Floundah Fest '09

We had the perfect mini-vacation in Gloucester last weekend, courtesy of Micah and Becky. First, they took us out on their boat to go flounder fishing in Gloucester Harbor on Saturday. Catching flounder is probably the most kid-friendly fishing excursion you can imagine, since you basically let your baited, weighted hook sink to the bottom and then you just wait. No casting or jigging or even reeling required until something actually bites the hook. Aiden was so excited to just be on the boat, however, that he didn't really care that much about the fishing. He did fish for a little while, but he just wanted to real in the bait over and over, forget about the actual fish... and then when he discovered he could sit up at the bow of the boat with HaPa, the fishing was really not as exciting as that.









The rest of us caught plenty of flounder, most of them keepers (mmmm...), and just as many skates. The skates are really bizarre because they curl themselves up into a sort of ball when the get caught, and they stay that way until you throw them back and they sink to the bottom again. When Andy caught his first one he said he could have sworn it was a muskrat when he got it up to the boat :0)

Micah with a balled-up skate

When we returned to Micah & Becky's house, we had a great BBQ and chilled out in the yard all afternoon. Becky's sister Wendy and her husband Max and two girls, Ava and Stella, came over for dinner and the kids ran around like monsters.

M&B's garden - so nice!


Front yard

Ava and Aiden eating radishes out of the garden. Aiden had a swooning crush on Ava.



Stella waiting for her hot dog

On Sunday we all went to Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester. It's a great wide white-sand beach with lots of huge smooth boulders that kids can climb on. The boulders create some great sandy tidepools that have interesting sea-life in them to explore. We found hermit crabs, tiny starfish, shrimp, snails, razor clams, and crabs. Aiden was in HEAVEN. I don't think I have ever seen a bigger smile on him. Ever. He absolutely loved running and splashing through the expanses of shallow water left when the tide went out, and exploring the tidepools. We pretty much proved the theory that he has no cold sensors though. After last week's experience at Lake Champlain, I suspected as much, but this weekend he got right into a 55 degree tidepool and started paddling around, blowing bubbles, and kicking his feet. There had to be 20 other kids there, and none of them were entirely submerged in the water except Aiden. He's a nut.