What to do, What to do...

Let's go fishing!!

In order to go fishing all we needed to do was walk on down to the pier, rent a couple of poles, buy some bait and we were good to go! I of course, did not fish. I will fish but I'm a bit sad about fishing because I feel bad for the tiny fishes. I will eat fish, don't get me wrong but given the choice of catching a fish or taking pictures of people catching fish, I think you know what I would choose. We were fishing off the pier for about three hours so I had a gazillion photos when we were finished. Here are some of our pictures of our fishing adventure. Settle in because there are a lot of them because... well just because.

PS. It was a bit of a shooting challenge due to the fact that within the three hours we had a bright sky, then clouds, then rain, then bright sky. All the while It was bright and I had no way of seeing the LCD screen. This is when the old school film camera knowledge came in handy. Knowing what settings do what in familiar light settings is helpful because sometimes you have no LCD screen. Just saying.

The Pier... The way I see it.

The pole...

The bait...

The view of our houses from the pier... Hey Mary, I can

see your house from here!

Everyone getting all set up with poles and bait.

Doug, Molly and Max.

Speaking of Max, this is Max.

I don't know if Emma was too sure about it all in the

beginning.

Once she got going, she fished with her usual style and flair,

I may have the only daughter who fishes in "diamonds."

Amanda.

She held the record for the day of 16 fish caught

not bad for her first time fishing.

Steve.

It was the job of the dads, Steve and Doug, to remove the

hooks from every fish their children caught. That's one reason

dads rock.

Doug

Its also their job to make sure the children get to touch

the fish they catch.

These fish were rather prickly and spiny.

Its hard to hold a prickly fish...

And sometimes they bite, the pricklies, not the fish...

Amanda hard at work catching all her fish.

Chatting with Max, while still catching fish.

Max caught plenty of his own fish.

Molly did too, but they went to a different part of the pier...

And there goes Emma to that other part of the pier...

This is one of my favorite pictures...

Doug is pulling up someone's fish as is Steve,

Mary is hiding from my camera, Amanda is re-baiting.

Alix is listening to her iPod, and I just don't know what

Emma is doing... I just don't. Perhaps this is when it was raining?

Speaking of Mary... I was only allowed to shoot her feet

and her hand reaching out to her fish...

Seeing me with my camera was not her favorite thing.

Alix.

No fishing just music...

I really loved this plane with the sign it pulled...

It just reminded me of the 70's when I was a kid

at the beach.

Yeah, I know some people think I'm weird for taking pictures of

stuff like this. Seriously, though how could you not?

It's so fabulous and horrid all at the same time.

I saw this next to all the King fishermen's poles. What do you think

its for? Like, where did it come from and why a purple bucket?

The crew... Prior to the arrival of Alix.

To Black and White or not to Black and White

When I first started down this road of photography I was taught all my technical skills in black and white film. Sometimes when I'm shooting digital I still shoot with a black and white bind set. If you have done both color and black and white you know the difference I'm talking about. Black and white can change the mood of a photograph and even quiet it down.

Let me illustrate my point visually:

In the above picture, color- I totally look at the fisherman's shoes and hat and wonder who is standing at the side of the frame and whether or not they color coordinated their outfits on purpose. Black and white- I notice the hat again but for the shape and feel of it, I wonder what they're looking at and what they may be thinking. Way more interesting, at least to me.

With that being said, I thought the below shark story needed to be told in black and white.

While we were fishing we walked up to the end of the pier to check out all the poles of the king fishermen. It was fascinating to see how they had their poles baited and rigged up to catch really big fish. While we were standing there we were lucky enough to watch a small shark get caught. (Mary watched the whole thing go down!) I was thrilled the young man who pulled it up was happy to play along with my shooting of the experience, and displayed the fish and even opened his mouth for me.

Alix looking out over the ocean surrounded

by the king fishermen's poles.

Bringing up the shark

Sweet...

Removing the hooks

Checking him out, he's really beautiful.

Molly was lucky enough to get to touch him.

Not so scary after all.

Here he is getting ready to put the

shark back in to the water. The young

fisherman was the coolest guy. He was

just this skinny young guy but when he

began to talk a really deep thick

southern drawl came out, it kind

of surprised us.

