Crabbing Weekend at South Beach State Park 9-21 through 9-23-07

Crabbing--that was the goal this weekend!!

Our weekend started out on Friday morning, with our company from Ohio departing around 10-10:30. We were packed all but the last minute food, wood in the truck, and hitching up the trailer. We figured we'd be on the road by 11:30. We hitched up, and Bill went to hook up the trailer, and the landing gear would not work, wouldn't retract, wouldn't extend and there was no sound at all. So, Bill, being the technician that he is, tears apart the front compartment, checks the switch, checks the motor, both of which check out fine, but have no power. We spent the next hour tracing wires in the harness, and Ryan is in the rear compartment, I'm on the side, and Bill is in the front, and we're calling out wire colors, small red, large red, white/blue, white/gray--you get the picture....and we've lost the BIG red wire. We trace for awhile, and after crawling under the trailer, we find the red wire....which is supposed to be attached to the battery, but has been removed and fallen underneath the battery compartment in the trailer. Several weeks ago, while my parents were here...we had some battery problems, and unhooked the wires, and this one must have gotten missed. Thankfully, we rehooked it, then put the trailer back together and were on the road by 12:30.

We met up with the Houcher/O'Hara clan (Tracey's folks and Sean & Tracey's kids) and we all traveled to the coast together. We arrived about 2:30--and it was beautiful over there. A bit windy but nothing that stopped us from having a fire, and a nice evening. The kids had a blast playing in the woods, and building forts, climbing trees, roasting marshmallows, and last but not least, camping out in the Richard's trailer. I have to say, we had plenty of room, but getting 5 filthy kids through the shower/tub was no quick task when you have only 5 gallons of hot water at a time! The girls of course wanted a bath....so recovery time between baths was a bit much. We decided for Saturday we would all military shower (get wet, turn off the water, suds up, rinse off and get out!). The kids watched half of a movie after their baths/showers to relax a bit, and then by 10pm, everyone was sound asleep. Kristin & Kimberly shared a bunk, Ryan had his bunk, Declan had the table/bed and Alexis the couch. Everyone slept great until Bill got up at 6:30 to head out to the bay to get the boat they had rented.

Bill, Brady & Carl left at 7--and hit the bay in a boat at 8AM. The crabbed until 11--catching 8 crab. There were more boats in the bay than I had ever seen before. Brady said driving the boat was like navigating through a slalom course! Bill pulled pots until he thought his arms were going to drop off. With all the people crabbing in the bay, the amount of choices the crab had, it was hard to get your trap full...and when you did, the amount of females outnumbered the males!

While Bill, Brady & Carl were on the bay in a boat, Jennifer & I took the kids down to the docks to crab. Mike, Kathy, Lynn & Cyril joined us. Cyril kept things interesting on the docks...asking lots of questions, and enjoying visiting with the people down there. We crabbed for a few hours, and caught one keeper--the kids were thrilled. Declan really got into helping pull the pots up, and checking the crabs. They soon realized how big the crabs had to be to even check them. It was lots of fun, despite the chilly winds that picked up that morning.

After a few hours of crabbing, Nana & Papa (AKA Lynn & Cyril) took the kids to lunch, the guys returned to camp to shower & nap, and Jen & I hit the grocery store to pick up bread & butter for supper. There is nothing that goes better with crab than fresh bread and garlic butter dip.

We all meet back at camp and decide to have an early supper. We figure if we have an early supper, we can have cobbler early and get it finished and all to bed by 10! The kids all gather around the bucket as Brady cleans the sea weed off of them, and puts them back in water for a bit. (We learned this trip to put seaweed with them to avoid them suffocating themselves.) They all then gather around Bill as he drops them one by one into the pot. SO far, no kids have said "poor crabs". They are just intrigued with it all.

We take out the crabs and learn from Cyrils trips up the coast, and down the docks that we should plunge them in cold water before we clean them. We try this and find it to be true. We also don't have to wait so long before cleaning them. Declan got right in there to help clean, and then "thought about it" a bit too much, and before long, he was back in the tree just watching us all go to town. Every kids tried some crab, and even though they all said they liked it, the O'Hara kids all opted for a hot dog instead of crab for dinner. That's OK...more for us adults!! We finish cleaning the crab, and have a great dinner, followed by Berry Cobbler over the fire, topped of course with ice cream. Hot chocolate with a bit of Peppermint Schnaps warmed us all, and is so yummy too. (You can see we really rough it!) We left the schnaps out of the kids hot coco, as they were going to have no trouble sleeping with all the playing and fun we had today.

Kids are all showered on 5 gallons of hot water (I'm sure it was a bit more, as the tank recovered itself as we showered), and all 5 are in bed by 9:30...and out faster than you can imagine. They had a big day, and lots of fun. We hoped to sleep in, but all it took was ONE kid up to go to the bathroom, then the dogs think it's time to go pottie, so they lick another kid, and the trickle down affect is in force, and by 7:10, everyone in the trailer is awake. Not up, but awake!! Kimberly and Kristin come into bed to snuggle with us, and the boys are giggling like little girls. What on earth could be so funny at 7AM????? Alexis wakes up, and joins in the fun, Kristin returns to the boys, and before long, 4 of them have the giggles so badly and no one knows why!! Oh the fun of kids!!

I take the dogs out to go pottie, and find that we have a huge bubble on the side of the trailer tire. One more thing to fix before we can head home. Thankfully God took care of us, and we didn't get stuck on the side of the road somewhere. We decide to put off changing the tire until after breakfast. Praise God for showing us this issue before we hit the road.

We have a great breakfast of potatoes, onion, garlic, bacon, sausage and "O'Hara fresh eggs" for breakfast in the dutch ovens over the fire. The kids seem to enjoy it, although, the potatoes got picked through with a few. They all ate lots of fruit, and muffins that were there as well. We realize it's 11AM, and the kids want to go to the beach yet, the trailer needs sorted out and packed up, as well as all our outside stuff, and a tire to change. We realize we can't do it all, and make the 1pm check out time. Cyril & Lynn are kind enough to take the kids to the beach, and allow us time to get things taken care of. The kids are happy, and we can accomplish what we need to.

We all get back together at 1:00...the kids are sandy, and have had a blast with Nana & Papa, and we've gotten our tire changed (after an hour of frustration), trailer packed & ready to go, and we say our good-byes and hit the highway. Another successful, fun, great weather, crabbing, camping, good company weekend.