Monday, June 8, 2009

A Fine Time at the 2009 Blessing of the Fleet

Well, it was an absolutely gorgeous weekend, perfect for all of the 2009 Blessing of the Fleet festivities. We had the best time.

The water - as scary as it can be during a hurricane - is so central to our lives here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It had been quite awhile since I'd been out on any kind of boat and I saw how much I have missed it this weekend. If The Hubs and I could afford a boat, we'd sure own one. Lots more pictures than this, but here are some highlights. I uploaded most of them small, so hopefully they won't bog down anybody's computers.

Here's my In-Laws shrimp boat on Saturday, all decorated and ready to go for the Blessing on Sunday! Looks great, doesn't it?

The Fais Do Do on Saturday was fantastic! It was an absolutely perfect, gorgeous day and there was lots of food to eat, plenty of shopping and even live entertainment.

Sweet pralines.

The usual hamburgers, hot dogs and such.

And ribs! Boy these smelled so dang good when we were first walking in, I coulda slapped myself!!

Even Pappardelle's was there with their awesome pastas.

There were quite a few other food booths, but we had the shrimp plates - boiled shrimp with potatoes & corn - but, of course!

Lots of interesting booths, of course. I could have spend a FORTUNE here. But, I restrained myself.

So 70s!
Planter pots ... made from tires!

And check these out too - yep, they're made from tires too!!

Enver Karagoz, who makes bowls out of pieces of fallen trees left behind by Hurricane Katrina, was there with a booth. The bowls are gorgeous and I SO want one.

Marlin Miller, who has sculpted marine life and seagulls and birds from fallen oaks all along the median of Beach Blvd. (Hwy. 90) that were destroyed by Katrina, was there with a booth and some absolutely beautiful work.

And of course, what festival would it be without beauty queens??

On Sunday, the day of the Blessing, these Brown Pelicans were everywhere we went. Aren't they just beautiful?

And of course there were plenty of seagulls too. Anywhere you find shrimp boats you'll find seagulls and pelicans looking for a meal as the fishermen pick through their catch on the way in. Course they didn't realize that we weren't working this time!

We had loads of fresh fried chicken and yummy honey rolls to eat, but the stars on our boat were freshly boiled crabs, shrimp and crawfish! Talk about some kinda good.

There were quite a few shrimp boats out.

But there were some rather odd looking boats too.

And some really nice fishing vessels.

Some pretty fast boats.

And some very nice yachts.

There were even a few people-powered ones too!

All of it for us to get our sprinkling of holy water and a blessing from the priest.

We got a thumbs up from the Padre as we passed for our blessing.

The Richard & Melonie won 1st place. I'm pretty sure that they won last year too {so not fair IMHO}.

Our boat, the Lucy F. won 2nd Place {That's us in the center of these three boats.} Photo Credit: Sun Herald


And the Barbara Faye was given an award for participation. I think this was an award that all the boats were entered for - whether they decorated or not. This one just happened to have decorated.
All in all, a beautiful and fun day out on the water, soaking up some sunshine and spending some quality time with family.

12 comments:

  1. What a fabulous day, Mary. It looks like wonderfully good fun.

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  2. I'm pretty sure there a "bunch of the South" in me cuz everything just looks fantastic. I love all that wonderful food and just want to stop by for a taste. Yummo to the Tummo!

    It sounds like you had a great time. I'm so glad and thank you for sharing it with the rest of us that couldn't be there.

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  3. Wow, it looks like you had a great time! Thanks for sharing the pics :)

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  4. Yes, it was a very fabulous day - thanks for stopping by and sharin' it with me!!

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  5. What a wonderful event. I will never forget driving through Biloxi on out way to New Orleans. What a wonderful place it is, and the people are too! Glad you had a good time with your family Mary. Nice boat!!!

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  6. Looks like an awesome time! I love events like this. The seafood looks incredible. Thanks for sharing! -Jackie

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  7. The only person I ever knew that had shrimp boat was Forrest, Forrest Gump! :)
    Your pictures of your day were great!

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  8. Y'all's boat was the prettiest, all those colorful flags flying in the wind!!!

    Gimme dat shrimp plate!!!

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  9. That sounds like a great event and a lot of fun for the whole family!

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  10. Wow that is awesome! I love going to festivities like this! ALl the crafts, food and fun!!! Love the boat!

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  11. Hi There - Enver is a dear friend - has been so for years. I am so happy to see that you love his Katrina Bowls! My advice - Buy one next time. His prices and bowls are better than others. They're hoping to get into the Canton Festival, but will definitely be at the Fall Festival in downtown Biloxi.

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