PS. One of the older fishermen told us that if people saw what they pulled up from the water onto that pier, they would never go in the water again...

In the week we were there they told us they caught a bull shark, a tiger shark and two hammerhead sharks.

Yeah, we went swimming after we went fishing that day. We laugh in the face of danger, unless it's "feeding time".

What's Around This Place?

The first morning in our fabulous house was cloudy and rainy. It looked amazing and the cool thing about staying at the beach was never really knowing what the weather would be next. (Ok, you could check the whether report but that's no fun) Its hard waking up in a place you forgot you were at and then not being able to see past your own nose.

This is the view from where I slept. One side was the pillows

and the other side was windows and these quirky mirrors

with wooden sailors glued to them.

I did a lot of lying around looking at

this fan over my bed and the mirror

across the room that showed the

pictures on the wall behind me.

I get relaxed looking at these pictures.

I crawled out of bed to the smell of Starbucks coffee (yes, I brought it with me in my suitcase) and hostess mini donuts. The big girls were still sleeping and Emma was out enjoying the drizzle in the 90 degree weather. I found Steve reading and enjoying coffee and thought to myself that this would be a perfect time to explore under the house. All the houses at the shore are on stilts which leaves spaces under each house which I find fascinating and a bit creepy.

MMMMMM, breakfast of champions!

Steve reading his second book.

How can it be so warm and still rain??

Who cares, its fun!

Emma does a lot of dancing with her

Dad, and he does a lot of standing there

while she does.

Now to the house!

This is the best thing I found under the house. Isn't it

horrible? I love this and it was huge! Must have a

gazillion ants living in there!

The address was everywhere, lush plants covered the

grounds and things were hiding under the stairs.

There was a common theme of birdies.

I loved the signs of weather wear on

everything from metal to wood.

I LOVED hanging our wet clothes

on the clothes line and Emma

did too!

How much do you love the fence

and tall grass? It reminded me

of beaches I've seen in the movies.

Our walk way to the sand was my very most favorite feature on the outside

of the house. I can't even tell you why, I just loved the feel of it.

Well, that's it, All the details and special tidbits that made it really cool for us to hang out there. Later that day the sun came out and the adventures began!

Turtlie Turtles

Before we arrived at Oak Island Beach a turtle nest had hatched and many, many turtles pushed their way out of the sandy ground and down to the ocean. From there they swim out into their futures in hope of returning to the same shore at which they were born. They lay their own eggs at about 20 years of age IF they actually survive that long. I was told that 10% of all the turtles that hatch actually survive.

After a nest hatches the "turtle people" (Those who watch over, nurture, and monitor the turtles' nests) return to the nest and dig up the remainder of the eggs in hopes of finding any survivors.

Our closest nest was due to be dug up on our first day there so we made a plan to watch the process.

The digging started while Steve and Alix were hunting and gathering junk food. I was out with Amanda, Emma and my camera with huge and romantic hopes of seeing turtles successfully start their journeys into life. However, when we arrived I could hear the nest mother talking about how the one turtle that came out didn't make it and I saw him laying in the sand. There was a pile of broken eggs on the sand (from the earlier hatch) and another little pile of unhatched eggs on the other side of the hole. As I stood there and looked at the broken eggs, the tiny dead turtle and what seemed like very still lifeless eggs I began to worry that this was going to be bad. I looked at Emma who was now looking at me with her bottom lip pushed out into a classic boo-boo lip and my heart sank.

Its true that I am certainly overly sensitive (a common phrase others use to describe me) but at this point I was kinda panicked. The woman speaking was painting a rather bleak picture of what we could expect by the dig and the little turtle, and the broken eggs and the very still eggs and the fact that I left the house wide open... Whew! I caved and I left. I was so afraid I was going to see dead turtle after dead turtle and I just didn't want that life experience. I left and took the girls with me.

To my disappointment I found later that I missed the struggle and survival of two baby turtles! They made it to the ocean and swam away into the watery world. I chickened out and missed out. Yet another one of those life lessons learned.

This is the nest mother explaining the

process and her helper is digging up

the remaining eggs.

Broken eggs from successful hatches and the little

guy that didn't make it.

