We ate catfish, homemade mac & cheese, brown sugar yams and everything else at Cat Daddys.

Crab cake sandwiches, fried oysters, shrimp Po-Boys with sweet potato fries at Boiling Madd.

Ahi tuna, fried-green-tomato crab-stack with cream sauce, fried oysters and Giant Red Shrimp boil at Shaggies.   And watched the boats come in.

The seafood platter, (everything imaginable) with a Shrimp BLT and Key Lime Pie at Pirate's Inn.

I gained 2.8 pounds in four days and Pat lost weight.  Go figure.

I can't even remember everything we ate.  My plan was to eat seafood till I was sick of it.  I didn't get there.  I think I could have made it at least another week or two--or three--without a hamburger.

The only thing they didn't have was lobster.  Crawfish, yes.  Boiled and fried. Clams, yes.

The only thing that would tempt me to go back would be the food.

As you drive South, the trees change.  In Oklahoma, there is a mixture of everything until you reach Pine country.  Telephone-pole pine country.  It goes on forever.  And then you reach the oaks.  The Live Oaks.  With Spanish moss hanging from every branch.  Swaying.  Limbs asunder.  It is a Gulf Coast staple.  The long limbs look like they are reaching out for you.

The only thing that has changed in the last fifty years are the off-shore oil rigs.  They desecrate the beauty of the shores.  Black patches on the beach must come from their sluff.  The rigs block the non-ending water views.  They interrupt your serenity.  God certainly didn't put them there.  Everything else is His handiwork.  Do we really need that much oil?

If you like sand, go to the Gulf.  And eat your way from Oklahoma, then to Florida along the coast.  You won't regret it.  Sit on the beach and watch the waves come in and the tide go out.  It will calm your soul.  "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters..." Genesis 1:2b