The Cajun Crawfish And Music Festival

The 8th Annual Cajun Crawfish and Music Festival is taking place this weekend in the Abacoa neighborhood of Jupiter, Florida. Just for fun, my sister Susan and I decided to attend this festival, despite the $5 entrance fee. Since this event supports two charities, Maddie's Fight Foundation, which provides financial assistance to families with children battling cancer, and Little Smiles, which works with care providers to bring joy and comfort to children in difficult situations, I guess you really can't complain. At least not much. In any case, unlike the other festivals we have attended lately, this festival was all about Louisiana style food, drink, and music. And as you can see from the photograph on the left, it was very well attended yesterday afternoon.

The Master of Ceremonies for the festival is Virginia Sinicki, who appears on a local radio program called the KVJ Show and who is a New Orleans native. As you can see from the photograph on the right, there is a Bourbon Street Bar at the festival which serves classic cocktails such as Hurricanes, Grenades, and Virginia's Champaign Hurricane specialty drink, no doubt served to you by Master of Ceremonies Virginia Sinicki herself. I decided to skip trying these cocktails. The names sound a little violent to me, and as they say, where there's smoke, there's fire. I'll just stick to beer, thank you very much.

As for that classic Louisiana style food, some of it sounds pretty good - how can you go wrong with crab cakes, fried shrimp and chicken, or ribs and chicken? But the big item at the festival is, of course, crawfish. On offer are crawfish po' boys, crawfish bites and crawfish etouffee'. They even had a crawfish eating contest up on the main stage after a performance by Amanda Shaw, a well-known singer and fiddle player who grew up in New Orleans. And in the photograph on the left, you can plainly see that oysters are a pretty big item at the festival, too. I decided to take a pass on both the crawfish and the oysters, too. Just fair warning - not a hamburger in sight. All in all, it was a nice afternoon, and a great place for peoplewatching. The Cajun Crawfish and Music Festival continues today from 10:00am until 8:00pm. And if you do decide to go, they give you a wristband so you can leave for a bit to get a quick hamburger at Das Beer Garden and then be admitted back before the next music act. Enjoy!

The Delray Affair

And no - this is not a personal confession about something that happened in Delray Beach, Florida, nor a post about the biggest scandal in South Florida since the Roxanne and Peter Pulitzer divorce trial. The Delray Affair is actually the premier arts and craft festival in the Southeast United States. In its 64th year, this festival stretches for 7 blocks along Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, Florida, with artists participating from across the country and featuring paintings, sculptures, crafts, and photography, as well as a number of booths with items described by festival organizers as "funky." I was especially impressed with the photography on display. Oceans and Africa, a booth featuring the photography of Craig Dietrich, was packed with absolutely wonderful photos of African wildlife, which you can also see at https://oceansandafrica.com/index.php?cPath=32.

Other photographers with booths at the festival include Ben Hicks, where I saw a wonderful photo of a turtle with just its head above the water, looking directly at the camera; Camilo Photography, featuring some great photographs of Cuba; and Chris Doherty, who specializes in underwater photos. Many of the paintings on display were also quite good, although also quite pricey. And the setting on palm tree lined Atlantic Avenue really added a lot to the festival. This street is a very popular shopping and entertainment district, with many restaurants, shops, and galleries to peruse in addition to looking at the art at the festival. The Delray Affair began yesterday and continues today from 10:00 until 6:00 and Sunday from 10:00 to 5:00. It is definitely worth checking out.

Rubber Duckies On The Dash - What Gives?

A while back, I noticed a jeep in a parking lot here in Stuart, Florida with a large number of rubber ducks on the dashboard. My first thought was "Here is a true eccentric." But then I noticed another jeep with ducks on the dash, too. The more I looked, the more jeeps with rubber duckies I saw. Was this just a Florida thing? Of course, I did research on the internet, which these days has an accuracy rate of 99.9%, and found that this phenomenon is known as "ducking." It started in July 2020 when a jeep owner named Allison Parliament, trying to spread a little happiness during the COVID pandemic, left a rubber duck on a stranger's jeep with a note that said "Nice Jeep." From this came a popular tradition called "ducking." Many jeep owners keep a supply of rubber ducks in their car so they can leave them on other jeep owner's cars, the purpose of which is to foster "camaraderie within the jeep community" and spread kindness and a sense of belonging among jeep owners. Many of these owners collect rubber ducks and put them on their dashboards, which they call "duck ponds," as seen in the photograph above. Evidently, this has now become a global movement. I don't remember seeing duckies on the dash in Denver, but will definitely check it out when I get back there. It does sound a bit like a cult to me, but what do I know?

