Brunchtastic

Oysters, Lox, & Shrimp! Oh my!

Let’s face it, there are very few (if any) that would deny that Sunday brunch is one of the most enjoyable meals of the week. It usually involves friends, family, good conversation, and recovery from the night before. Today was special though, as I had what I now consider my absolute favorite brunch ever.

Today D & I had reservations at Market Street Bar & Grill at Reston Town Center, just inside the Hyatt. I’d only found out about this place a few weeks prior when I happened to run into @masonrothman at Jackson’s in RTC. He went on about this amazing brunch and I really had no choice but to try it out. I mean, he twisted my arm, ya know?

Let’s get the downside out of the way first: Brunch is $38.

What does $38 get you? This:

• Bottomless mimosa/champagne/OJ/coffee
• Entree of your choice (plenty of delicious options)
• AYCE Salad bar
• AYCE Raw bar
• AYCE Cheese bar
• AYCE Appetizer bar
• AYCE Dessert bar
• You can get your entree boxed to go…and you’ll need to…

Just a few bites...

Wow, it was incredible. I honestly wish we would have brought several others to extend brunch out to enjoy even more of the delicious goodies. Unfortunately, we had ANOTHER event to go eat at later in the evening…when it rains it pours…

If you do check this place out, be sure to grab a reservation mid-week as it books up. Just hop over to OpenTable.com and grab a time. Oh, and let me know when we’re brunching.

KC Masterpieces

You cannot visit Kansas City without having Bar-B-Que. Period. It’s a law somewhere. Look it up. I happened to be in the enviable position (at times) of being (stuck) in KC for two weeks this past month, and I made the most of it. Of the 13 days I was in KC, I ate BBQ on 6 different occasions at 6 different locations. Here’s the lowdown on what you need to know on your next trip to KC.

Arthur Bryant’s
Arguably the epitome of KC Bar-B-Que, the original location is legendary. Tucked into a shadier side of town, this place sports an armed guard in the parking lot, and warm smiles inside.  You’ll see the past famous visitors along the walls inside, and the true history of the food when you look directly into the restaurant’s pit behind the serving window. I had the bones (ribs) & burnt ends here, along with a side of fries and beer. The ribs were very good and ranked #2 on this trip for me. The burnt ends were another story, they were amazing. Out of the three spots I had burnt ends at, this was by far the best. Throw in the sauce, and this spot is solid. I cannot wait to return and try the brisket sandwich, something that was extremely popular amongst the other customers passing through. This is a MUST VISIT. Note: From what I hear, the other locations are crap. This is the only one that dishes out great Que.

Oklahoma Joe’s
I’ve eaten at Oklahoma Joe’s on several occasions. Upon landing in KC I called the original location (in a gas station) and ordered some bones for pickup. Why? Because I assumed the line would be a good 30min deep and it was already 7PM (8PM stomach time) and I just wanted to get food and get into my room. 20min later I was at the counter paying while the line, as I guessed it, was a good 30-45min deep. Another 20min and I was sitting in my hotel room devouring some absolutely amazing bones.
Later in the week we’d drop into the other location in a strip mall. I was a bit apprehensive at first, and it wasn’t nearly as “authentic” as the gas station, but wow. Just wow. I grabbed bones & pulled pork to nosh on. I have to say, in all my years of eating bones, biting into one of these is…an experience… it was…well…like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX5tfRdkoY0 Not. Even. Kidding. These were by far the best bones I’ve had. I hate I wasn’t able to get burnt ends here, as they’re only served certain days. I’ve had them before and they’re nearly as good as AB’s, but AB gets the slight edge. The pulled pork? Great. I mean, it’s not close to the ribs, but for pork it’s very well done.
As an aside, this place also has an adjoining Bar-B-Que store that carries every smoker, hard wood, sauce, and rub from all over the US. I was in heaven. I could have spent hours in that store, and it was smaller than a 7-11.

