The Flavor of the Crab Festival

Yesterday evening marked the beginning of the weekend Astoria-Warrenton Wine, Crab and Seafood Festival held each year by the Chamber of Commerce at the county fairgrounds, about seven or eight minutes' drive out of Astoria. An inventive bus driver had created this mini crab pot as a tip jar.

For this event, the parking lot at the fairgrounds was unavailable, and seafood- and wine-lovers hopped converted schoolbuses from varous points around town. It was a good thing they did it this way based on the "cheer" level of many of the folks on the bus ride home. We caught a bus on the Dungeness Route at the Red Lion Inn near the Port Docks.

There was another stop at the far side of the Red Lion. You can see what the weather was like.

I don't know if these ducks were fed up with the rain or what, but they were heading south.

Signs along the route. We're approaching the traffic circle on the west side of town.

This sign is out of context, since we didn't pass it on the bus, but I'd taken its photo earlier in the day coming back into town from Warrenton.

Stacy, our bus driver, was very nice. She probably would have let me take her photo in the wonderful crab hat worn by the drivers, but I didn't ask. OK, maybe this year I'll get braver about photographing people. Just because I prefer to be behind the lens doesn't mean everyone is camera shy. (Note to self.)

There was a big turnout for a small town. I heard someone's estimate that there were 2,000 people there, but I really don't know. This was one of the tents erected next to the permanent building. It's a good thing they thought to put up shelters.

I liked the crab baloon in this booth, although the photo of it didn't come out very well. I was trying not to lose someone in the crowd.

There were areas for food and areas for booths selling art and crafts, mainly crab-, sea-, and wine-related.

We went back around through the displays and the food, a little disoriented by the added tent and the crowd, and came out into the rain and only then found what's usually the main entrance to events at the fairgrounds. Our bus had taken us in through an alternate entrance, and that's where we'd gotten a yummy hot crab and cheese melt. After poking around a bit in the main building and talking to friends, we were ready to head back.

This is where it was helpful to know which bus you'd come in on. They'd made it pretty simple for those going home with a higher blood alcohol level than they arrrived with. You only had to remember one thing. Am I a crab, a salmon, a tuna, or a halibut? The system seemed to work pretty well.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.