The Proving Ground

I just finished reading Michael Connelly's lasted novel, The Proving Ground, the 8th book in the Lincoln Lawyer series. Mickey Haller, a criminal lawyer famous for working out a Lincoln Continental instead of an office, has decided to give up criminal law to handle civil cases. He now works out of the garage where he once housed his Lincolns and takes the case of a woman suing an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy it was okay to kill his ex-girlfriend, the woman's daughter. The company in question hopes to be bought by a major player in social media, which means billions are on the line, and it will do anything to make the case go away. This is a pretty good story which keeps your attention and is worth reading, although I wish Connelly would turn out another Renee Ballard/Harry Bosch open unsolved crime novel one of these days. The Harry Bosch series is what made him famous, and I have heard rumors that Connelly is considering killing Harry off, since he is now in his 70s, which Connelly seems to think is too old for a detective. Connelly, by the way, will be turning 70 himself this July 21st. Just sayin'.

The April Mutts Of The Month

I took the photograph above of the April Mutts of the Month a while back at the Under the Oaks Fine Arts and Crafts Festival up in Vero Beach, Florida. I am not sure why these dogs needed to be pushed in a baby carriage, but you see a lot of people doing this here in Florida, especially at festivals. Perhaps it is easier for older people to take their pets out and about this way instead of using leashes. Maybe the dogs are too old to walk long distances or are unable to walk in such hot and humid conditions. Regardless, these two dogs seemed to be enjoying the ride, doing some peoplewatching and looking at the art. Not long after I took this photograph, I saw them gulping down some bowls of beer at the concession stand. Can't blame them. It was a hot day, after all.

Saturday Night In Abacoa!

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, my sister Susan and I went to see the Palm Beach Cardinals play the St. Lucie Mets at Roger Dean Stadium this past Saturday night. Before we went to the game, we had dinner across the street in the Town Center of Abacoa, a mixed-use community with 17 neighborhoods in the southwest part of Jupiter, Florida, and seen in the photograph on the left. The Town Center has many shops and restaurants, a town square with a stage for concerts, a branch of Florida Atlantic University, and is the location for a number of events and festivals throughout the year. During spring training, the ballpark across the street is home to the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins, and during the summer the Jupiter Hammerheads and Palm Beach Cardinals, two Florida State League teams. It is always a fun place to visit.

Whenever we go to a baseball game at Roger Dean, we have dinner and a beer first at Das Beer Garden, a neighborhood hangout and taproom, where I took the photograph of Susan seen on the right. This place is always packed on the weekends, with a very diverse demographic - young, old, families, you name it. You place your order at the bar, take your beers and a table marker back to your table, and your order is brought out to you when it is ready. I really like this place, but this past Saturday they had a couple playing music on their stage. Although I was sitting directly in front of Susan, the music was so loud I had to get up and go around the table each time she said anything. Which was often. It was good exercise, but I wish the speakers had been turned down to the point where you could actually have a conversation. I know that makes me sound like an old fuddy-duddy, but what the heck - I am one, so why not?

Opening Night For The Palm Beach Cardinals At Roger Dean Stadium

This past Saturday night my sister Susan and I attended opening night at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida to watch the Palm Beach Cardinals play the St. Lucie Mets. On Saturdays, however, the Cardinals evidently call themselves the Frozen Iguanas, complete with Frozen Iguanas uniforms, which I really don't get at all. The other thing I don't get is that the Cardinals played games at Roger Dean Stadium both Thursday and Friday nights, and so why was Saturday declared opening night instead? Of course, this is Florida, and that explains a lot. In any case, when we arrived at the stadium, we discovered there was a game delay until 6:35, although the sun was shining, and there was a rainbow right over the ballpark, as seen in the photograph on the left. No doubt a sign that good things were about to happen. 

But no - it was, in fact, a pretty boring game. I did not have a pen, and therefore did not keep score, but as I recall, it wasn't until the 6th inning or so that the Frozen Iguanas (i.e. The Palm Beach Cardinals) got a hit, and they only had 2 hits the entire game. The St. Lucie Mets had only 5 hits themselves, but 4 stolen bases, and won the game 1-0. Susan and I decided to leave after a rousing rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" after the first half of the 7th inning, but when we got home, I checked online and saw that the final score was the same as it was when we had left, and so we did not miss much of the action over the final 2 1/2 innings, since there was no action to speak of. A pleasant night, and great seats, but not a game for the record books.