We Be Smokin’
This place is special. I mean, how often do you eat in an airport? Now, seriously, how often do you eat in a restaurant that _is_ the airport? Miami County Municipal Airport is actually based out of this great little restaurant. Named one of the top “$100 Hamburger” restaurants, they actually put out some ok ‘que, in places. The beans, fries, & sauce are good, but sadly they were out of bones (the table next to us ordered the last few). As such, I decided to try the brisket, ham, turkey, and sausage to get a feel for their style. As I said, the sauce was good, but there were some meats it just couldn’t save. The brisket was dry and disappointing, while the turkey followed suit with zero moisture and zero flavor. I really wanted to sausage to save this meal, but it was full of fail. After taking a bite of sausage the only thing you could taste was fennel. It was completely overpowering to anything else in the sausage. Finally, the saving grace: smoked ham. Moist. Smoky. Flavorful. Finally, something I could enjoy.
Honestly, I’d eat here again. Why? Because I can watch airplanes land and take off while enjoying a meal with friends. How awesome is that? As a matter of fact, one group did just that. The table that got the last bones? They paid, walked out to their plane, and took off. Freaking sweet.

Jack Stack
High class bar-b-que? Really? Walking into this joint was a bit disappointing. I don’t want to eat my ‘que in some highfalutin restaurant where I feel I need to at least be business casual in dress. Once we were seated and ordered, I was put more at ease. The food here is good, very good (though pricy). The ribs were third, behind AB’s for me, but that’s not a knock at all. They were still very good. The burnt ends were in the same spot, but again, not a knock. This place is solid all around…sauce, beans…but not that godawful cheese corn. I should have never ordered it when the waiter recommended it, because I knew in my heart of hearts that I was going to loathe it…and I did.

XXX???
There was one other place we visited, but the name escapes me. Why don’t I remember? Because I don’t care to go back. We visited here and had a single bone each. All three of us ordered one rib. None of us finished it. Not. One. It just wasn’t good. The flavor was off, and I couldn’t pick exactly what it was. I think the wood combination used to smoke the ribs was the main culprit. I couldn’t pinpoint it, but this is my best guess and everyone else agreed. Bleh.

Whew! So, there you have it! I made it home and didn’t want to eat pork for a while. I don’t want to know how much I gained on this trip, but we honestly tried to eat lighter between the pork onslaught. I feel full just from typing this and reliving the memories. I think I’m going to have to go lay down for a bit…

The Highs & Lows of Eating Out

This past weekend turned into an amazing amount of expensive food thanks to D’s birthday & Valentine’s day running back-to-back. Since we’re not amateurs, we decided to dine out over the weekend, leaving the 14th to the newbies & the 15th to her birthday happy hour. Saturday we had a lunch reservation at L’Auberge Chez François in Great Falls while Sunday we dialed it back just a bit for the Valentine’s Day Special at Vintage 50 in Leesburg…and then I bought steak.

Saturday we headed right up the street, past the old Nike Air Missile Defense silos, and right over to L’Auberge Chez François. It’s really a gorgeous little French restaurant tucked into the woods amongst the mansions throughout the area. The lunch was a prix fixe menu for $36, and worth every penny. I started with a hot mulled red wine while D had her sweet little muscat wine and the waiter brought out complimentary onion quiche. It was divine. Neither of us are big on quiche, but this was delicious. Next up for me was a small pot of braised veal cheeks that was some of the most tender meat I’ve ever had and absolutely delicious. After a small salad of fresh tomatoes my main course of lamb chops arrived. I was slightly disappointed that it was more medium than medium rare, but the flavor was amazing. The lamb along with the veg on the plate was very well seasoned and complimented each other well. Finally, to finish off a full French meal, what better than a chocolate souffle?  Hot, fluffy, and delicious. The perfect ending to a well paced two hour lunch.

