Crabs, Ahoy!

It's a long trip...I'll need a snack.  Like a scene straight from Men In Black, I'm pretty sure that by the time we hopped in our cars at the end of our D.C. tour, we were all a little tired, a little crabby, and a little hungry.  OK, so maybe "a little" is an underestimate...we were all in dire need of re-fueling; it's hard work being tourists!!

**Insert photo of tired, hungry, crabby tourist group HERE**

Mike used his iPhone navigation skills to find an appropriate establishment.  Our only requirements: 

1.) The place should serve seafood...after all, it is the East Coast. 

2.) Our destination had to be somewhere on or near our route home.

3.) We had to find somewhere quickly, because we were damn hungry! 

Mike directed us toward Laurel, MD on a whim...by that I mean that I almost missed the exit and by the time we told the other vehicle the plan, they did miss it and had to continue driving and turn around further down the freeway.  Ultimately, we ended up here:

Let's just say it was a bit of a dive...which ultimately we knew based on the reviews Mike read.  The reviews also said not to be turned away by the "dive-ness" of the place, because the food was well worth it!

You know the place is great when the sign on the bar door says 'USE OTHER DOOR"

We found the OTHER door...just steps to the left

We walk in the door, were greeted and immediately asked if we even needed menus.
Yes, yes we do...there will be six people total...greeter proceeds by tearing off two large sheets of craft paper (our table cloth) and four--count 'em, four menus.  Hmmm...thought there were six of us!?!

So apparently 90% of their sales are CRAB, which makes sense...to the total of 2400 pounds of crab per week.
Maybe this is why we didn't need menus?  

Looks like we found ourselves some crab!

I think the crab was getting ready to eat us!

Molson Golden, anyone?? If I remember right, there were two beers on tap
and only a handful of bottles, hence the fact that Molson Golden was one of the best choices! 

All-you-can-eat crab

After a while, I started posing the crab...he's enjoying a few hush puppies and french fries...

Obviously can't forget the Yuengling...a crab needs beer! This might be one of my favorite pics!

The only air conditioner in the place was the small wall unit you see in the photo above.  There were however, EIGHT ceiling fans...none of which were on.  Hmmm....it was actually quite funny! I've never seen so many fans in one small room!

Ironically, the shrimp were just as difficult to peel as the crab were to crack.  Enjoying the process...the table was definitely getting nasty with food and shells, I'll spare you the photos.

What a laugh! In just a few words...the food was great.  We're still not really sure what the town of Laurel, MD is actually like...and not sure if we should find out.  The place was interesting. Our drinks were served in styrofoam cups. There were no plates. A creepy dude eating three dozen crab didn't quite get the fact that we were trying to joke with him and not really eat his crab. A nice couple (recent transplants from Denver) taught us how to correctly crack and eat the crab. The waiter/greeter was actually quite fun when we could get him near our table...and even more friendly when he learned that we were from Minnesota, since he was headed back to Dakota, MN for a family wedding the next week.  The table next to us was amazed (as were we) that neither of the TV's mounted on the wall worked, even though they both appeared to be connected to a power source.  Oh, and the cook was a shoe-in for the guy from Pirates of the Caribbean who always loses his eye--with a little bit darker, longer, and more scraggly hair.  Seriously.

All in all, it was just what we all needed after a long day practicing our tourist skills.  We left with stomachs sore from laughing and full of crab :-)  I'm sure we'll be back at some point or another...did I mention they had one mean jumbo lump crab cake??

Happy travelers :-) Pretty sure this might be the ONLY group shot we got the entire weekend.
I'm gonna have to remember to be better at this next time, more group shots!