Soft Shell Crab Festival: A Festival of Friends

Soft Shell Crab Festival: A Festival of Friends

By Cindy Reid |  It’s that time of year here in the Lowcountry . It’s time for all of the outdoor festivals and street fairs to commence, and we started this weekend with a real winner, Port Royal’s Soft Shell Crab Festival.
Yes it is a mouthful, not only to say, but because of the fantastic food.  And yes, again I was asked to be a food judge, this time for the crab dish entries, and yes I accepted with an alarming enthusiasm. So today I was one of three lucky people who got to sample EVERY crab dish at the event!  Of course then we had to do the ‘work’ of judging every dish, which really is harder than it sounds, because they were all winners.  Kudos to the winners, and thank you to all the vendors who graciously let us sample their dishes.

The real winners of course are us, the general public, who get to attend these great family friendly events .
From the classic car display (which was bigger and better than ever), to the craft and food vendors, everything today was picture perfect. Even the weather cooperated and we had a day of sunshine and gentle breezes. The Groove Tones were on hand to provide us with truly topnotch professional music all afternoon. I watched an older couple ‘get down’ to a tune, and let me tell you, they sure put the younger set to shame! One of my favorite things about living here is the amount of dancing that goes on, from a the toddler spinning in circles in front of the band , to the ladies who dance up a storm all by themselves on the sidewalk. It does a heart good.

I can honestly say that after living here a little over five years I am blessed with wonderful friends and acquaintances, but making friends here just isn’t that hard to do. I probably made a few new friends today.  Well, at least I hope I did.  And, I talked to lots of old friends as well. A lovely southern lady I met today told me she walks everyday at 5AM with several men friends, as she says “Of course I have a husband at home now, but these are my walking friends!” We then admired her truly stunning jewelry.  A fine new friend. 

I saw an old friend from a previous job I held who told us about her new dog, Gert.  When we expressed our interest, she went home and brought Gert back for a visit with us.  A lovely old friend.

Some of the friends I ran into today are significantly younger than me, in fact another friend of mine turned 21 today. I delight in knowing people of all ages and consider myself lucky that they too can look past the age difference and we find a way to simply enjoy each other’s company. I am sure I learn more from them than they do from me.   Friends of all ages.

This is just the start of the festival and street fair season. We have A Taste of Beaufort, the Beaufort Water Festival, the Beaufort Shrimp Festival, Habersham Marketplace’s many events, and lots of events in neighboring towns, to say nothing of all of our Farmers Markets.

So check out our calendar of events here on eatstayplaybeaufort.com, and get out there and enjoy!
Your friends, new and old, are out there waiting for you.