Clamerica the Beautiful

This past weekend Stefanie and Emily's parents were in town for the 4th of July weekend. Cedar Key does a nice job of celebrating both America and the clams that sustain the town in a festival called "Clamerica". It was fun. There were all kinds of clam-related activities...clam eating contests, clam sack races, clam bakes, clam art,
clam t-shirts, clam chowder, clam fritters...it was clamtastic! Clamania to say the least. I was happy as a clam to be a part of it (alright I'll stop). We ate food, walked around, hit up the shops on main street, saw a golf cart parade (most vehicles in Cedar key are golf carts because it is such a small island - there are golf cart crossing signs all over the place), and at the end of the night there were fireworks. The fireworks were nice. We put two boats in the water to watch them. We tied up the boats, had some wine, and enjoyed the show. They were by no means city fireworks and there were definitely long strands of time that the dead black sky should have been full of exploding colorful fun, but it was entertaining anyhow.


We lucked out when we were on the water, too, because as soon as we got home it started to rain buckets. It poured and we had two sinkable boats out on the water. I am certainly getting my practice in putting boats in the water and taking them out because that night we had to remove two boats from the water (not one...two) in torrential downpours. I had to bail out the Carolina Skiff that had its back end in water and sinking, while Stefanie and Emily took out our research boat. There were some mishaps - water in the boat, dropping the keys, broken lights... but they got it together and came back in time to grab the Carolina before I could bail no more. It was hard work since we were tired from the day and it was almost midnight, but we did it... again.