3 Labor Day Weekend

Helloo!  Back from our long weekend vacation in Florida.  My mother-in-law, daughter and I drove down to Clearwater to visit E's grandmother and go to the beach.  As I mentioned in my last post, I was sick and continued to be miserably sick for most of the trip, yuck!

We did manage to get to the beach despite my malaise and have a good old time.  While we were down there we visited one of the famous Frenchy's restaurants - the Saltwater Cafe on Clearwater Beach.  We go there every trip and usually enjoy the food, but this time...I don't know if they got a new kitchen staff or what, because my only good item was the clam chowder.  I ordered a Maryland-style crab cake (why, oh why do I do this to myself?!) and crab-stuffed mushrooms.  The crab cake was too salty, and just wrong.  The mushrooms were incredibly over-salted and fishy-tasting.  Very disappointing.  E had spaghetti with red sauce, and while I like that it came with short fusilli noodles, they were over cooked and the pasta water hadn't been salted.  Lots of salt problems for a restaurant with "salt" in their name.  They've also raised their prices.

But the yummy winner was the Saltwater clam chowder (which is more New Orleans than New England with the red and green bell peppers, yum!)

The sangria is also good.

 

 Aaand, the beach was gorgeous (until the rain rolled in.)

We got our maximum dose of kitsch at some tourist trap shops.  I, of course, got a glass palm tree wine bottle stopper, and E got beach-themed Silly Bandz.

Until tomorrow, I leave you with this gem, which I spotted on the way back to Georgia off I-75 at the Magnolia Plantation pecan stand shop (with disappointingly over-priced pecans!)  Yes, friends, you too can learn the art of white trash cooking.:

Hope every one of you had a great long weekend!