A day to remember!

Or a bad day to be a mackerel depending on if your are glass half full kind of person I guess. My sister is all about the fun, kind, generous and fun-loving. She works hard and she plays hard; she's a good person to show my kids that one can do both, as it's very difficult for me to not be doing anything, (vacations stress me out) and yesterday she invited us to play hard with her.

Her son loves to fish, and she loves the ocean, so she combined the two and thought we'd like to tag along too. She's taking a vacation on the beach, and invited us to go along as a birthday gift to my children on the 2 hour chartered fishing trip she'd planned for her son. Knowing that was something Faith and Andrew would love I took her up on it. We arrived at the dock at about 10:30, which meant we had to get up extra early, get the barn chores done and drive for an hour and a half in order to not miss the boat. When I walked into the goat's stall to vet Venus for milking she yawned, blinked and looked at me like 'Seriously?! Do you know I have no milk right now - because I was sleeping!?' And Garlic nickered then stomped his foot like 'You're late! I'm starving!' So we hop on the boat, life jackets handed out and we set sail. Well, we didn't actually sail out, it just read better, go along with it! Part of this excursion included pulling lobster traps and checking out what was in them, when the first on was pulled - bupkas! It's baited and plopped back into the water. Then we are taken to an island to see seals!

These guys were just lounging on the rocks in the sun and looking like 'Well it's about time you showed up! We we're wondering where our daily dose of admirers was. Besides do you have any idea how hard it is to pose so perfectly like this on these sharp rocks?!'
This one decided to see us more up close and personal than I found comfortable. Kind if rattled my nerves and my sister said to me, "You're such a girl!" On land is one thing, in the ocean is another. It was cute to look at but I prefer the up close and personal to be through the lens of my camera.
Looking at this guy all shiny and sunning himself on the rocks made me think, "Do these guys ever get skin cancer?" Weird huh? Welcome to my brain.
After we ogled the seals long enough we pulled another trap, jackpot! This one had a lobster, a crab, a couple hermit crabs and some "squirt guns" which I think are......oh heck, I'm drawing a blank, sorry.
Faith and the "squirt gun." Can you tell what it is?
Measuring the lobster and talking about what makes it a male and all about those crazy huge claws.

Faith liked the hermit crab - until it started coming out of it's shell...

Then he took us to see a real working lighthouse, it's fully automated, which means no lightkeeper, but it's so beautiful to look at. And at some point along the way while we were bouncing over the waves and the kids in the front were getting splashed my nephew says to the captain in a slightly alarmed but trying to be casual manner "Uh, we're taking on water!" I nearly fell out of the boat laughing! I was totally him! And fyi, we we're not taking on water, the water was just splashing over the side of the vessel, no worries, no danger. He comes (as does Faith) from a long line of worriers and panic-ers, so he comes by it honestly. In fact I don't even worry anymore about much of anything, because I know that Faith's got it covered! But when I do worry or panic it's huge! (The heat/humidity we had here today has melted my brain, so I cannot remember the name of this lighthouse either, I'll ask the kids tomorrow, they'll likely remember.) I read somewhere that the lighthouses in America are like the castles in England. I love that because I love lighthouses and to compare them with something I'll likely never get a chance to see struck a chord with me and it has stayed with me and I think of it whenever I see a lighthouse. It's too bad they are closed, what a thrill it would be to be able to rent it for a night or two, like a hotel room. Can you imagine having an entire lighthouse; and island to boot, all to yourself for a day or two?
Once we got to the fishing spot we dropped the anchor and were handed poles and given instructions on how to jig the line. I proceeded to dance a little jig and laughed - that was not what he was talking about. I was the first one to catch anything and let me tell you it's hard to fish with one hand and shoot pictures of all three kids because we've 'got a man down!' My sister started looking a little green around the gills whenever we stopped and just bobbed up and down in the ocean, I thought for sure she'd be tossing her cookies over the side of the boat but she just focused on the horizon and did as well as she could for the time we were out there. But hey, we managed I got some great pictures, caught fish - three at once even! (I'm amazing...) and she didn't vomit, so it was all good!
Her son thoroughly enjoying his time on the water despite being concerned his mother was so ill.
Then the excitement really starts! Faith is next with a string if 4 fish on her line! She's counting because she cannot believe it. It was a fancy schmantzy line with 4-5 hooks on it, I had one too - until I got it all tangled after I'd caught 3 fish on it. Ok, so I'm not that amazing...
And finally Andrew's line gets a hit - actually he ended up catching the most, 13 I think. I'm so thankful that my sister though that this would be something they'd like and that we were able to get away from the farm for a day and go.
There's the whole motley crew, Faith and Andrew grinning from ear to ear, my nephew suddenly being camera shy, me thankful to be back safely, and my sister just thankful not to be on a bobbing boat out at sea. A very wonderul time was had by all and if you ever get a chance to come to Maine, you should check it out! The memories (and pictures) will last a lifetime!
And just a favorite parting shot for the day, we we're poking around in some of the shops and eating sweet potato fries down at the pier when we looked up and saw this little gem so of course I shot a few pictures as it was setting and I'm thrilled with the way they came out. Andrew thought it quite looked like Jupiter with the clouds in front of it, I'd have to say I agree.