Sunday was just a calamity in general. People didn’t keep appointments, things were open, and not much got done in general (although I was attacked by women in Bed Bath & Beyond). Nonetheless, we had reservations at Vintage 50 for dinner, one of the places we love eating. We arrived and were seated immediately. Both of us decided the prix fix menu for Valentine’s Day would be the way to go, but perhaps we should have thought that one out a bit more. I saw they were serving a cask ale and jumped at the opportunity to try their microbrewed beer served the proper way. Next up was an amuse bouche of a caper berry with small accoutrement that was both powerful and very tasty. It really woke up the tastebuds and prepared you for a nice meal. I was definitely impressed by it. Next up was a plate of foie gras that I really just wasn’t impressed with. A small disclaimer: I had never had it previously, but if this was prepared properly then I may never have it again. The only reason I think it may have been prepared in a manner unfitting is because of the rest of the meal.

Next up was a lobster claw with carrot pappardelle, blood oranges, & beet butter. Sadly the lobster was overcooked and rubbery, while the pasta was stuck together in many instances, and the blood orange slices had been sitting out for an extended amount of time. Next up was the angus beef short rib with a potato-custard tart. The tart was excellent. Light, fluffy, and delicious. However, the short rib was basically pot roast. It wasn’t overly moist and the flavor was spot on for a pot roast my mother made growing up. While I enjoy pot roast, I don’t enjoy it as part of a $75 meal. It really left a worse taste in my mouth than the cheese dessert that I wasn’t overly fond of, but I can’t really fault the restaurant for cheese they didn’t make and I shouldn’t have chosen. Overall, I was very disappointed with the meal, as was D. We both agree we probably won’t be returning for awhile, and we’ll definitely not be ordering from a prix fixe menu.

With the taste of moldy cheese still upon my pallet, I made a stop at Wegmans. Popping inside I grabbed two NY Strips…dry aged…and as of approximately 7PM tonight, they _were_ delicious.

Not Restaurant Week Visit

The first thing on our minds when we heard it was Restaurant Week again was to hit up Morton’s in Georgetown again. We have a very good friend that works there and the food/service there is always exemplary. Their deal last year was a salad, filet, side, and dessert. You can’t beat that at Morton’s for $35, you just can’t. So we made our way down to Georgetown on a Wednesday evening for a nice dinner with a couple of close friends that are gearing up to get hitched.

D and I arrived way the hell too early, as usual, where we promptly learned from our good friend that the restaurant wasn’t doing Restaurant Week. Do the who what? Yeah, I had mistakenly seen the three VA Morton’s listed, but not actually the Georgetown location. *headdesk* Fortunately, they were still serving up an excellent deal for $110/couple: Salad, Filet, Seafood Choice, Side, Dessert. Again, hard to beat and more food.

After a couple of drinks at the bar to catch up with our friends we finally settled into our table. The most amazing part of this: We got to our table on time. As in, our friends arrived EARLY. It was absolutely unthinkable to tell you the truth. E must have told B the dinner was at 6:30 and not 7:30 (LOVE YOU, B!). The food, as usual, was excellent. It’s fairly difficult not to fill yourself up on the onion bread they serve, but resistance is required when you have so much food on the way. Everything we had that evening was delicious and the souffle to end things off was amazing.

I’m not a huge fan of giving huge props to chains, even the high-class ones, but this Morton’s is always spot on for us. I’m sure we’ll be back again…but not during Restaurant Week.

Our final destination on this week of food? An excellent idea with poor execution.

Passionate About Food

Hello Restaurant Week! It’s that time of year yet again. Cheap(er(ish(sometimes))) food, packed restaurants, crap service, and ice storms. Ice storms? Well, at least this time around. D and I decided to take advantage of restaurant week this year since it has crept into the ‘burbs around DC. We had our sights on a few locations, but first up was lunch at PassionFish in Reston. I had yet to eat there previously so I was definitely excited (I’m from the gulf coast so seafood ALWAYS gets me excited).

Though I’m no huge fan of ice storms, the one we suffered through at the start of the week seemingly kept the crowd a bit lighter at PassionFish for lunch and helped us get a parking spot at Reston Town Center. The staff was very excited to see us since we were seemingly the first to arrive for the day! I hate the storm hurt business, but I didn’t mind the excellent service we received as a result.

