63 crabs. That's a heck of a lot. 
Megan guessed 60! Since she was the closest, her prize will be something along the lines of me revealing the secret location to her. She's local so this info might come in handy someday. Steaming the crabs is rather "easy" (emotionally it's hard.) You need boiling water and very large pots. I did not take part in that process. 
Shucking is a little more complicated. For easy clean up, I covered the table on the back porch with some heavy brown paper bag like material. My Mom conveniently has a large roll of this stored in her closet for various projects. Then I lined up the first batch, march of the crabs style. 
This process is messy and time consuming. Good thing we had 7 of us. And Bud Lights. 
You really have to be prepared to get your hands dirty. The meat per crab is plentiful, but there is a lot of other gunk to work your way around. Gills, intestines, cartilage. Ew sorry, but it's the truth! Keep pot of warm water next to you for rinsing purposes, a clean bowl for the meat, and a can of Bud Light to ease the pain.
Clean up: The meat goes to the kitchen. The shells and claws etc go right into my Mom's compost pile. 
Our family has always been big on composting. What is waste on our plates and elsewhere in the kitchen will be recycled back into the earth (Mom's garden soil.) The concept of throwing an article of food in the trash was once very foreign to me. College and city living definitely changed that. My Mom and her boyfriend John got right to work in kitchen. 
John, bless his heart, went through all the crab meat with a fine tooth comb, removing any excess cartilage we may have missed the first time around. Obviously the texture is different, but it's all white in color, so it's easy to not be 100% accurate. Last year my sister and I adapted our crab cakes and remoulade using Gretchen's recipe, which is excellent. This year John prepared them while the kids played Polish Horseshoes. 
Holy mother of crab cakes.
Tell me these aren't the biggest ones you've seen?! Hence why I named them crab burgers. Before the crab feast we snacked on chips, salsa and homemade guacamole. 
Then my Mom served up one of the most incredible appetizers to date. Crusty bread topped with goat cheese spread / some had a Boursin cheese spread, then layered with roasted beets. 
I poured the tequila shots!! 
Espelon is the brand of tequila on hand. I had never tried it before. It's smooth and goes down easy.
Clearly I had a lot of fun photographing Mom's fancy antique shot glasses.
We went around the circle and each toasted to something we were thankful for. Nothing like tequila shots to bring the family together in thanks. 
To compliment the crab, corn was roasted on the grill and a fancy caprese salad topped with pine nuts, balsamic vinegar and olive oil was prepared. 
Everything was so fresh - from the garden grown tomatoes, to the local corn on the cob to the sweet succulent crab meat caught hours earlier. 
The salad was just gorgeous!
But the warm pan seared crab with crisp chunks of celery and peppers topped with a luscious remoulade was as expected, the star of the plate. 
The fruits of an entire day's worth of labor paid off tremendously. We spent the rest of the evening in food coma around the fire pit. 
Earlier my Mom's adorable neighbor brought over a homemade Tiramisu. After the fullness from dinner wore off, we passed the dessert pot around. I love tiramisu so I could have easily ate the entire dish. 
Now this is what I call summer living and eating at its finest. 
Up Next: Crab Cake Benedict.
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