Fried Friday!!

I have always loved the fact that my husband enjoys the spur-of-the-moment adventure!! Today we decided that we would drive down to Clear Lake and do a little exploring. With very little information to go on, we decided that we could find a friend's home that was being built on Taylor Lake, check on "Ike" recovery, and have a little seafood lunch at the same time.

Let's just say that we are pretty sure we found the home, people are still recovering from Ike, and I'm hoping fried Friday doesn't turn into sick Saturday. I realized after I ordered my blue plate lunch special that everything on it was fried - catfish, okra and hush puppies. (No Josh, I knowingly did not get oysters this time!)

Joe Lee's is a long standing tradition for the Tony and Judy Hamblen family! Loooong before Tilman Fertitta masterplanned the Keemah boardwalk, there was just a couple of restaurants there where you could eat and one of them was Joe Lee's. It was located right next door to the historic Jimmie Walkers Restaurant at the end of Kipp street where the Chart House Restaurant is located today on the Kemah Boardwalk. If you would like a little of their history the family tells it best: http://joelees.com/history.php

Joe Lee's was family owned, casual, right on the water and the food was excellant! Today, it is up the street from the water, casual, family owned and the food is excellant!

For the Bobo side of the family I find it interesting that the channel which has become such a tourist destination was one in which I traveled with my family when Dad owned his cabin cruiser the "Lady B". It was how we went from the boat dock at Nassau Bay to the intercoastal waterway. (Sorry, haven't found a picture of the Lady B yet! Probably because it spent so much time in dry dock!) Little did I know that years later 4 million people a year would visit this little town named Kemah. An Indian name meaning "wind in the face".

Kemah, home to the world's third largest fleet of recreational boats in the United States, was also home to the pirate Jean Lafitte in the early 1800's. Local lore has it that a portion of his buried treasure was seed money for Kemah's notorious past - the illegal and wide open gambling days and nights of the late '40's and early '50's. Originally, it was the Edgewater Casino and then Jimmie Walker's Edgewater Restaurant and Supper Club which was closed in 1954 due to gambling. In 1989 it was reestablished as Jimmie Walker's restaurant and soon caught the eye of Tilman Fertitta.

And that as they say is "the rest of the story!"

He has given food to those who fear Him; He will remember His covenant forever.

Psalm 111:5