whoflungpoo: Peanut Festival

Peanuts are grown in the South and apparently Alabama is quite proud of their peanuts, so much so that there is a festival revolving around them every Fall for a few weeks. Over Veteran's Day weekend, Tyler had the opportunity to march in the Peanut Festival Parade and then we spent some time at the festival, which is just like a county fair with an emphasis on peanuts. It was fun to participate in a southern tradition.

Tyler had to drive to Dothan (30 minutes southeast of Fort Rucker) early to line up for the parade so Mommy got all the kids ready and loaded up by herself and even got good seats to watch the parade.

Here Andrew and Sylvia are munching on snacks as the parade began.

Can you spot Tyler? He is in the second row giving us the side eye. We are proud of our Soldier!

There seemed to be an over abundance of beauty queens in the parade. Sylvia liked to see all the princesses. Also there was a tractor that poured out peanuts in their shells and everyone on the sidelines grabbed a bag and ran into the road scooping them up. I did not come prepared with a bag but I sent Andrew and Sylvia out to grab some too and they grabbed a few handfuls and stuffed their pockets and munched on peanuts the rest of the day. Sylvia's car seat looked like a squirrel had been there because of all the peanut shells she left behind.

Once Tyler had finished the parade route he walked back to us and was able to enjoy the rest of the parade with the family!

It was a fun parade.

Christian was feeling patriotic as well!

Then we made our way over to the fair grounds. We have been asked by several locals if we have tried the boiled peanuts, pronounced bowled peanuts, and we finally had the chance to do so! Little known fact is that peanuts actually belong in the legume family (beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.) and when boiled, in my opinion, the peanuts tasted like salty, mushy beans. We did not particularly like them (Sylvia did) but at least we tried them!