I know, he's so cute but it was really sad for me...

Here we have the little eggs that held the last hope

for this nest. Don't get me wrong, the earlier hatch here

produced about 120 other baby turtles prior to this dig.

The good news is that on our last night there, another nest hatched. Instead of the usual bubbling over of turtles we saw just one little guy make his way out of the sand. The thought of running back and getting my camera ran through my head. Instead I stayed and watched with my own eyes. This was one of those times when I wanted a moment in time to be my own. I wanted to watch him travel down the beach to the water and soak up every moment and get teary eyed and enjoy it without worrying about settings and composition. So, sorry I don't have a picture of Hatchie (Emma named him that) just the memory of his tiny legs working like a wind-up toy buzzing down the sand to his dangerous future. As many times as I walk along the Pacific Ocean I'll never see a turtle hatch so I'm thrilled to have this memory. I'm also thrilled to have shared it with my friends and my family. It was cool.

The House

I am a homebody. I know this about myself and I accept it. In my brain I want to travel the world but in my heart I just want to stay home and sleep in my own bed. Being that this is the case I feel I am being very brave and adventurous when I leave my home state to explore any new place.

Because of how I am I really need a place to stay that I'm comfy in and feel at home. Don't get me wrong, I'm the easy going house guest that will sleep on your floor if that's what I need to do. I just know that for 7 days I need some space I can go to that is my own. This brings me to the house we stayed at in North Carolina. I was really geared up to staying in a "shack". My mind set was in place and I was ready to rough it.

The first night of our vacation we arrived at Doug and Mary's beach house after 8pm and were lucky enough to stay with them until our "shack" was ready the next day. So after a wonderful dinner and talking in the on deck rocking chairs, all five of us went to bed. (We took over Max's room, thanks Max!) Three of us slept in one bed and two in the other. Everyone was exhausted from the travel and looking forward to getting settled in the next day.

Morning came and we started moving into our place. When I walked in I can't tell you how excited I was. I've stayed in some wonderful places but this beach shack (that wasn't a shack at all) was the coolest place I've ever stayed. We had three rooms and big beds and two bathrooms and decks all over the outside. Half the house was windows that looked out to the sea! I could not believe I was going to get to stay here for a whole week!

I quickly moved our stuff in while Steve and Alix went to buy as much junk food from the grocery store as they could.

This is our little house from the online rental add.

SEA SAGE

Our dinning room and living room.

Notice all the windows, oooo ahhh.

Here is the kitchen, dinning and a peek into the

hallway and bedrooms. I totally LOVED the decor

it was crazy and fabulous in a kooky way.

How much do you love that little couch in the

kitchen?!

This is the master bedroom. I could hear the ocean rolling

all night through those open windows. Yes, we brought

our own sheets. I also brought my own pillow, which helps

me with the homebody issues.

Here is the ridiculous view from our deck.

So, here I am just sitting on that cute little kitchen

couch looking out my door. It's about 95 degrees

Fahrenheit with about, I don't know, 80 to 90%

humidity. All the doors are open with a crazy breeze

blowing...

Just looking out my front door. Hmmm, what to do

what to do?

Oh I found plenty to do, trust me.

Vacation!

My family and I just got home from vacation. This was the first vacation we've taken in three years, minus the occasional two to three day trips we take out to VEGAS every year. I really want to post a few pictures from our trip and tell a few stories. Hopefully it wont be the famous scenario of a person showing 500 slides of their vacation while everyone sleeps on.

We left our home at 6am to fly off into the "future" time zone of the East Coast of North Carolina. We shared the beach with my long-time friend Mary and her family. That alone was exciting because I hadn't seen Mary or her husband Doug for 16 years.

We stayed in a beach house right on the sand at Oak Island. We laid in the sun, swam in the ocean, took long walks along the shore with Millie May the dog, and played games into the late night with the McManus Family. Amanda and I got stung by jellyfish and caught in a real life thunderstorm. We just had a lot of adventures that I want to share.

Here we are on our way to the airport:

So it looks like we're really great videographers! I think not, but at least we have something! By the way is our driver illegally texting while she's driving us to the airport? Just asking...

See you here tomorrow for the first story. ;-)