The Beach is Calling

When you live in Gulf Shores Alabama and have family and friends all across the country, something happens each hurricane season. As soon as a storm enters the Gulf of Mexico my phone starts ringing and the emails start rolling in. Everyone wants to know if I am okay. Usually the weather at the time is a perfect blue sky and I almost want to take a photo and email it back to show them.

Of course with all the media hype about hurricanes these days I can see why people think that each hurricane destroys every single point from Key West to Brownsville Texas. The storms can look scary on the radar and the areas that do get a direct hit are really bad. But that doesn't mean that everyone is impacted. And for the areas that are hit, the recovery work begins and very soon businesses and schools are back open and we get on with life.

So as Hurricane Ike makes its way towards the Texas coast the only real impact for areas like Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Pensacola will be rough water with strong rip currents and likely some minor flooding in the low-lying areas. We will be fine and we will be able to help our neighbors from Texas and Louisiana who will need a safe place to stay during the storm.

No trip to the Alabama Gulf Coast is complete without a stop at a local market for supplies to 'tide' us over until the next trip to Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. We make sure to have a cooler (or two, depending on how many friends and family members send requests) completely empty and clean. We get some small shrimp steamed to use in salads, but the majority is our family favorite, medium size. I know folks who swear by the bigger shrimp, but I like mediums. We place our order, leave the cooler(s) and get in a few more minutes of shopping or sightseeing while it's prepared. The staff asks how far we have to go and prepared the travel accommodations to suit that. The coolers are stashed in the car (NOT the trunk -- unless it's very, very cool weather), and away we go. When we get home, I use quart freezer bags to store the shrimp. I label each one with the date, then I seal the bag, making sure to get out all the air, and lay it flat on a cookie sheet. Once all the shrimp are bagged, I pop the sheet in the freezer. When the bags are frozen in this manner, they are easier to stack in the freezer. For extra protection, I put the frozen quart bags inside gallon or 2-gallon freezer bags. (I also stash one or two so that just when everyone thinks we've run out, I can be a superhero -- Shrimper Mom to the rescue!)

Thinking about all the wonderful food that is going to be at the 37th annual National Shrimp Festival has put me in the mood for some shrimp. I grabbed a bag of Alabama Gulf Coast shrimp brought home from a recent trip to Gulf Shore and Orange Beach out of the freezer. (It's so great to be able to stop at a local market and get shrimp cooked to order and packed to travel!) Once my shrimp, about 14 to 16 ounces, thawed, I added a bit of Old Bay seasoning, then finely diced the shrimp. I put about half on a plate, then topped that with an 8-ounce block of cream cheese that had been brought to room temperature. I added the rest of the shrimp, then topped it all with cocktail sauce (also brought back from the Alabama Gulf Coast). I served my Shrimply Delightful Dip with crackers and crudite. What a hit!

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As much fun as the annual National Shrimp Festival is, the run-up to the event is great for another type of entertainment: people- and process-watching. With the festival still a future event, preparation in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach goes at a steady but manageable pace. Vendor tents begin to appear one by one along the Alabama Gulf Coast. Signs go up. Souvenirs are unpacked. And businesses get a little extra sprucing up. But when the festival is just a week away, well, things go into overdrive. The tents that were steadily going up before begin to spring forth like mushrooms after a summer rain. Lists get checked; logistics get checked; sound systems get checked. It's almost like watching a favorite film on fast-forward. The best part is getting to be an observer for the warm-up and a beneficiary of all that hard work.

If you are attending the 2008 Shrimp Festival on the Alabama Gulf Coast, don't take offense if a Boy Scout tells you to “can it.” He isn't being rude; he's working to preserve the environment and earn money for his troop's projects. The annual National Shrimp Festival, now in its 37th year, is teaming up with Boy Scout Troop 97. About 17 Scouts and their parents will be walking the festival site and beach front in Gulf Shores to pick up aluminum cans for recycling. In addition, specially marked containers – 60 in all – will be placed throughout the festival grounds so festival-goers can more easily help in this effort to “Go Green.” It's just fantastic to hear of service projects such as this one. In return for helping keep our beaches beautiful, the Scouts get to keep the proceeds from the recycling to fund future projects. This is just the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that makes this country the land of opportunity.

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