Shrimporee 2011

Today has been a great day.

Firstly, we went down to Sunset Lake, taking the kids, dogs and breakfast. Everyone played in the sand and enjoyed the calf high water. We were wet and covered in salt and sand and all thought it was a wonderful way to start the day.

Once we got home I saw that we were lucky enough to have two garage sales in the street. One was bad - I mean bad. They were selling broken junk that was unclean and stinky. The other (funnily enough held by the other Aussie in the street - yes we're not the first Aussies to live in E. Janin Cir. Go figure!) held a few treasures. I scored two side tables, 40 or so golden books for the girls, a window frame (for a craft project) and a copper kettle. Sweet! This combined with the 2 kiddie desks that a neighbour left out on the road on Friday made a wonderful haul and has definitely given me a few things to do for a while.

After a quick nap (all except for yours truly) we headed to Aransas Pass for the 63rd annual Shrimporee festival.(about 15 minutes away). What we were envisioning was a festival full of great, fresh eats focusing on the tasty crustacean which we absolutely adore. I had also been told of many vendors marketing local arts, crafts and skills and was looking forward to an afternoon filled with some casual browsing.  

What we found was a field filled with many vendors marketing the afore-mentioned local arts, crafts and skills. We made a wonderful purchase of a hand hammered/cut piece of metal in the shape of an interesting fish painted in a stunning hue of turquoise. It's large and it's fantastic.

What we didn't find was a festival filled with fresh eats of that great crustacean. For a shrimporee festival there were only about 8 vendors selling anything remotely shrimpy. Such a shame. Very disappointing. We came home hungry. Luckily we took some stuff for the kids to eat as there was nothing fresh there that they would have enjoyed. Again...a real shame.

But in it's defense we did enjoy the afternoon out and we did have fun. Stormy won the girls some carnival toys and the kids got to see horses, ponies and donkeys close up and also saw some white tigers!

Shades? Check. Wheels? Check. Ready to check it out? Check.

 Singing and grooving to "If you're happy and you know it!"

Daddy too! 

 The vendor tent. Smelt good but pickings were poor.

 Kendall was fascinated by the tiger cubs. 

 Sydney was not as enthusiastic to see them at first...

 But joined her sister in adoring the beautiful babies.

 And soon wanted to get even closer to the daddy tiger...he was huge, his paws immense. One toe was the size of my palm. So insanely big.

 This was when Kendall didn't feel as confident and was quite happy to be held while daddy tiger was getting fed.

 Sideshow alley...

 Kendall was fascinated by the rides too. She couldn't take her eyes off this one.

 Such a happy girl.

 A quick stop before going home.

An enjoyable day. Tiring but enjoyable.

Two weeks until my mum arrives. Woo hoo!