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.

The 2009 Biloxi Blessing of the Fleet / Biloxi Shrimp Festival - Fais Do Do

Photo Credit: Biloxi Blessing of the Fleet

I'll be pretty much away from the computer this weekend because it's time for The Blessing of the Fleet!

As I've mentioned before, my Paw-in-Law owns a shrimp boat, though his is more for the pleasure of being out on the water and getting shrimp to put up for Mom and him and the rest of us, than as any kind of commercial enterprise. In other words, he has a "day job," though I think he dreams of re-retiring soon and spending the rest of his days just fishin'. The Hubs trades his back and some hard work for the haul of a cooler or two full of Fresh-From-the-Gulf shrimp that I then put up in the freezer. Yes. I am a very lucky gal.

The Blessing has multiple events associated with it now, but started off born out of the tradition of the Catholic church of bestowing blessings. Though it doesn't always coincide exactly, the Blessing marks the opening of shrimp season here along the Coast. All of the shrimp boats {and pleasure craft too}, many decorated, form a procession out on the Sound {the Gulf of Mexico} and parade pass the boat that holds the priest and bishop who offer a blessing over the boats and it's crew, for a safe journey and a plentiful harvest.

Growing up, all of the events associated with the Blessing, were always a very big deal, but as the industry faded due to the influx of cheap, inferior, imported shrimp and less demand for Wild American Shrimp, so did the ceremonies as there were less and less shrimp boats. After Hurricane Katrina though, it was revived and is now back in full force! Guess with all of the destruction we needed to revive some familiar things.

The events open tonight with a reception for the Shrimp King and his court - much like our Mardi Gras Royalty - but the real fun begins tomorrow, first with the Great Biloxi Schooner Race - that pretty much kicks off the Blessing of the Fleet weekend activities. This race of the White Winged Queens is a throwback to the late 1800s when the original wooden schooners were the ships working the Sound and the marshes to bring home shrimp for the Biloxi canneries.

Then, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and continuing on until 10:00 p.m., it's to the Biloxi Town Green for the Fais Do Do, best translated to mean a French street dance. This festival includes live bands, tons of food - including hot & spicy boiled shrimp with corn & potatoes, shrimp & grits, shrimp stew, barbecue ribs, Philly cheese steaks, roasted corn, roasted turkey legs, and hopefully those lovely Pusharatas from the Slavonian women like last year. There are loads of booths where you can buy hand crafted jewelry, various arts & crafts, home & garden stuff, books by local authors, local cookbooks, hand made local pottery, carvings, paintings by local artists, clothing, to name a few. There's rock climbing, inflatables, face painting and all kinds of stuff for the kids too. Mass is at 4:00 p.m. at St. Michael's Catholic Church and then it's back to the Fais Do Do for the Coronation of the 2009 Shrimp King & Queen at 5:30 p.m. and more partying. We do like to party here on the Coast.

Then Sunday there is the dropping of the memorial wreath at 2:00 p.m. in memory of all fishermen who have passed, afterwhich the procession of all the working and pleasure boats begins.

So, except for a quick fly-by to post the winners of the cookbooks {go here if you want a chance to win one} sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening, that's what I'm up to this weekend!

What are YOU up to this weekend???

Soooooo.... see y'all back here on Monday with more food! Till then, have a terrific weekend y'all!!

Go here if you're interested in learning more about the history of the Biloxi Blessing of the Fleet.