean started referring to his three ex-wives as P1, P2 and P3. The 'P' is for 'plaintiff'.
Anyway, enjoy the pics!
We found the place without incident, thanks to the GPS, and after checking out the menu, decided to have dinner. Marsha had fried shrimp and I had clams in butter & garlic and shrimp broiled in butter & garlic. Good stuff! The Yuengling draft was good, too!
Thursday was uneventful, mostly due to the cold, windy weather. We did ride the bikes around the campground, but ended up eating hot soup & salad for dinner instead of cooking outside as we usually do. The temperature was in the low 50's and the 15 mph wind off the water made it pretty chilly.
Friday, we went to Walmart to do some last minute grocery shopping for the upcoming reunion. After that, we decided to have a late seafood lunch somewhere and what do you know? We checked the GPS and up popped Crabby Bill's, another place recommended by Mark. I had conch chowder and garlic broiled shrimp (yeah, I like it). Marsha had a shark sandwich. Pretty daring, for her, but she enjoyed it.
We had been invited to share a campfire with some newly found friends that evening, but when we got home, there was a note on the door that said that if they had the campfire, it wouldn't be until after nine o'clock. Well, that's past our bedtime when we're camping, so we didn't make it.
Saturday was reunion day! We headed for New Port Richey where cousin Alan lives and picked up the hamburger patties I had ordered. Then it was off to Alan and Alex's temporary home for the reunion. Yes, their beautiful home suffered extensive water damage during hurricane Irma last September. A do-it-yourself construction flaw, by the previous owner, in the widow's watch above the third floor caused water to come gushing down into the house after the drains were overwhelmed. The water caused MAJOR damage to their gorgeous six-bedroom house. All the wallboard, floors, kitchen cabinets, etc. etc. must be replaced.
The reunion was smaller this year because a few regulars couldn't make it for various reasons. One pretty cool thing was that we added an attendee on the fly! This year, the only cousins who were scheduled to attend were Alan, Russ (for the first time), Gary and Scot. After Alan, Russ and I arrived, Russ asked where Dean (another cousin) was these days. Alan said that he heard that Dean was living about twenty minutes down the road, but with the house problems, etc., he hadn't had a chance to look up a way to contact him. Russ said, "Get him up here!" So, I found him on Facebook and PM'd him. About 30 minutes later he was knocking on the door! It had been about sixty years since the last time I saw Dean!
It was a great afternoon. A lot of stories were told and a lot of laughing went on, especially when Dean started referring to his three ex-wives as P1, P2 and P3. The 'P' is for 'plaintiff'.
Anyway, enjoy the pics!
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