Tuesday, October 13, 2009

My Rehabulous Life


This past weekend the Vodka supplier and I had a little mini-vacation from reality. We had the pleasure of staying in a beautiful condo overlooking the gorgeous Gulf of Mexico. This was an especially rehabulous occasion because this was also the weekend of the 38th Annual National Shrimp Festival.  Let me just say, the Gulf Coast can throw some parties ya'll. We have festivals and parades and other high-fallutin celebrations on regular occasion. Whether it be "Fat Tuesday", the Festival of Flowers, Bayfest, The Seafood Festival, the Sausage Festival, yes we really have a festival for sausage, this is the south folks, or my personal favorite, the Bush-Wacker Festival, and let's not forget "insert your name here" Fest, which is a month long celebration of your birthday, we have something for everyone. Whatever the occasion, we just look for a reason to party. And party we do.

Each year the "Shrimp Fest" as us local riff-raff refer to it, draws in over 300,000 people to the Gulf Shores area. The festival is said to have originated as a "Blessing of the Boats" but has migrated into a celebration of the King of Crustaceans. There's fried shrimp, cocktail shrimp, shrimp gumbo, shrimp on a stick and, well, you get the picture. Aside from shrimp there are over 300 vendors comprised of Art, arts and crafts, a retail marketplace and tons and tons of food. I love the smell of a beer tent blended with the salty sea air. The best thing about the parties we throw, Free Admission. Sweeeet. The festival also has two stages for musical entertainment and many local musicians perform as well as some well known musicians.


This particular year, we decided to partake in Saturday nights festivities. The featured band was Foghat. Remember, "Slow Ride" or "I just want to make love to you"? Good Stuff indeed. The second bandstand had a local band, I can't quite remember the name, but they were comprised of one member wearing what looked like a sumo wrestlers suit with a mullet and a second in a sequined tank top adorning an afro. They did mostly a funky rendition of cover music from the 80's. The attire was entertaining alone. Anyway, we were so busily consumed in the fantastic taste of a beautifully made Cosmo, although lacking in presentation, as it was in a giant plastic cup, that we made it over to the Main bandstand just as the last song was played. We could have stayed and waited in line for autographs from the members of the band, however a signed Foghat poster hanging on my bedroom wall is not going to have the same feel as say...never ago.  I didn't have one morsel of shrimp, not a bite of the world famous, Cajun Pistol and didn't purchase one single "I like it Dirty" Martini tank top. And damn I wanted that. However, the Cosmo's' Too. Die. For.  The view from the condo, spectacular...the Sunday nap on the beach to cure Saturdays festivities...fabulous, and the entire night away from the nuthouse... superb. All in all, we had a rehabulous time!

14 comments:

  1. Cool, sounds like you had well deserved fun. Of course now I want to go to ALL the festivals. :)

    PS. It took me a few minutes to read your post cause I kept going back to the picture and bustin up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Innocent Owner, A great time was had by all. Shoot, we even have one for throwing a fish across the Florida/Alabama state line.It's called the Mullett Toss. Draws world wide attention. Crazy stuff I tell ya.
    But yeah, the picture, an actual photograph from Shrimp Fest.
    Cheers!
    C

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha ha... flashback to Forrest Gump on the shrimp stuff. :) That all sounded like so much fun. We all need a break every now and then. Glad you had such a rehabulous time! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh that sounds fun! Well, anytime away from the nuthouse with my hubby is a good time :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds so much fun. I want to go now!

    Kate x

    ReplyDelete
  6. great blog! stopping in from SITS! I grew up on the beach!!I'll be back!

    ReplyDelete
  7. that sounds EXCELLENT. i love me a good festival!

    oh, and thanks for stopping by! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. i like the rehabulous word... i am going to use it...

    and the festivals sound like a blast... especially the throwing the fish across the state line one... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds like you had a great time!

    Fesitivals are always filled with craziness that we just can't turn away from!

    Happy SITS Sharefest Saturday!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey thanks for stopping by my blog!!! Just to clarify... I didn't ACTUALLY get my leccy cut off!!! ;-)

    Ha! Gonna have to try that Absolut Hematoma!! Loving the sound of that bad boy!

    LBM xxxx

    ReplyDelete
  11. Visiting from SITS. Have a nice day.
    www.tuesdaysattonyas.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a cute post!

    I'm a cosmo girl, but am developing a taste for Martini's.

    I've seen that "I like it dirty" Martini t-shirt too - funny and cute!

    Popping in from SITS - wanted to say Hello!

    ReplyDelete
  13. JEALOUS PERSON HERE!

    I so want a shrimp fest here - but it'll never happen I live in central NC.

    Stopping by from SITS!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Just blog hopping from the SITS roll call.

    Sounds like a fabulous time right up until you admit you didn't eat a single shrimp. Ah, how I do love shrimp! Especially when they are fresh shrimp. Oh sweet sorrow!!!!

    ReplyDelete