Scalloping 101
12:19 PM
Drew's parents recently bought a house in Keaton Beach, FL.
"Where is that?" you ask (because I asked the same thing.) It's right here...
It's below Georgia and south of Perry, FL. I had never been there before our trip in July. We spent 4.5 days there over the July 4th weekend and we had a great time!
The community of Keaton Beach is small but it's very busy during scalloping season, which runs July - September.
The first morning we loaded the boat in search of the perfect spot.
You have to snorkel in shallow water and look in grassy spots to find the scallops. After we got all our gear on (goggles, snorkel, water shoes, sunscreen, net...whew!) we were ready.
Libby put on her gear and splashed around the water.
She helped Drew find scallops, but she wasn't ready to dive under the water just yet. The more she goes with us the more comfortable she'll get.
Georgia Kate helped my father-in-law keep things in order on the boat while we snorkeled. She and Libby helped unload the nets as we brought them to the boat. They were also were in charge icing the buckets. Gotta keep the fresh catch cold!
I had never scalloped before, so I had no idea what I was doing. But it was easy to learn - swim, spot a scallop, dive down to grab it and stick them in your net. We went out three days in a row and we all found LOTS of scallops! We got our limit each day in 45 minutes or less.
Shortly after we got back to the beach house, we set up an assembly line to clean the scallops. Everyone pitched in to make cleaning go quickly.
When we weren't snorkeling or cleaning scallops, we had plenty of fun and friends to keep us busy.
We took boat rides, ate great food and the kids launched water balloons at boats traveling up and down the channel.
We really enjoyed the long, holiday weekend in Keaton Beach.
We loved scalloping have already been back again since our first trip in July. We have a new hobby and will look forward to scallop season every year!
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