The Ninth Annual MardiCrawl 2013, February 23rd-An Emotional Story And A Good Cause On A Day Of Fun

We were vacationing in Quebec, my father and two of my brothers. It was a fishing trip. At the time my father was in his mid-sixties. While we were fishing, my father's line would get tangled up on the reel of his fishing rod. When that would happen, he would spend the longest time trying to untangle it, thus missing out on quality fishing time. Granted, tangled fishing line can be a challenge to undo, but for some reason he just could not figure it out and would appear to be frustrated by it.

My father was a mechanical engineer, a person who designed and performed trouble-shooting on motors for vacuum cleaners. Yet, a tangled fishing line appeared to stump him at the time. It was the first signs my father was suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimer's disease, the affliction that little by little stole away his personality and eventually his life.

The Ninth Annual MardiCrawl 2013 will be held this Saturday on one of the hottest stretches of water in the Charleston area, and in behalf of a cause for people who have experienced what my family struggled with. The cause is the South Carolina Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and other local charities. The party is hosted by the Lowcountry Parrot Head Club. The Alzheimer’s Association is one of the groups main charities because Jimmy Buffet's father also died from Alzheimer's disease. Beautiful, historic Shem Creek in Mt. Pleasant is the place.

I have attended a couple of the Parrot Head meetings held at Red's Ice House. The Parrot Heads are a group of social people who love Jimmy Buffet music and engage in activities that are charitable, educational and that promote the general welfare of the community. The last meeting I attended, I became closely acquainted with one of the mascots - a white parrot who was placed on my shoulder by the head speaker during the group's discussion about memberships and upcoming events they planned on sponsoring. It was the first time a bird of that size sat on my shoulder. My advice to you if you ever attend one of their meetings - don't turn your back to the speaker or else wear a heavy, leather shirt and maybe a few crackers. Curious about the Parrot Heads - they meet the third Tuesday of every month at Red's Icehouse on Shem Creek and anyone is welcome.

The MardiCrawl begins at 2:00 pm at Red's Ice House, February 23rd. Check-in and registration on the day of the event is from 1 - 4:00 pm. Advanced registration costs $25 and on the day of the event $30. Participants will receive an official badge and t-shirt. Then the fun begins. You will crawl, not literally, from restaurant to restaurant eating tasty foods and sipping on favorite cocktails with your friends and new acquaintances. The sequence of restaurants will be Red’s Ice House, R.B.’s Seafood Restaurant, Vickery’s Bar and Grill, Water’s Edge Restaurant, The Shelter Kitchen and Bar, Shem Creek Bar and Grill, and back to Red’s where you will regroup for the after party at 8:00 pm. There will be live music, and of course the beautiful waterway.

Click on Red's Ice House and Shem Creek to learn more about this beautiful area.