Whereas most restaurant week participants have a prix fixe menu, PassionFish allows you to choose from their entire regular menu selection. As such, D and I decided to make sure we tried as many things as possible. I was impressed with the menu selection. The entrees really cover the entire eastern seaboard and the gulf coast well so it was difficult choosing exactly what to get. Of course, it was also difficult to go wrong.
Her lineup: Butternut Squash Lobster Bisque, Crabcake Sandwich, & Apple Crisp w/ Vanilla Ice Cream
My lineup: Crab & Corn Chowder, Shrimp & Grits, Caramel Creme Brulee.

Starting with the soup, it was spot on amazing. There was plenty of crab and it blended well with the corn chowder. Hers was also very well balanced as well and not overwhelmed with the squash. I think her crab cake sandwich was very good, but it wasn’t a step above the rest by any means. However, my shrimp & grits were the best I’ve had outside of the deep south. The grits were creamy, the shrimp were very well seasoned, and my only complaint was they were just slightly overcooked. Of course, I should mention these were GULF shrimp, not Thai shrimp, so I was able to easily overlook this slight error on their end. Finally, the creme brulee was outstanding. I definitely enjoyed the caramel twist and had to fight off D the entire time!

Overall, this was a great place to grab some good food. I was impressed with the decor, the service, and the food so we’ll definitely be going back.

Up next on restaurant week for us? I fucked up.

Little Bus of Horrors

Christmas with the family is always stressful. Flying over the holidays is both expensive and a pain in the ass. Add to that snow, the wrong airport, and my amazing woman and you’ve got the perfect stress-inducing weekend with an amazing woman. This story begins around 15min prior to our cab to IAD. I picked up the printed tickets my D had printed and glanced down to see our departure city…Baltimore. DOH! Sometimes you make small assumptions when printing tickets purchased 6 months previously, and flying out of Dulles was one of ours. D threw down her makeup and we immediately loaded the car and took off for BWI. It was a stressful 45min trip, for her. I always plan to be at the airport extremely early so I knew we had a big enough cushion. As it turns out we made it through TSA with nearly an hour to spare. Crisis averted for now.

Of course, as a running theme when traveling with D, the trip back didn’t fare so well. I’m sure you heard about the snow on ATL on Christmas, well that wasn’t the problem for us. We had a connection through MEM and they were just fine that day…until two hours before our flight.

Arriving at the airport we found our flight had been canceled. In an amazingly unorthodox move, Delta rebooked us through O’Hare on United to get us home on time. Our new flight was an extra hour later so we bellied up to the empty bar to down a few drinks and shoot the shit with a hilarious bartender. The flight got off without a hitch and we arrived in Chicago with an hour before our connecting flight’s departure.

Like I said, we arrived on time…but we didn’t deplane for 45+min. First we had to await an open gate, that took 30min. Then we needed stairs…then we needed stairs that fit our plane…and finally we could disembark. Since our connection was on another terminal, our haste was futile so we just abandoned hope and found the United desk.

I still had a small glimmer of hope for getting home Christmas night… I’d used the free (HT: Google) in-flight wifi to check all flights between O’Hare and BWI for the rest of the evening and there was one chance. American Airlines had a flight one hour out to DCA. I hopped on the phone to United while we stood in line. The rep quickly found this flight and began rebooking me *CLICK* Silence. Redial. New agent. Rebooking. Sitting on hold as they call American to transfer our flight. Hold. Hold. Hold. 45min later as the operator and counter clerk both redial American the counter clerk gets through. The flight just finished boarding. Too late.

Fortunately, United was still in a spirit of giving. They provided us with hotel and food vouchers for the night and rebooked us on a 6AM flight to BWI. Early enough to miss the nor’easter that was approaching the region.

