Hello friends!

My grandparents recently took our family on a fun adventure – a charter fishing day trip! It was insanely hot and thus exhausting, but other than that it was a great time. 😀 I of course took quite a few pictures and wanted to make a post to share them with you guys.

Read on for pictures of my family being sailors for a day, a collection of the fish we caught, and a pretty sunset over the water.

Before going fishing, we all met up for lunch at a restaurant called NN Burgers. It was quite the interesting place and apparently boasted the biggest “LOVE” mural in Virginia. I got Jeff to take a picture of Sully and I in front of it… except there was a car in the way, haha.

Then we carpooled to the fishing place in various and sundry cars, since Dad’s side of the family includes 15 people with Chessie and Sully. Sully and I rode with Megan and my two cousins, Leisha and Jianna. Leisha cheerfully suggested a bunch of the songs that had made her cry, Jianna peered through her binoculars and tried to stave off her carsickness by rolling the window down, and poor Megan was squished between them. It was a hilarious ride.

We finally made it to the boat! I love this picture. We look like we’re characters in a book or movie… except we actually didn’t know what we’re doing, hehe.

It kinda looks like we know what we’re doing though, right? The captain and first mate (?) did an excellent job of teaching us and making us feel at home on the boat.

We’d gone regular pond fishing many times before, but most of us had never been charter fishing. It was actually way easier for the most part – the captain and his assistant did most of the work and just let us reel in the lines when the fish found them.

The views were so pretty, ah! The top picture looks almost animated, doesn’t it? (And slanted, oops.) We thought the speck on the horizon was a wooden boat made to look like a pirate ship… but alas, it ended up merely being a short lighthouse or buoy of some sort. So much for our excitement.

A few sunny portraits. Mom, Chessie and Logan (almost married!), and Gram.

I think this was one of the eagle or osprey nests we spotted. The colors of the water in this one make me happy.

A picture of Sully being cute and windblown, and a selfie with Sully wearing an amusingly disapproving face. (Long story, but don’t worry, he was having fun.)

Speaking of wind… Megan and I had to get Chessie’s expert assistance on hairstyles because it was SO windy from the top of the boat. The second picture is Leisha reeling in a fish. 😀

Here are some of the fish we caught! We only caught about 2-3 dozen which the captain said was way less than they usually found, sadly. But we still had enough for each family contingent to make a meal of them. I think I only successfully reeled in one fish, but it was the biggest one we caught! It’s hard to see its actual size with the perspective of the photo, but it’s the one in the left picture.

It was so hot at first that several of us (especially me) mostly wanted to take a nap. Mom did at least take a rest. I love the one of Dad on the right – he looks very fisherman-y… except for his farmer’s tan, haha.

Matching cousins. 😀 (They’re wearing stickers from NN Burgers.)

Hehe this one’s cute. Later in the evening we mostly sat around talking and relaxing on the boat since it had cooled down a bit. Logan and Chessie talked with Granddaddy down below me.

The water was magical at golden hour! So pretty.

I had to get a vacation-y sunglasses picture when the sun started to go down.

This is one of my favorites from the day. Such a lovely soft sunset as we were heading back!

Aren’t these photos so peaceful?

The best part about charter fishing vs. regular fishing was that we didn’t have to clean the fish. We watched the first mate do it though and man, was he faster than we are! :’D I feel like these pictures are sort of gross but sort of beautiful too? What do you think?

We finally made it up to our cars again, finished off a lot of the food and drinks we’d brought along, and got everything packed away. It was a long drive so we got home around midnight.

Ah, good times, good times. It was such a fun and memorable little trip and I’m so grateful to my grandparents for taking us! ❤ I love spending time with my family so of course that was delightful in and of itself. But it was also a really neat experience to fish in the Bay instead of a pond.

Do you like fishing? What about eating fish?

Thanks so much for reading, my friends, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***