The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.*

We headed out onto the Assawoman Bay this morning on the Miss O'Webb with my brother in the captain's chair.  Mom, Dad, and Bill planned to fish; I opted out.  Each year for the past few years, I've had moderate success, but I eventually wind up getting my rigs tangled on something and end up getting frustrated (pissed, really).  So this year, I decided just to tag along intent on reading and getting more sun.  

We were on the water by about 8:15 this morning to worm our way through the network of "no wake" canals that lead out to the bay.  

Heading out on the canal.

I *love* what this woman has done with her dockside garden!!!

I bet that boat in the middle is fast!

Dad, Bill, and Mom

Heading toward the Route 90 bridge.

And looking back at the Route 90 bridge.

There are several flounder fishing boats to choose from in Ocean City these days.  Back when we would go out on a group fishing trip for flounder, our only option was the Tortuga.  This morning, I saw the Tortuga, the Bay Bee, the Flounder Magic, and my personal favorite, the Flounder Pounder.  

Tortuga

Bay Bee

Flounder Magic

Flounder Pounder

My intrepid fishermen caught seven flounder total, none of which were keepers.  :(  My mom had lots and lots of nibbles, but it took her over two hours to land her first flatty.  

Bill caught a flounder.

That's a good lookin' flatty!

Dad's catch.

Mom's catch...finally...yay!

Quite a few pelicans flew over us while we were out on the boat.  I saw pelicans flying over the ocean earlier in the week and tried to snap a picture but they proved to be too fast.  This morning, I saw them coming and caught two great pictures.

Hey, pelicans!!!

I think this is a great picture!

After our adventure on the boat this morning, we all went our separate ways for the afternoon.  Mom and Dad set off for Bethany Beach.  Bill and Casie headed up to the outlets at Rehoboth.  I also went to the outlets, but drove separately because I was only in search of shoes.  Once I either a) struck out at all of the shoe stores or b) found a pair of shoes, I wanted to be able to head back and hit a few other shops along Route 1 along the way.  (I did find a pair of shoes to wear to my dear friend Katie's wedding next month...hooray!!!)  

Coming back through Indian River Inlet, I took a few pictures of the new bridge construction.  That is one massive bridge they're building!!!

Approaching the new bridge construction from the north.

Passing the first section of the new bridge.

The second section of the new bridge. 

My final stop on my way back to the condo was the Fenwick Island Lighthouse.  A little learnin' at the end of the day never hurt anyone.  :)

Fenwick Island Lighthouse

The story of the Transpeninsular Line.

The history of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse.

More information about the Fenwick Island Lighthouse.

This would be a better picture if the silly power lines weren't right in front of the lighthouse!

Tomorrow is my final full day at the beach and my birthday.  It promises to be an AWESOME day!!!

* Today's blog post title is a quote from A.K. Best and was found at Quote Garden, keyword fishing.  

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

...a tale of a fateful trip...or several.

Tonight, I visited the Discover Sea Shipwreck Museum located on the top floor of Sea Shell City in Fenwick Island, Delaware.  It bills itself as Delmarva's premiere maritime museum.  Admission is free.  The museum isn't very big, but its collection is interesting.  I've been through at least once (but I think twice) before, but this time I took my camera and my time. 

The museum houses a large collection of shipwreck and recovered artifacts, complete with the stories of some of the shipwrecks.  One of the most interesting of these shipwreck was the China Wreck. 

They have a large exhibit of rum and ale bottles as well as jars that have been recovered from shipwrecks all along the east coast.

They have tons of coins and medallions that have been recovered over the years.

 

Two final treasures of interest (to me, at least) were an amethyst necklace and a dagger.

Lastly, the museum has a map of the east coast with pins that indicate shipwrecks off the coast.  In the picture below, the two green lights are Fenwick Island, DE (lower light) and Cape May, NJ (upper light).  Note all of the pins in the area!

Being a nerd, I read most of the signs and placards, so it took me about 30 minutes to tour the museum.  It was a good way to kill some time this evening prior to dinner. 

I can haz vaycayshun.

I am in Ocean City, Maryland for the next week.  I arrived on Friday afternoon and spent Friday night with my brother, my sister-in-law Casie, and our friends Matt and Amy.  Our friend Lindsay - in town for a few days with her parents -  joined us Friday night for drinks out on the canal.  

Looking east from the canal; the tallest buildings in the distance are oceanfront.

With tacos for dinner, it was definitely a Corona kind of night.