As we finally made it to the bus stop for the hotel (O’hare is huge) we had a nice long wait ahead of us. It seemed the bus driver had taken dinner prior to our arrival because we waited nearly an hour for him to arrive. At least we could wait inside in the warmth of the bus terminal until the bus finally arrived. Of course, this is where the real fun began.

We were fortunate enough to hop on the bus (shuttle) first and grabbed the front row of seats (first off, first checked in). It filled up fairly quickly, and as the last guy boarded, he commented to a woman sitting several rows back, “You know, you could put your bags under the shuttle to open that seat.” Oh boy…

Woman: I can put my luggage where I want.
Guy 1: Wow, that’s rude, someone could use that seat.
Woman: Don’t tell me what to do!
Guy 1: You’re a bitch.
Woman: Don’t call me that! There are children on here! Watch your language!
Guy 1: Fuck you, bitch.
Woman: Fuck you! Don’t call me a bitch you asshole!
Guy 2: Hey! Watch your language!
Woman: Fuck you, you’re just picking on me because you think I’m a weak woman without my husband.
Guy 1/2 (mixes together, really): No, there are children on board.
Woman: If my husband were here you wouldn’t be picking on me! You’re just picking on me because I’m alone! What kind of man are you?
Guy 1/2: Oh shut up!
…It goes on like this the entire…fucking…trip… We seriously thought there was going to be a fist fight, it was insane!  Note that it is CHRISTMAS DAY! Freaking CHRISTMAS! These three people were going at each other’s throats!  We were just glad to get to our hotel (this particular bus delivered to three) and get the fuck away from the crazies (I went for the front desk so fast I snapped the revolving door panel out of place! hah!).

Needless to say, it was nice to get checked in, grab some free food (french onion soup served in a freaking onion!) and get a couple hours of sleep.

New Year, New Promises

Its been a long time since my last post and that’s really been eating me. I know all five of my loyal fans are chomping at the bit for more rants and reviews so I’ve decided to make it happen. This year I plan to post once a week here on this blog and also take my camera out for more photos for everyone to enjoy. Next post? A Christmas travel spectacular!

Mo’ Farmers, Mo’ Markets

Alexandria's Market in Old Town

Plenty of us take a weekly trip to the local Farmer’s Market, but have you ever considered what you could be missing out on by not going to some a few miles further away? Are they all the same? Does it really matter? I decided I was tired of only knowing what was at the Falls Church, Herndon, & Reston markets and made my way around to 5 different farmers markets yesterday.

Yeah, five. That’s a shitton of produce, meat, cheese, flowers, and various other local goods. My trip took me first to Alexandria, which actually opens at 5AM, around to Arlington and then on up to Bethesda.

I say Her-b because there's a fucking 'H' in it!

Once away from there I attempted to find the Mclean market, to no avail, so I headed over to Falls Church. Once I was done with what was my favorite market since living in Falls Church, I headed down to Vienna and finally home.Needless to say, dinner was amazing last night…

Alexandria was my first stop for the morning. I didn’t make it at 5, but I did wake at five and arrive down in Old Town around 6:15. It was a gorgeous morning when I arrived and I was pleasantly surprised by the enormous amount of produce at this market. Several vendors just had a total abundance of produce and all

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me. Millions of Peaches, Peaches ain't Free.

of it was gorgeous. Mountains of peaches and tomatoes, what a tasty treat. Sadly there was only a single meat vendor in sight while I was there. He was a very night guy, but sadly he didn’t have what I wanted: rabbit. Nonetheless, he was more than happy to talk about a few odd cuts of pork he had and I ended up taking him up on a pork sholder/collar cut that I may turn into some tasty bbq.

After grabbing a bit of okra and a few jalapenos I headed out to hit up Arlington’s market by the court house. I arrived early (they open at 8AM) so I grabbed some caffeine at Starbucks and played a bit of catchup on my google reader via my iphone.

CRABS!

