Thousands of people roamed the streets of Coupeville last weekend, plastic spoons in hand, searching for the best mussel chowder on the “chowder trail.”

The annual Penn Cove Mussel Festival, sponsored by the Central Whidbey Chamber of Commerce, was in full swing, with scavenger hunts for kids and grownups, boat rides to the Penn Cove Shellfish mussel rafts, the singing “Shifty Sailors,” and chowder, lots of chowder.

Nine local restaurants and one caterer participated in the mussel chowder cookoff. For a $5 ticket participants got a ballot and a plastic spoon. Each restaurant served up a two ounce sample, which may not seem like much, but for people who hit every server, it added up to 20 ounces of chowder.

On Saturday, the sunnier of the two days, long lines of people stretched along Coupeville’s sidewalks outside restaurants, and took shuttle buses to outlying participants, such as Coupe’s Village Bakery, the Tyee, and the Captain Whidbey Inn.

Chamber Executive Director Rita Kuller didn’t have a head count after the busy weekend, but she felt it as a success.

“It was fabulous mayhem,” she said.

Although the rain on Sunday may have lessened the crowds, Kuller said it was just as busy at command central, the Coupeville Recreation Hall. That was where people could buy chowder ballots, tickets for boat rides to the mussel rafts, and sign up for the mussel eating contest.

Dick Zust, of Coupeville, brought along Bill and Marilyn Skelly from Seattle to sign up early Saturday for the chowder “taste-off.”

The Skellys remembered the Tyee Restaurant as their favorite from two years ago, while Zust liked Christopher’s Front Street Cafe.

“It’s just a really neat weekend,” Marilyn Skelly said.

By the end of the day the group had made it out to the Captain Whidbey Inn, where the festival started 17 years ago, but they were no closer to choosing a winner.

“It’s impossible to pick the best this year, they’re all so good,” Marilyn Skelly said.

Every restaurant had their own special recipe, based on mussels supplied by Penn Cove Shellfish Company. The Captain Whidbey Inn served a chowder made from owner John Stone’s personal recipe. In addition to mussels it featured red arctic surf clams, yukon gold potatoes and leeks.

Festival-goers could also buy bags of mussels to cook up at home, or wash down freshly cooked mussels with cold beer in the beer garden.

Mark and Diane Fairbanks braved the construction ferry schedule from the mainland to take in their first mussel festival. They opted to start the day with a boat ride out to the source, the 42 mussel rafts operated by Penn Cove Shellfish Company, floating in Penn Cove.

The raft trips are new this year, run by Rick and Rita Claus, who have just started Liberty Call Voyages boat tours.

Rick Claus suspended an underwater camera next to the rafts to give a closeup view of the mussels before they reach the dinner plate.

Penn Cove is perfect for mussel production, because the combination of nutrients, freshwater inflow and sunshine creates high plankton growth, which mussels love. All the shellfish company had to do was provide a place for mussels to anchor, and the filter-feeding mollusks do the rest — eating and growing until they are harvested at about 18 months.

Sunday’s steady drizzle drove most people away by late afternoon, but it was fine weather for the mussel eating contest.

Five contestants shelled out $6 for the chance to eat all the mussels they could manage in one minute.

When it was all over, Stephan Wardell, five-time mussel-eating champ, was once again victorious. Wardell, from Belfair, shucked and gulped three “buckets,” actually plastic pint beer cups, of mussels to beat out the competition. Afterwards he said he felt “full, and a little shaky.”

For his efforts Wardell won a $50 gift certificate to the Captain Whidbey Inn, a Mussel Festival T-shirt — and a two pound bag of mussels. He’ll be eating them later.

You can reach News-Times reporter Marcie Miller at mmiller@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611