Green Monsters and Hermit Crabs

Well, I finally took the plunge and started making Green Monster smoothies.  Rachel told me about them a while ago, but a blender takes up a little too much power to justify their use (although we do actually keep one on board).  Oh, plus there was a shortage of ice aboard the Southern Cross.  The thing that makes the monster green is spinach.  In my smoothie, there are an abundance of other healthy things, including coconut milk, a banana, kiwi or blueberry (but blueberries always overpower spinach in coloring the smoothie), and wheat germ or ground flax.  Rachel warned me early on that if I put in more than a handful of spinach, I would hate the smoothie, so I've been going easy on the spinach (the original recipe calls for two cups!).  And in Kyle's effort to eat healthier, he's been joining me in my smoothie consumption.

In addition to making food, we've also been attending various events in the Hampton Roads area (Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, etc).  I think I can safely say that the weirdest has been the hermit crab races.  Apparently this event is really for kids.  For some reason, I thought all of Virginia Beach would share my enthusiasm for this crazy event and there would be tents of activities everywhere.  Not so...

We arrived a little late and they were already crowning the queen of the beauty contest.  Or dress up contest.  Technically I believe it was a painted shell contest.  At any rate, I never did get to see what the winner was dressed as.  What I had really been curious about was how they were going to make the crabs race.  They started with all the crabs confined to a circle in the middle of the table, then the crabs "raced" (ambled, scampered, scooted, crawled) to the outer ring on the table.  Click the picture below for some hot action shots, I can't believe they're not blurry :P

The winner was Zeus, and Zeus's owner was obnoxiously exuberant.  Come on, man, it's for the kids!  He was pretty excited about his trophy though.

Then later in the day (I'd say about eight minutes later), I was attacked by a giant inflatable crab.  Once those pinchers get around your ankle...I was sure I was a goner.  You can see the extreme terror on my face.

A little disappointed by the whole event, Kyle and I started walking around town.  There are an obscene amount of tourist shops, and we went to every one of them.  We found these little gems in a store named "Useless Crap to Burn Your Vacation Money On."  Southern Cross is now an armed craft, pirates beware!