Off Line

[spiritbird]

I will be taking down Comcast equipment tomorrow and getting wiFi. Verizon on Wednesday. Then going on a day trip to an Eastern shore island for a crab feast and boat ride. So I will not be active for a few days. Will miss everyone.

[plax]

Enjoy your trip and the crab feast, Dianne. Thanks for letting us know and hurry back!

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

[Mr Peepers]

Have a good trip Dianne, see you when you get back. :th_smile:

[kendrafitz]

Have a great time Dianne!!

[spiritbird]

I am briefly back using someone else's computer. I expect to have Verizon later today hook up on their service an of course will have a different e mail address. Trip on Friday. Cant wait and thanks for the good wishes. Weather is expected to be nice.

[Mare]

Hi and bye, Dianne! I'm just now reading your post. I hope you have a wonderful time, take lots of pics!

[spiritbird]

Back now. The Maryland eastern shore is marsh country. It's flat as a pancake. I will post a few photos later. Many times I wanted to get off the bus and snap photos but could not. Water fowl are everywhere. The boat ride was so much fun. Saw several Osphrey nest. The Dorchester county where we were is made up of 45 small islands. These islands are loosing about 5 acres a year due to erosion. Eventually they will not be there. We were on Hoopers island. For generations these people have been waterman making their living from fishing and crabbing.

Photos are of the boat, Captain educating us on the different ways of crabbing, our crab feast and some osphrey nest. Will post them later.

[spiritbird]

Posting some photos:
This is the captain of the boat educating us on the crab pot way of catching crabs. The crabs just get caught in this basket and it gets pulled out of the water when crabs are inside after the bait. They use other fish or chicken necks. Crabs will not eat anything that is dead. This particular one is not used anymore because of the salt degradation of the metal.

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This one is the group of people we went with from the senior center.

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[spiritbird]

More:
This photo is showing you another way of catching crabs. This is called trotting. There is a basket hanging from the side that is baited so crabs crawl in later to be dropped into a container. They then get sorted according to sex and type. Females are tossed back in and other crabs they call trash get tossed back in water also.

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[spiritbird]

This wonderful lady is 89 years old and looks like and acts like so much younger.
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This is the boat we were on and the other seniors I went with.
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More: This is one of the many Osprey nest. They are very territorial birds and have been seen attacking Eagles that fly too near. Now other birds go out of their way to avoid these birds. Captain said he saw an Osprey attacking a mating pair of Eagles in flight. (Eagles mate in flight)
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[spiritbird]

Almost finished. Here is a picture of the steamed hard crabs just before we began eating them. They get steamed alive (ouch) and seasoned with Old Bay seasoning. Your clothes and hands get caked with the mess. They kept the door to the restrooms open so one can walk in and use the sink to wash up.

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[spiritbird]

Pic of the ship yard

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[spiritbird]

Pic of freshly caught crabs for shipping to the buyers. At this state the watermen get about $200. per bushel and the buyer will sell one dozen crabs at the going price of $80. now. There are about 5 or 6 dozen crabs in one bushel.

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[kendrafitz]

Great pics!!!

I had no idea about osprey being so territorial. We see them all the time when we go to Hilton Head and I love them. They always seem so peaceful. Who knew they were tough guys!?! ;)

[spiritbird]

Besides all the crabs we had a side table with fried chicken, cole slaw, potato salad, steamed shrimp, cucumber salad to die for, baked beans, corn on cob, home made bread and brownies. We stopped at a produce stand on the way home and I got a freshly picked watermelon, cucumbers and patty pan squash along with garden lettuce. I am stuffed today!

[Mr Peepers]

Great pics Dianne, looks like you had a great time. :th_smile:

[plax]

Wonderful pics, Dianne! Thanks for sharing :D

[Lady]

What a wonderful adventure, and the food sounded delicious! So glad you had a great time.