Last year when my sister-in-law's parents came to town, she and my brother, her parents, and my parents went out on a boat for a fishing trip. They had a lot of fun and I think they all dreamed of doing it again.
Fast forward to last week (so that almost seems like I should say rewind). RJ's parents are in town again and she texts me and tells me that they are trying to arrange a trip back out on the boat and wanted to know if we would be interested. Without much hesitation, I agreed for the three of us. With a little buy-in from mom, we agreed to make it a total surprise for dad.
You have to understand...this was a CRAZY busy week for me. It was one of the long ones where I reach my 40 hours before I leave on Thursday afternoon. Then on Thursday mom and dad had a WHOLE LOT of corn to do, so it was another late night (shout out to the sister missionaries who so willingly came over and helped us!!). I had already told mom and dad that I had my hours in and was taking Friday off, but I told them I wanted to play. So here we are, almost midnight on Thursday night, and I'm trying to be all chipper and excited and "begging" dad to take me to the beach bright and early Friday. I told him I thought we should leave the house at 6 AM (see, anyone who knows me knows that's not believable...it's also the reason mom had to be in the know...there was NO way I could have convinced them both that I wanted to do this!!) so we could get home before it got too hot and that way dad could still get some things done that he wanted to do.
It's now 5:30 Friday morning. Somehow I managed to wake up and pretend like I was ready to go. Don't get me wrong, I was really excited to go fishing, but the early thing just wasn't jiving for me. I could hear dad in the other room, moaning/talking to himself (I think) and saying that he didn't feel like going to the beach. Inside I smirked...and hoped that this feeling would change.
We knew we had to leave at 6:15 AM at the latest to make sure we could get there in time. We watched the time going by...6:05, 6:10, 6:20!!! Work with me, people!! Finally we are all ready, in the car and driving down the road.
Then we need to stop for breakfast and drinks. At this point I'm sitting in the car alone (at 6:30 mind you...still in Waycross) and call RJ and let her know what's going on. It's going to be a fast and furious ride. The only trouble about stopping anywhere in town is that you are almost ALWAYS guaranteed to see someone you know. And the trouble with early morning stops is it's more than likely a friend from childhood and it won't be super short (not that we know anything about that).
We made pretty good time, and I'd like to go on record and say I did quite well at following the speed limit. We made one quick stop for a bathroom break because we didn't know what kind of facilities were on the "beach". Turns out I selected the worlds busiest McDonald's ever...there was a line for the men's room!! Crazy! Unheard of!
I call RJ again...it's not looking good. We are about 20 minutes out, and we are supposed to be there in 15 minutes. Panic! Finally, we are back on the road again and I put it in high gear (at this point I can't vouch for my adherence to the speed limit...I was sort of on a mission). As we drove over the bridge to get to Jekyll Island, we were admiring the boats. I finally found my in..."let's go look at the boats".
We made it (barely). Spence, RJ, and her parents were standing there. Spence ducked out of the way, but she stood there. You know how when you see someone you know, but you're not expecting them, so you think it's someone who looks like the person you know (did you follow that??)? Well, that's exactly what happened. Dad thought this lady looked like RJ...and then as he got closer he saw Spence. Poor guy then thought that we had come up on them getting ready to leave on the boat and worried we were going to make them feel bad for not inviting us (or something like that). While they said their hello's, I slipped off and made final arrangements. As I was walking back, the pieces all finally came together. The man who didn't want to go to the beach was STOKED to be going fishing.
Now, the funny part. How do you prepare someone to get on a boat when it's a surprise? I thought the beach would be the perfect cover. You know, bring your shorts and flip flops, sunscreen and shades. Yeah, no. That didn't happen in this case. The only thing I could say to him was, I tried.
Thanks to Spence and RJ, we were able to scrounge up a pair of sunglasses for him and he did bring his sneakers. And then, just like that, we were ready to go!!
Our good looking crew before we boarded the boat!
Flag blowing in the breeze.
Every Friday morning should start like this...
...and this.
We created quite the wake!
Coming in along Driftwood Beach!
It was such a fun day! We didn't catch much in the way of keepers, but we made memories that we will never forget. Next time...off shore fishing!! And no surprises!!
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