Florida 2009 #2

So this year in Florida has been very different from the last several years in that for a good share of the week that I have been down here, we have had rain. What’s interesting is that in talking to some of the locals either at the rental office or at restaurants, is that they have had extremely unusual amounts of rain: so much so that there have been several flash flood warnings all around the county we’re in, which is Gulf County. I keep saying to myself that I’m grateful that we are not in Fargo where yet again it’s blizzarding, raining, and the north-running Red River is about 20 feet over flood stage.

We have had the opportunity to go out after a couple of the rain storms, to find many of the bayous and ditches completely filled with water. In many of the ditches, the water has turned somewhat brownish due to the tannins in a lot of the vegetation. The other thing that we’ve noticed with all of the rain is that there is a pervasive smell of sulfur every now and then. I have no idea where it comes from, as to whether it’s the actual rain itself, or the decomposing vegetation. It isn’t, I am certain, a by-product of flatulence, though it does remind me of what Detroit smells like. And GOD do I love Detroit….I keep telling myself that we should just let Canada have it, the city, all of its suburbs, and all of the people that live there.

I will say that the one thing that I love the most about being down here in Cape San Blas is the abundance of seafood that is available, either in the supermarket, roadside shacks, or restaurants. We have had shrimp we have now fixed twice ourselves, the second time was shrimp that was steamed in old bay seasoning, served with remoulade sauce. It was wonderful.
We managed to go to Boss Oyster for dinner on Wednesday night, where I had bay scallops and red snapper. When the server came out with my food, it reminded me a lot of when I had to go to Baltimore to accompany a friend of mine when she was auditioning at Peabody Conservatory. We went out for dinner and I had ordered clams (one of my favorite things). Expecting a normal serving (and somewhat startled by the inflated price of my dinner choice), I was overwhelmed to see that when the server came out with a HUGE platter, I figured it was going to be served “family style.” Well, the platter was piled high (about 4 inches to be exact) with clams. And they were all for me. I have never seen (or eaten) so many clams in my entire life. It was as if they kept multiplying on my place as I was eating. I felt as though I couldn’t get ahead. Funny, I haven’t been anywhere since where they have served clams anymore. Perhaps I ate them all…
Anyhow, at Boss Oyster, the food was fantastic (and abundant), overflowing with bay scallops (the small bite-sized ones) and with two huge red snapper fillets. Combined with the Yuengling beer, and a great view of pelicans at rest on the wharf, it was a great evening despite the soggy conditions.

On Thursday, it was VERY rainy. In fact, when my mom and I were sitting at the dining room table playing a game of Upwords, it was about 10:30 a.m. and you would have thought that it was about 10:30 p.m. The sky was almost pitch-black. As we turned on the news to see all of the dark red splotches swirling around the Cape where we were at, the sky looked like a three layered salad. The bottom layer was the brownish-white sandy beach, the second layer was the white sky on the horizon, and the top layer was the pitch-black clouds. It was really eerie. The lightning over the Gulf was pretty spectacular to watch. After trying to get a chance picture of lightning over the bay, I eventually gave up. I was feeling like I was my mother when we were traveling from Paris to Turin on the TGV. Every time my mom wants to take a picture of something, by the time she gets the camera out of her quart sized Ziploc bag camera case, gets the item in focus, the picture composed, and her finger on the trigger, she’ll take the picture, only to have completely missed what it was that she was originally trying to photograph. I always chuckle about this, because (being the smart-ass that I am) my comment to my mom was, “you may have 1000 speed film, but you have a 200 speed finger.”

On Friday, we went to the lighthouse point on the Cape, to see if we could find any interesting and different seashells that we haven’t been able to get. It really is something to find all of the different kinds, and where some types of shells are more abundant than others in different parts of the beach. I figured that with the recent severe and gusty weather, the stuff churned up and thrown on the beach may be interesting. We were not disappointed. We managed to find about 5-6 large lightning whelk shells (that I have never seen anywhere else on the beach) and many larger scallop type shells that we left for others to appreciate.

We then came back to the house and literally spent a good portion of the remainder of the day sitting in the sun, walking along the beach, and enjoying the 78 degree SUNNY weather! At least I think I have gotten some color. I was getting worried that I was going to be pasty white even after getting back home.

Last night, we then went to a brand new restaurant (brand new meaning that it wasn’t in business last year when my family was here) in Simmon’s Bayou, which is between the Cape and Port St. Joe. We walked up to Gracie O’Malley’s, and were led outside to the back, where there was a beautiful and large deck overlooking the bay. It had quite an amazing view of the bay from our tables and rocking chairs. Our server was really good, making very convincing suggestions to us about what to have on the menu. My mom ordered stuffed shrimp, and I ordered stuffed flounder.

It is really amazing to me that I would even order fish yet again. My brother would have been completely surprised. I’m not much of a fish person. However, depending on where I am, and how it’s served, I will eat fish. I just am not particularly fond of “fishy” tasting fish. This flounder was anything but. It was INCREDIBLE. While I have to admit that I was a little nervous about having to take the skin off of the fish (as well as the tail), and was feeling a little gun shy. After eating the first bite, I devoured the rest of the fish with gusto. Served with an appropriately delicate sherry creamed crab sauce, and a cornmeal and crab based stuffing, the delicate flavor of the flounder wasn’t overpowered. It was great!

We ended up ordering dessert to go, and later on in the evening (with some coffee) we were able to each enjoy a very tasty slice of peanut butter pie. I could tell that the pie was going to be rich, as my cheeks were starting to sweat.

Waking up this morning (Saturday), it’s another glorious day. The sun is shining, there is relatively little breeze, and there’s not a whole lot of people that come to this part of the Cape (called Indian Pass). We have designs on going to an art festival and farmer’s market this morning, and I am planning to spend more time trying to get a bit more color before I head home.

My brother, my sister-in-law, and my three nieces are making their way down as I write this, and I look forward to spending some time with them for a couple of days before venturing home.