pigging out again

We just spent a couple of days relaxing at Amelia Island, up on the Florida-Georgia border, where they were celebrating the annual Shrimp Festival, and we tried to cooperate by eating our weight in the little beasts.

We played tourist with old friends Mike and Sharon Tackaberry, whom we met on a New Zealand tour about thirty-ump years ago.  The main street of the island is a mile-long gift shop with occasional outbreaks of culture, which we sped past.  There were occasional pretty girls zig-zagging in and out of the crowds of geriatric dinosaurs.  They were going too fast to catch, but I was mostly watching.

Got some writing done in the mornings and a couple of nice bike rides, to and from the only coffee place open early.  Also took a three-hour boat ride, Amelia River Cruises,  out to some of the outlying islands, which used to be hideaways for the super-rich, from about 1880 to post-WWII. Most of the big places are resort hotels now.  Very pricy, like $400 per day and up.  But you pay for a special combination of century-old charm and isolation, and if you like that you'll get your money's worth.  I might go up there to finish a novel some day.

Here is a picture that I think qualifies as Wretched Excess (Food Division) – on the way out of Amelia Island we stopped at the Doo Wop Café, all done up in 1950's bling, 45 records all over the walls, B&W celebrity pictures, even an ersatz 1957 Chevy with a plastic Elvis leaning out of the window.  You sat in red-and-white Naugahyde bench seats at matching Formica tables with individual little juke boxes . . . and if you were brave, this is what you ate –

(The James Dean Special:  Two hot dogs with chili, jalepenos, bacon, and chopped onions, accompanied by ersatz melted American cheese.  Or was that turmeric-colored mustard?  I left it alone.  But the curly fries and cole slaw, yum.  I have to admit that I adored most of it.)

  I think I'd better go out and get some exercise . . .

 Joe