Kev and I got home saturday, leaving sunday as a “buffer” day, allowing us to relax, reacclimate, and unpack.
One out of three ain’t bad. I spent much of yesterday on the couch, trying not to move my right arm at all. Peeps, I was in some serious pain.
Why?
Fishing. Lots and lots of fising, using a very lightweight and springy rod….and a reel that weighed about 5 pounds. And lest anything of you say “hey, ESC…you WIMP! I know what fishihg is. You cast out and then sit on your ass and drink alcohol until you see your bobble wobble, give a little jerk, then reel it in. Fishing is LAZY work. There should be no soreness of muscles or tiredness AT ALL”
suck it, OK?
This was ocean fishing. We waded into the water hip deep. Dealing with SURPRISINGLY LARGE WAVES. And there was no bobber. You had to feel for a tug. Except that every wave passing feels like a tug. And you have to distinguish between the two, which isn’t easy and leads to a lot of very excited fierce tugging and reeling in, and then swearing, rebaiting, and recasting…waayyyy out recasting. With a really heavy reel.
My shoulder..and some tendon or muscle that goes from my middle finger, up the side of my arm, and ending at the elbow…will never be the same.
YET…every day….where are we fishing today???? the beach? the bay? the pier???
Kev was quite bemused to find out he had married a woman with this much fishing enthusiasm. Because it was fun! And you could maybe eat what you catch! and that is cool!
except mostly what we caught were:
Quoth the Kevin: I can’t believe we drove all the way to the damn gulf coast to catch fucking catfish.
We also caught pinfish and croakers (which make super creepy croaking noises as you’re trying to manuever the hook out of it’s mouth). These are inedible, but DO make good “live bait,” as we discovered on our last day, when we fished from the beach at the state park. Kev baitied his large hook with a still wiggling pinfish (sqick!) and cast far out.
After a while he reeled back in to recast, and found…half a fish. Something had taken a very neat and very large bite out of the back end of the fish. we both stared in horror.
“uhhh…babe? maybe you shouldn’t wade out there much further”
no shit. because oh, what I DIDN’T mention earlier in the week? something that happen on our FIRST full day at the beach?
I was happily splashing around the beach, waiting for Kev to get his act together and come down and join me. After a while, I just sat in the sand, letting the waves wash over me, and revelling in the ocean (if God is my father, the ocean is my mother. I love the ocean. If I didn’t fear hurricanes so much, we’d be looking for jobs in tallahassee right now). As I sat, I watched the sun glistening off the waves…and…a fin?
Hahaha…now ESC, don’t be ridiculous. You’ve watched jaws ONE too many times, obviously. That was NOT a fin. not so close to the shore!!!
Except…hehhehehee….crap. Yeah, that’s a fin. Two fins, actually. I stood up and stared. The water was nice and clear, giving me a great view of two 4 foot bull sharks swimming around about 10 feet from shore.
Uhhh! Uhhh! I pointed and looked around. What is the protocol for this? SHARK! ummm…HEY! SHARK?? The beach is mostly deserted, but there is an older woman not too far away who saw me pointing and grunting and came over to investigate.
We marveled at the size of the sharks. She casually mentioned that someone had caught a 3ft bull shark from the beach the day before. Well that would havce been NICE TO KNOW before I just spent an hour frolicking in the waves!
I grabbed my cell phone (dammit, Kev had my camera!) “KEV! THERE ARE TWO SHARKS HERE SWIMMING AROUND IN THE SAME AREA I HAD BEEN SWIMMING AND OH MY GOD THEY ARE HUGE!!!”
“sweet. I’ll bring my big rod”
pft. men and their “big rods”
The sharks were long gone by the time he got there, but for the rest of the week, I kept a sharp eye out for fins.
anywho…not many more pictures to share.
I made cookies:
and vodka jello:
we caught crabs. lots and lots of crabs.
In fact, there are still cooked crabs in my fridge - 7 of them. I’m a little sick of crabs. Is there any other food anywhere in the WORLD that gives you so little in return for so much work???
I finished my pirate hat
arrrrrr!!!!
I bought the best pen ever:
And on our last night, we decided to go splurge and eat a nice fancy dinner out, at the Owl Cafe in Apalachicola. Where we spent much money and drank a bottle of wine.
before dinner:
after dinner. I am drunk
Because it was our honeymoon, our dessert was free - the most delicious caramel custard ever. It was the only free honeymoon perk we got all week. Dammit.
Sadly, it came to an end. We packed up alll our stuff and headed home. I wore the t-shirt that my mom had found in hilton head the week before, which she thought was so funny she rushed mailed it to me so I could wear it on the honeymoon.
Kev doesn’t find it quite as funny, for some reason.
