On the last night of our trip fantastic, after a day spent at The Ocean City water park (and no, I did not pee in the pool) we had a feast of corn on the cob, grilled vegetables and the star attraction– hard shelled crabs. Maryland blue claw crabs are to the mid-Atlantic states what wild salmon is to Alaska and grits are to the South. They can be flown in, but there is nothing quite like stopping by a road side fish stand and picking them out of a bushel while they are still alive and kicking. The next best thing is catching them yourself which we often did on our summer camping trips on the east coast.

As with everything else on this trip, I wanted to share this experience with my children and I have to say they did not recoil in disgust as I feared they might.  First I taught them how to hold a live crab so that it would not bite them. (I consider this one of my special talents and part of my charm.) Then my brother-in-law, who did the cooking, showed them how to steam them in a large pot filled with some water, beer and Old Bay seasoning. The sauce was later poured over pasta and enjoyed along with the crabs. The final lesson was showing them how to break open the crabs to get the meat out. This they found to be a fun, albeit, messy challenge. And they loved the crabs. It was a perfect sendoff to a perfect trip.