When they were getting close to opening I made my way thought the market. It’s not the largest, which surprised me a bit, but they had a good selection. Plenty of produce, and what looked to be CSA pickups. I was very interested in the crabs that were being sold, but I was sold once I saw the rabbit sitting on ice. Though I had to wait until the clock stuck 8AM (they’re anal about start times at these things), I was very happy to see that rabbit. Sadly, there was little else I decided to purchase in Arlington as I still had at least three markets to go!

CARB-o-LICIOUS

Next up: Bethesda. On a Saturday morning it’s not difficult to get anywhere in DC. I made the trip in record time with almost no traffic. After another stop at Starbucks, since I had plenty of time until the market opening at 9, I headed over to check out the goods prior to the opening bell…literally. There wasn’t a huge selection here, as it is a smaller market, but what they had looked of good quality. I spent most of the time up until 9AM chatting with a couple that owns a small cheese making company. They seem rather new to it, but absolutely put their hearts into it. I grabbed a small wedge of Tomme before heading off, but I’ve yet to really dig into it yet.

From here I was off to Mclean, and with the very little traffic it wasn’t long before I was disappointed. I attempted to find the market from the address I was given online (A block off Hwy 123), but there was only one produce truck in a parking lot. To hell with that. I headed back down

Could you imagine the happiness these could bring?

123 and up 66 to the Falls Church market. I’ve been coming to this market for over a year and I love it. It’s sizable, plenty of produce, and a great variety of vendors. Similar to Arlington, there’s produce, bakers, meat vendors, crepes, bakalava, honey, etc…I could go on for awhile. I grabbed some rosemary Italian bread, red okra, and some nice heirloom cherry tomatoes.

Finally, I strolled on over to Vienna to find what they had to offer. They. Were. Packed. There’s a good bit of parking around the market, but it seems many picnic along the W&OD during the market. It was nice to see such community!

So Many Bright Colors All Over the Place

There was some nice stuff, including a crab vendor! The apple strudel (my brunch) from the Scandinavian bakery was quite tasty, but I couldn’t leave without peaches.

Finally, I was headed home. I considered dropping by Reston’s market, but I knew it’d be crowded by that time and I didn’t need to spend money on exquisite kettle corn… I regret that…

So, why do all this? It started earlier this summer when I decided I wanted to discover what other markets had to offer. What kind of deal are other people getting that I don’t get? Of course, as many things do, I kept putting it off. That fire was finally reignited when @floridagirlindc blogged about her trip with the head chef at 1789

My Haul

(@1789ChefDan) and their search for rabbit. Rabbit…I was intrigued and inspired. I’ve never had rabbit or even really seen it cooked so I figured it’d be a great challenge…and if a Chef was looking for it then it must be good…right?

Right! I decided I’d grill the rabbit. The woman who sold me the rabbit thought I was a bit off since rabbit is so lean, but I had faith in my grilling skills (and I had a secret weapon: Bacon).  After a nice four hour brine I sliced some North Carolina bacon and wrapped the entire rabbit in salty deliciousness! Then using a two-zone fire on my Weber kettle grill I cooked the rabbit for around an hour, turning 4 times so I could ensure it was evenly cooked. Slicing into it when it was done was excellent. I was absolutely delighted with how juicy and tender the meat was. I think I have a new ‘showcase’ dish…

Grilled Whole Bacon-Wrapped Rabbit:
Ingredients:
1 Rabbit
1.5lbs Sliced Bacon

Brine:
4C Water
3 Rosemary Sprigs
2Tbls Minced Garlic
3Tbls Kosher Salt
3Tbls Sugar

How could something covered in so much bacon NOT be good? The chicken was a backup for our friend @nikkidecoy.

Mix and brine for four hours. You’ll need to flip the rabbit a couple of times. Rinse the rabbit and pat dry.  Wrap rabbit in bacon and secure with string or toothpicks (I’m an engineer, I use what I can). Throw on your grill on the low-heat side for around an hour, but until done. I flipped mine about ever 15min to ensure even cooking and make sure it doesn’t try one too much on either side.

HAPPINESS!

