Joe's Crab Shack

Today Dad took us to town for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. There is another JCS in town, but Dad wanted to take us here for the scenery. I'm glad he did. It was beautiful.
The restaurant is right on the water in what I call Corpus Christi's Inner Harbor (can you tell I'm from Baltimore?). I don't know what the locals call it. Dad told me the fascinating story of how the last hurricane wiped out this whole area 45 years ago. Now there are two water barriers. I'd enjoy walking down the piers reading the different names on the boats.
My children enjoyed this little birdie who came to watch us eat.
I guess he's used to the wind.Joe's Crab Shack is three stories high and is very rustic. We enjoyed reading all the signs hanging throughout the restaurant.
The girls and I chose cobb salad and it was delicious. Lots of bacon, avocado, and shrimp, with a delicious raspberry viniagrette dressing. Dad got fish and chips, and Allen got grilled chicken. We really wanted to get some seafood, but everything we wanted had butter or milk in it. I noticed Anna automatically cut up Maggie's salad for her. It will be nice when Maggie gets completely healed and can cut her own food. As it was, her hands gave out before she finished her salad, but she refused to let us feed her.
During the summer, this water barrier also serves as seating during boat shows. That must be neat! I'm not a city girl by any means, but I do appreciate the beauty of this city.
After lunch, we drove down to the shrimp boats and bought crabs for dinner. Dad was upset that he forgot to buy shrimp, but the crabs were more than enough.

While Dad was buying crabs, we looked at this reproduction boat of the Nina, the third boat that Christopher Columbus sailed. This reproduction was commissioned by the Queen of Spain in 1989 and is permanently launched here. Allen was fascinated by it.
So here are the crabs. There were 16 crabs for $8. Are you reading this Pastor Nevin???
This is not a crab-eating town. The reason Dad got crabs is because he asked the fisherman to get them. These are the crabs that got caught in the nets. Usually they just throw them back in. We could not find any crab hammers. Gonna have to import those from Maryland! We found two steel meat tenderizers and shared those. We also didn't have any paper bags, so we used a bunch of plastic Walmart bags. We didn't mind!
Maggie enjoys dressing up in Dad's western gear. She wouldn't let me show you in the chaps. Do you see the twinkle in her eye? Today Maggie had tingling in her fingers ~ her feeling is returning in her hands! We were told not to expect any changes for a week at least. We are sooo thankful for this huge sign of progress. Dr. Krugman grades his patients' conditions as grades 1-4, with 4 being irreversible. He put Maggie in grade 2-3. Because she was worse than he had anticipated, he is only seeing her in the mornings. Those nerves have been pinched for years, so he wants to release them gradually. Sounds right to me!

My sourdough brownies turned out well. They are more of a cake brownie. We had no trouble making them disappear. All agreed this is a keeper recipe. I baked this recipe in a 9x13, but at home I would have used (and recommended) my 12x18 for a flatter brownie.

We are off to the big flea market today. I hope to pass a garage sale or two to find a cheap bike for Ruthie. We were supposed to leave bright and early, but Grandaddy and the children stayed up talking until 1 am. Now everyone is groggy and late, so we'll see what happens.

Enjoy the weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie