By Georgia Osten
This month, we ventured a bit further away from home than our usual trip to the Tremont in Galveston. My husband heard about a festival in Rockport called Seafair. The festival looked remarkably similar to our Texas Crab Festival! So, since it’s been maybe 10 years or so since we’ve been to Rockport, we thought Why Not? We took the “scenic” route to get to Rockport, up the coast by Galveston, through Freeport almost to Port Aransas. So much fun to just get away!
I made a reservation at a B&B just walking distance from the event. Angel Rose is an adorable old Victorian, we got the master that was part of the original house. As history has it, the house was owned by a mercantile, Leopold Bracht and his wife Clara in the 1800’s. It was a mile out of town and the owner of the mercantile had to hitch up the horse and wagon each morning to get into town, board the horse for the day, hitch up again at the end of the day to get back home; it made for a very long day. So, he decided to move the house into town; it had to be cut into three pieces to accomplish this task. The Bracht’s had nine children. Understandably, the house had to be enlarged to accommodate that many people.
Our walk from the B&B to the Festival Grounds took us by the Maritime Museum and the little fish village of Rockport, an amazing coastal town, it reminded me of Morro Bay in California. At the museum, I bought a rendition of our Bolivar Lighthouse to add to our collection. I’m not sure where I’m going to hang it in this house, maybe we’ll need to add on … JUST KIDDING!
Saturday, after a fantastic breakfast prepared by Rusty, the owner of the B&B, we ventured over to take a look at Seafair. We actually ran into one of our food vendors from Crab Fest, Phoung of B&B Concessions. She was so excited to see us, she prepared a plate and handed it to us to share, eggroll, rice with veggies and chicken on a stick! We visited the craft vendors, tasted some gumbo and watched the kids on the Kids Stage.
We took a ride around town until 4pm when the crab races were to begin. I was so surprised to see my husband go to stand in line for a ticket to participate in the races! What a big kid! Their races are conducted a bit different from ours, they have 6 races, 6 people at a time. My husband won the first heat, so they put his crab aside for the final. Lo and Behold, if his crab didn’t win the final against the other 5 heat winners! $30 plus a gift card to Whataburger!
What a hoot! We plan to go back in March for the Oyster Races at the Fulton Oyster Fest. KIDDING, I HOPE?!?
[Oct-12-2021]
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