I should also mention that the bacon I linked to is available at JR’s on I-95 in North Carolina (Exit 97).  It’s much cheaper in person and well worth the stop. It is THE BEST bacon I have EVER had. Period. Bar none. I would love to be shown better, but this stuff is just absolutely amazing.

I think I may have to do this again…on a Sunday…and hit up DC. Anyone else game?

Bittersweet Homecoming

Orange Beach, AL

As all of you know, the oil from BP’s Deepwater Horizon has been washing ashore for weeks now. The mainland it has hit the hardest thus far is Alabama and more specifically, my hometown of Orange Beach. I grew up on the powder white sands, blue waves, and abundant seafood that was readily offered up to all residents and tourists of Pleasure Island. A place home to pirates & blockade runners based behind Perdido Key and historic moments such as “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Warnings along the beach.

On July 4th, I made the most difficult journey in my life. I woke around 5:30, dressed, grabbed my camera, and headed off to my favorite beach in the world, Florida Point. It’s on land ceded by Florida to Alabama when Alabama built a bridge connecting Alabama Point & Florida Point. The bridge was made necessary when Pleasure Island was carved out by the Intercoastal Waterway during the Great Depression.

Arriving, I easily saw the equipment on both Points, with the huge pipe boom in pieces across the Pass.  I

Tarballs...

pulled in as usual and started my way down one of the boardwalks to the end of the point. I figured the best spot to see the aftermath of oil was the mouth of the Pass, right along the jetties.I honestly didn’t even make it to the end of the boardwalk before I got emotional. Taking photos proved difficult so I kept moving until I reached the pristine white sands.

It’s another 50yds from the end of the boardwalk until you reach the water’s edge at low tide, the sand was nolonger white 20yds from the water. Along with millions of small tarballs along the high water line, the sand itself was tainted a dirty brown.

Souvenir in the sand.

Oily rocks...

It was a difficult sight to take in. I walked along to the jetties at the opening of the Pass where I found the rocks splattered in crude oil. It was probably the most difficult thing I ever photographed.

I decided to take the scenic way back to the truck and walked along the shores of the Pass back toward the bridge. On the way there wasn’t much to see in way of oil, but the same stained sand was lining the shores, the pipes from the broken boom were being surveyed by some early workers, and the great blue herons

Pipe boom repair.

lazily wandered the shores. It was almost surreal seeing the wildlife intermingled with such environmental devastation.

Fortunately, the rest of my trip home wasn’t nearly as bad. I was able to catch up with most of my extended family, spend some money in the local economy, and devour what could be my last ever dozen of raw gulf oysters.

I was fortunate this past weekend, as I didn’t have to witness oil actively washing onto our shores. The day after I left, the tarballs returned in force, and will continue washing ashore for months. I’m afraid my home may never be the same again.

Sunrise...

Oil Spill…

So, on this oil spill thing. We’re all just fucked. I mean, it looks bad now, but i know it’s just the beginning. I haven’t seen a goddamn good piece of news out of my local paper in over a month, well, make that ONE article that warmed my heart. Underwater oil slicks, tar balls, an order of magnitude faster spill than BP said it was, loop current, failure on all levels to stop the spill, unwillingness to use the method for cleanup that Saudi Arabia used on the world’s largest spill ever, refusal to allow scientists to investigate, lack of ANY fire booms, toxic dispersants that sink the oil and slow the decomp, possible evacuation of my hometown if the oil washes ashore, other resort towns dipping to new lows, fishing waters shut down, asshats sabotaging oil booms, inability to handle a spill 1/60th the size they claimed, hurricane season looming, lies, damn lies, statistics, etc.

Hopefully y’all can understand why I haven’t had the kindest twitter feed of late, nor have I been extremely personable via IM. Each day I can only think, what will my trip home be like for the 4th of July? Will our island be evacuated? Will the oil still be offshore? Will I be able to inhale the sweet salty air, or will I cover my nose due to noxious fumes wafting through the air?

I guess, for now, time will tell.