Fishing the Crystal Coast with Cap'n Jess

Could it have been only a couple of weeks ago that I was in North Carolina?  Pre-Irene, pre-move to Boston, pre-work?  It feels like ages ago.  But it's more than worth revisiting.

While we were there we went on a fishing tour with Captain Jess Hawkins.  Captain Jess has over 30 years of experience studying fish and marine biology and knows the North Carolina coast like the back of his hand.  As fish jumped out of the water, flashing only the briefest glimpse of scales, he could name them with perfect precision.

We went fishing and even us land-lubbing Yankees were able to catch a few.  Even I caught one, although I was mostly happy to be the expedition's chief photographer.  The key is to learn from the birds -  find where they are gathering for their meal and then fish for your own.

Once you've found your prey, just cast it out and reel it in.  Okay, it's not quite that easy, and we may have knotted up a fishing line or two, but we still managed to catch a nice variety.

Spanish Mackerel

Bluefish

Sea Robin

We also went to look for sand dollars and Jess brought us to a shallow area where the water is perfectly clear and we picked up one after another.  Together Jake and I found about 16, although most of those were his finds.  We gave some back to Captain Jess to give to kids who don't find any on their tours.  I still have a few that I plan to turn into Christmas ornaments and general keepsakes.

It was great fun and we'd do it again!

Better than Bread: Hushpuppies at The Crab Shack

Some have said my last two entries are painting an unfair portrait of this great state of North Carolina.  But there are plenty of things I love about this state, like hushpuppies.  Hushpuppies are pure genius.  They are fried pieces of cornbread in the shape of fingerling potatoes; they taste like the outside of corn dogs and as you might expect, they are delicious.  At The Crab Shack in Pine Knoll Shores they come free at the beginning of the meal like bread, except so much better.  

And when you order a soda, it comes with its own side of...more soda.  The fact that you will want more soda, or more sweet tea, is already assumed, in the form of a pitcher of soda/tea served alongside your glass.  And the sweet tea lives up to its name.  I would say it's about two parts tea to one part sugar and all parts wonderful.  

Jake got a bowlful of crabs covered in Old Bay.  I skipped the crabs because it's a lot of effort for a small amount of meat.  And super messy.  Instead, I went with the lunch special of popcorn shrimp with cole slaw and potato salad.  It came served in a frozen meal-style plate with three sections.  In my defense, I could have ordered it with fried okra and french fries.  Instead I went with the vegetables covered in mayonaise.  

As you can see, there's so much in this state that they get so, so right.

Virginia is for Lifepartners

We are now in North Carolina, a short four hour drive through torrential downpours.  But I got to spend 36 hours in Charlottesville with my best friend/lifepartner Pam (whose own blog you can check out at spicykoury.blogspot.com).  I met her bunny, Ranger, whose nickname is "Bunny."  I petted him and he was the softest thing I'd ever touched, but he was not that friendly.  He pretty much spent the whole time eating paper and looking scared, as is illustrated below.

I also helped Pam put together her new 6th grade History classroom.  I helped her put together a bulletin board and hang her posters and I got a new appreciation for how much work even the seemingly easy aspects of teaching can be.  We learned that we are not very good at cutting in straight lines.

Pam hosted a murder mystery party in the evening where we all tested out pretty horrible accents (British, Russian and Swedish, many of which started sounding Irish or Indian at one point or another).  We mostly just drank mojitos and ate lots of snacks, including gourmet popcorn from Scotty's in flavors like "loaded potato" and "cornfetti," which might be better described as fruit loops.  In the end it turns out I was the murderer.

Today we went to brunch at The Tavern and hit the road.  The Tavern was fabulous and I'll be writing more about that later.  On our ride to North Carolina we passed by a lot of farms and a lot of election lawn signs, the best of which is below.