Socializing on the canal.

Saturday morning, I woke up just after 8 AM and ventured outside to take in the peace and serenity of life on the canal.  While it was blissfully quiet, it was also probably already 85 degrees and 7,000% humidity!  I snapped a few pictures and promptly returned to the A/C!

Morning on the canal.

My shadow on the Miss O'Webb.

The Webbs' place.

An artsy attempt.

My parents arrived in Ocean City just after 10 AM and came bearing breakfast and caffeine...hooray!  After a hot tea and a jelly doughnut (I didn't say it was a healthy breakfast!), I packed up and headed up to the beach here in North Ocean City (where we stay) to meet my friends, the Harts.  Debbie is a former co-worker from my T. Rowe days; she's down for the weekend with her husband and their soon-to-be three-year old daughter, Diana.  They stay with Debbie's mom, who lives here during the summer.  

Diana and I had an absolute blast playing at the water's edge!  She's a teeny little thing so the waves tend to knock her around.  I wound up holding her and we'd duck down and splash about after the waves would break.  A few times, she stood right in front of me and braved a few of the smaller waves.  Even when they did push her about a little bit, all they did was knock her back into me.  After about 90 minutes, a thunderstorm rolled in and a flash of lightning forced everyone off the beach.  As they tend to do here in OC, the storm blew through quickly, but we decided to reconvene back at Debbie's mom's place and hit the pool once the storm was over.  

Sure the hat is dorky, but it does its job!

We spent probably another 90 minutes in the pool jumping, kicking, and splashing about with Diana.  All the while, Debbie and I were able to catch up, which was great.  It's been over a year since I've seen the Hart Family, which is entirely too long!!!  I didn't get any pictures of Diana because I was too busy playing and having fun!  As I sit here this morning typing this, my arms and back are post-workout sore; playing with a little kid at the beach and at the pool is good exercise!  :)

The evening was spent socializing.  My Aunt Beverly and Uncle Tim were in town for the weekend, staying with my Aunt Nancy.  They came over about 7:30 and we spent the night carrying on in typical Wolf Family fashion. 

It is a lovely morning here in Ocean City today (Sunday).  I am getting ready to head up to the beach to get some Vitamin D, delve into a few of the eight magazines I brought with me, and keep an eye out for Rick - our favorite Ocean City Beach Patrol sergeant. 

I can see the ocean!

No sign of Gilligan, but I definitely saw the Skipper...

...the Silver-spotted Skipper, that is!  There were at least three of these butterflies on the purple bee balm in my front garden this evening, along with several bumble bees.  My purple bee balms is rather scrawny for some reason, but that didn't seem to stop the Skippers and bees from feasting this evening.  It was fascinating to watch the Skippers feeding...sticking their long proboscises (tongues) into each of the flowers on the bee balm.  I snapped two pretty good pictures and shot a little bit of video for your enjoyment!

Earlier this morning, while I was mixing up two batches of cookie dough (Sinnerdoodles and Tropical Chip Cookies), I heard a thunderous roar approaching the house.  I went out on the deck, camera in hand, and looked up to see two Apache helicopters flying over. 

 

I took a peek over the railing of the deck at the pond (which is currently without its waterfall because Chris suspects the impeller shaft on the pump broke - he'll be investigating that this week) and saw one of the frogs front and center on one of the lily pads.  

Oh, and the cookies?  Wound up being delicious!  Especially the Sinnerdoodles.  Let me explain their name. I was planning to make a batch of Snickerdoodles to send to a friend.  Last Friday, Chris and I visited Hershey's Chocolate World and I looked at the variety of cookies available at the bakery.  One of them was an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie with Hershey's Cinnamon Chips.  I had never heard of cinnamon chips before.  Lo and behold, they sold them at Chocolate World.  I was going to buy a bag to experiment with when Chris said, "You should add them to Clay's Snickerdoodles."  We started talking about how cinnamon-y the cookies would be and I said we'd have to call them Cinna-doodles.  Chris thought they would be so delicious and hardcore that we should call them Sinnerdoodles. 

The Tropical Chip Cookies are pretty good.  They are a basic oatmeal cookie base with the following additions:  white chocolate chips, dried coconut, chopped macadamia nuts, and dried pineapple.  They were an experimental batch; I've already identified some tweaks I'll make to the next batch (replace vanilla extract with coconut extract, double the pineapple and freeze it before chopping).  But I mean really...with all of those ingredients, it's not like they aren't going to be tasty as is!