Fishing trip = success

Every year we go on at least one fishing trip with the Hubs’ family. He loves to fish. His stepdad loves to fish. His mom likes to tease them about not catching any fish. I just like being by the water.

The place we’ve been to for the past few years got to be a struggle as T entered the picture. Last year he was pulling up on everything and doing the furniture-holding-walk when we went – and the place we stayed was not geared at all for babies learning to stand. It was also in an area completely oriented for fishermen, which meant that it was a great place for the hubs to stand on a pier and catch fish on all night long (unless it was windy, or calm, or rainy….or any other weather conditions that made fish “not bite”) but not so hot for me to hang out with a child all day long in because there was nothing to do in the entire area but sit in the house or visit the one bar in town where no one had any teeth. No joke. Not exactly a baby-friendly location.

This year we decided to try Rockport. It gets a thumbs up from this mom! The hubs didn’t catch all that much from our dock (but did well enough with a fishing guide to head home happy) but I was completely satisfied with the trip from every other standpoint.

There is a little mile-long beach there that is absolutely toddler-perfect. First, because it’s not actually on the Gulf of Mexico, there were no waves. While this East Coast girl likes waves in theory, in practice, with a 17 month old, I was completely happy that there were none knocking him around. Even better, the water actually stays really shallow for an insanely long stretch.  So T could actually “frolic” in the “surf” and run out into the water (Yes, the child has no fear of water) without me having to worry about him being swept away to sea. The beach had several playgrounds that were toddler-sized, which I thought he’d get a kick out of  - but he was too busy chasing the seagulls with graham crackers to even notice there were climbable things in front of him.

My child - beach bum and future fisherman extraordinaire

Oh, and there was an ice cream shop. A win-win for T AND me.

We didn’t do much else since he played so hard at the beach that his nap times stretched into eternity. But it was a successful enough trip for me to want to go back (and bring some of T’s toddler friends!) so that’s good enough for me!