Reelin' Reds with Red

So I have been traveling the South since that post in Texas and have thoroughly enjoyed visiting my old stomping grounds.

There is nothing like going back to your college town for a some friends' wedding and getting to see the people you survived college with.

Between Texas and Mississippi, we headed down to the beach in Alabama to visit Red's family. We thought this was going to be the "downtime" in our trip---little did we know...

The first day we got to sleep in and just piddle around. Then that was it.

The second day we took the boat out to Robinson's island for a day in the sun. The boys set up a tailgating tent and manned the grill while the gals floated on rafts (and as I reapplied sunscreen quite liberally over and over again...I refused to get a sunburn this year.)

Needless to say, it was awesome.

The next day was opening season of Red Snapper, and the boys were extremely excited about the prospect. Red's little sister and I decided we were going too, and then his mama jumped on board...in all sense of the word...and so we got up at 5am to head out to sea.

It was incredible. After returning in-land to drop off some landlubbers who couldn't quite get the hang of things, Red, his Dad, and I headed out.

It was gorgeous.

About 15 miles out, we found our sweet spot and started to reel them in. (I wish I could show you a video of my grace in motion...it turns out 10 lb fish can really give you a fight...I was sore in places I didn't think should be sore...for days!!)

I finally sat down with the rod in the holder because I wasn't as effective a man-handler as I needed to be.

Victory, fishes!

Here is Red in action:

We came home with 6 Red Snapper that day, all over 10 lb. It was an exciting experience and one I hope to do again sometime.

One warning to people...if you ever take Dramamine (which I did, just in case, though I had never been sea sick before...) be weary of the fact that it can and will (in my case) make you sleepy!!

I was so sleepy that at one point I thought I was going to fall out of the boat! I was nodding my head like I used to in class...miserable----but the fish made it worth it.