By the sea...

We arrived at the beach Thursday afternoon, unloaded the car, then walked down to put our feet in the sand. With all three dogs.  Yes, I'm crazy.  None of them (to the best of my knowledge since they're all adopted) had ever set paw on a beach. 

That's Brisco Darling in the middle with the sour puss what-the-heck-is-this-place look on his face.  He was very uncertain.  Until he saw the seagulls and then he was all Oh, now I understand.... HUNTING TRIP!!!! 

And thank the good Lord Dracen was there and had packed an extra dose of energy because I don't run in front of people unless my, or someone else's, life is in danger. 

That wiener was on a mission like I have never seen.  He fretted, tugged, pulled on the leash and then rolled over on his back to plead if you tried to bring him back in away from the ocean.  I was going to walk him back to the house with me once when I turned to see that I was dragging him through the sand on his back.  I gave up and left him at the beach with Charlie.  

The water was a little too nipply for my blood so I never even broke out the swimsuit despite Dracen's pleas, "Come on, Mom!  Pleeease!  Put your swimming trunks on and get in!"  Yes, he said swimming trunks.  That would have been a sight.  

He and Devin, however, surfed the little waves until their fingers shriveled up and then complained that they were freezing to death each time they got out.  

Then Dracen started in about the fishing.  We drove over to Southport on Friday because I saw where there were lots of cute little shops there.  Ha!  That went over like a ton of bricks. We never even made it inside one store because I decided my sanity was much more important.  All that boy wanted to do was fish off that pier and I learned long ago to choose my battles wisely.  

We did manage to get a photo before we left the port... Just pretend they aren't smirking.  When will they create a photo editing program that will turn smirks and frowns into smiles and giggles?  Because I would personally pay good money for something like that.

We made our way to the pier where Charlie rented two fishing rods and some shrimp bait and we quickly learned from all the fishermen that it had been a real slow day in the fishing world.  But Dracen was in his element and was determined to catch something. Anything.

And he did... Two fish that we (we?  Like I had anything to do with it) threw back. The sun started setting and I don't do chilly if I can help it so I headed back up the beach to the house.  I hadn't been back long when Dracen came running up the beach, through the dunes and up the steps yelling, "I caught an octopus!  I caught an octopus!"  

According to Charlie all the fishing men gathered around, keeping a safe distance, as he attempted to remove the creature, that kept suctioning onto his fingers, from the line.  I would have died.  One of the men, still keeping his distance, said, "Boss man, you wanna use my pliers?"  

Of course I had taken the camera with me but Charlie managed to get a couple of shots  with his phone before one of the safe distance men pushed it back into the sea with his boot. 

Creepy McCreepster.  But Dracen was overwhelmed with excitement.  So much so that he locked himself in the bedroom with my phone and called everybody he knew in my contacts.  I get the feeling he'll be telling this story for a long forever.

The next day he settled for some shore fishing where he and Charlie caught two or three more fish and Devin caught a Dachshund.  Yes, Mr. Darling put his paw in the hook of the rod that Devin had propped up against the chair in order to bait.  I thought for a moment it was going to be the end of his seagull hunting career because he jerked each time I tried to touch it.  I held his paw still and told Devin to go call Houston and inform them we had a problem.   In other words, I wanted him to go fetch Charlie from his fishing spot asap. 

Turns out the hook was barely in there and he was back to running Dracen up and down the shore in no time.  I even trotted him and the other two, who preferred to keep their paws in the dry sand, a few times before we finally called it a day.  

There was a picture hanging in one of the bathrooms of the house that read, 

Heaven's a little closer in a house by the sea...

I have to agree.