In Grand Isle, a very generous, and friendly man, Rueben, offered to take us fishing!!! So we accepted, and the next morning we headed! We didn’t catch anything but he offered to take us out again the next morning… at 6:30?. But it was ok, we survived and had a good time, anyway.?

The awesome part of staying in a small coastal town: the cheap shrimp prices! For a pound of fresh-off-the-boat jumbo shrimp it was $3.50, and normally in a grocery store it’s around $9 for frozen shrimp. It was really good! I let Mom and my sisters take the heads off and clean the shrimp… We made shrimp scampi and garlic shrimp; mmmmnnnmmmmnnnn!?

An HDR photo of the sunset over the harbor.

The next morning we decided to try a different spot to fish, as the other place didn’t yield much luck. And Cassia ended up “assisting ” in catching this fish! Another guy was fishing in the same spot, and he started reeling in this big guy, and during this time Cassia’s like, “I got something, I got something!!!” So everyone is furiously reeling in all the lines trying to clear the water for the two with the fish on their lines. And when we can finally see the water rippling where the fish is madly trying to escape, we figure out Cassia is only just hooked on the guys line. So we gave her an assist and got our photo taken with the other guys fish!??

Yay!!! A success! Lanaya caught the first fish of the day, a cat fish. And fun fact for y’all, well, at least, I didn’t know this, catfish have spines on their fins that are poisonous. If you get stabbed by the spines, they inject a venom into your skin that causes swelling, burning, and injects a hemolytic which causes increased bleeding. Poor Reuben got stabbed. ?

Lanaya’s second catfish, and they both look a little surprised!?

And then, yay, I caught a fish!!! Apparently these pin fish are good for bait so the other fisherman took it and used it. This fish also has spines, but no one got stabbed!

And Lanaya’s third catfish! (She had the most success!)

After we finished fishing with Rueben we went out and bought our own fishing pole! ? And we had success with it, as well!!! Cassia, the fishing lover, finally caught a fish!

Lanaya’s fourth fish, she definitely had a most successful day!!

And Cassia caught a second fish!

We moved on the next day and headed to St. Bernard S.P. for the weekend. The weather was perfect for a fire, so we roasted wieners and ate s’mores!

And definitely the most annoying part of our trip – the longest bridge in the world, 23.8 miles long. Every part of a mile was marked (ex. 22.1, 22.2, 22.3, 22.4, 22.5, 22.6, 22.7, 22.8 and so on) and so my sisters decided to chant, every time we passed a marker, the number. For all 238 numbers they did it!!! Lucky dad, he had earplugs!!!

We went to the beach and had a sand castle building contest! The water was warm, and pretty shallow, but the sand was beautiful. It was white and super soft! You would take a step and your foot would sink at least two inches.

The castle that Ivan, Valerie, and I built, complete with a moat and bridge, stairs up the side, watch towers, and acres of field surrounding it.

Nevin, Cassia, and Lanaya built this fortress.

And then, because in Mississippi it’s legal to ride in the box of your truck, we rode home from the beach, leaving all of the sand in the back, and none on the seats!

What we did for fun, whenever we could! We played bump! Please ignore the run on sentences that may occur…? And for those who don’t know how to play: first of all you need two basketballs, then everyone lines up in whatever order you feel like, with the two balls at the front of the line. As soon as the first person shoots the ball, the second person can shoot, and the goal for the second person is to get the ball in before the first so that you can get them out. But if the person who shot first gets it in before the second person, they pass it back to the third person in line who tries to get it in before the second person, and on it goes. Finally there are two people left who battle it out, and whoever wins is the champion, and then you play it all over again!!! Now, the reason for the name of the game, is because you are allowed to “bump” the other persons ball away from them, so that you’ve got a better chance of getting the ball in the hoop before the other player. I hope that all made sense!

We also went to a train museum, that had a whole buch of train rides that were a blast!

This ride you had to “peddle” with your hands to go around the track. You could go as fast, or as slow, as you wanted…. Except if you went too slow someone would likely run into you!?

The big huge house we stayed in that could sleep up to 23 people! And that big huge house made for some awesome games!!!