THE USNS BRUNSWICK

Last weekend, our mainland had their Blessing of the Fleet event. Along with the shrimp boats being blessed was the new USNS Brunswick, a cargo ship named for our town. They say the Navy is so pleased with the aluminum transport's overall usefulness in carrying troops and cargo quickly, that they've ordered more.

From the back it kind of looks like a building:

Here's an interesting tidbit: the aluminum is left unpainted since each gallon of paint weighs about twelve pounds, and the thousands of gallons it would take to cover the ship would add extra weight.

Here is the front:

Besides getting itself blessed, the ship offered public tours. Unfortunately, the line was so long we decided against waiting. (Also, we could see little groups of people staggering up flights of stairs and realized we weren't in any shape to do that much climbing!) Here you can see the end of the line after it went around the block:

Kind of neat to have a ship named for us!

BLESSING OF THE FLEET

Last weekend, the small town up from us held their annual "Blessing of the Fleet" festival. The blessing itself took place on Sunday, but we went up Saturday when it wasn't so crowded.

The street was blocked off, and there were maybe a hundred or so booths winding around beneath the huge oaks. Here is the section going in:

And this is the end with the food!  There were Phillipine and Thai cuisines, as well as tacoes, alligator bites, chicken fingers, and other offerings. We chose fried local shrimp (fresh and scrumptious!) with fries and a funnel cake from the sweets booth.

I heard the man at this booth playing and went over to see, thinking he was touting his homemade dulcimers or zithers. But no! It was a string instrument with a neck in a bean can! No kidding! He was playing tunes out of a can! If you look closely at the middle right, you can see several instruments standing upright, cans at the bottom.

It was a good deal, too. The instrument and a booklet of music for twenty dollars. Perfect for a beginning guitar player!

On the way home, a bicycle rental shop in town sported a sign I adored. The Pedaling Pig! Doesn't he look carefree and happy?

All in all, a fun day!

BLESSING OF THE FLEET

Sunday, we went up the road to a shrimping community for their annual Blessing of the Fleet. We went early, even though the actual blessing didn't occur until mid afternoon. But we figured with the weather warming -- finally -- we'd better go while it was pleasant. We actually got there before it was technically open for business, though a few booths were open. Not the funnelcake one, sadly.

Anyway, while several shrimp boats came out to be blessed, we saw only a few decked out. I think the poor economy and the poor shrimping has put a damper on the festival. With the sun bearing down, we decided to call it a day before the big event. My guy did get a few pix.

These were docked up from the bandstand:

In this one you can see the bandstand behind the back of the boat on the left. This boat actually belongs to the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service and helps in research about fishing methods, bottom mapping, etc. The third one in the rear had its lines all decorated with tinsel. Wish we had a better shot.

Here we have part of the booths that go along with the Blessing festival. The road was blocked off and the tents set up on each side. There were lots more but this was a nice shaded view. As you can see, this was about an hour before official opening time so it wasn't a bit crowded. Just the way I like it.

I'm happy to see all the festivals springing up again. This winter was just too quiet!