Twins' first fishing trip:

The twins’ first fishing trip, June 16, 2007: Casey has a passion for fishing so great that he really has no other hobbies, and he’s been waiting almost 4 years to get the twins out fishing. We were hoping to go to Chincoteague this weekend for tuna fishing offshore (the twins are still too little for offshore), but the warm water isn’t close enough to shore to bring the fish into range (50 miles offshore). So at the last minute we decided to take the kids fishing today. On a boat ride two weeks ago Alex spent the whole trip in the lap of one adult or another insisting that he needed a hat over his face and two arms to hold him. He is always enthusiastic at the prospect of a boat ride, but doesn’t seem to actually enjoy it. On previous boat trips we’d always had extra grown-ups around to help with the kids while Casey drove the boat, but this trip was just the 4 of us so we had the kids sit in the cabin leaning on the new beanbag chair that one of Casey’s friends recently bought. Alex was quite calm about riding in the cabin, so we can only speculate that it is the wind that bothers him about riding on the deck. The Father’s Day present I bought for Casey is two child-sized deck chairs. Casey showed them to me in the catalog and has been saying for months that they would be nice to have for fishing. I didn’t understand at all how these chairs could be worth their price since the kids have always sat in the lap of a grown up when we are riding in the boat, but it turns out that they really are invaluable for fishing. The water today was quite choppy and there was a lot of boat traffic causing the boat to really rock and roll as we drifted, but the kids sat in their chairs, the chairs didn’t budge, the kids had something to hold onto to make them feel secure, and we didn’t have to worry so much about them the kids falling down or falling in. We drug some lures along the bottom for a while and didn’t even get a nibble. I thought Chloe would get bored of fishing pretty quickly, especially since she got bored on a paddle boat trip last weekend, but she really objected to leaving the fishing grounds before we’d caught a fish when we realized dinner time was fast approaching. All told, the weather was beautiful, the kids had a great time, and I think we’re starting to hand down the tradition of fishing that Casey’s father handed down to him.