July 9, Summer day 38, Staycation day 3

It was another good day of staycationing with the Reeves family!  But before we could leave, we had to deal with a major case of bed head.  LOL!  This is Samuel's head you're looking at.

 

We got that tackled before we could leave!  Whew!  Much better!

Today, we went to Athens, TX to visit the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.  This is it:  http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/visitorcenters/tffc/visit/information/

Larry's mom and dad have never been there, so they met us to spend the day.  Upon entering the front gates, one of the first things we did was stop at this giant channel catfish pond.  All of their tanks are made in a way that you can walk up to the side & see the fish swimming around.  The catfish can be fed & this early in the morning, they go crazy when you throw in some food.  My camera has a video mode, so I did capture their splashing & swarming on there, but there is no sound.

Look at the size of these things!  They were longer than my arm & nearly as big around as Samuel!  Giant catfish, I tell ya!

We moved on & visited several other "fish tanks" as we moved through the outdoor part of the center.

Check out the size of this gar!  (or is it guar?  gaur?)  Anyway.. a big fish!

They even had some alligators to look at.  The kids loved them.

Then we moved inside.  While it was nice to be in the air conditioning, I wasn't all that enthused with looking at antique fishing rods, lure collections & old boat motors.  (no, I'm not kidding.)  SEE!

They had some replicas of record-setting fish & then the actual nets used to catch some of them.

They even had a "Hall of Fame" room where they celebrated some fishermen (& women) with little plaques and a short video bio of each fisherman.  Sarah liked watching the videos.

Larry's mom moved on ahead of us & went to the gift shop.  (What a treat!  She got each f the kids a little goodie, so they were thrilled.  They always beg to visit gift shops & end up buying a bunch of junk.  She found some useful stuff that they really have enjoyed.)  Larry & his dad were really enjoying all the fishing stuff throughout the museum, so the kids & I moved on and goofed off a little.  There was a tall, cylindrical tank of fish in some sort of exhibit.  The kids discovered that if you sat behind it & looked from the opposite side, you looked like you were inside the tank!  LOL!  See?

After touring through the museum, we went to a dive show in the theater.  It was fun to watch.  They have a diver in scuba gear inside a big tank that is hidden behind a curtain.  You watch a short video about fish & then the curtain opens.  You can talk to the diver through a microphone in the theater & ask him questions about the fish he's feeding, etc.  The kids enjoyed that.

When we came out of the theater, there was a lady holding a 3 year old baby alligator.  She let all the kids pet it & take pictures of it.

By this time, everyone was itching to go fishing!  So we picked out fishing rods & baggies of stink bait (pee-eww!) and headed to the banks of the pond to do some fishing.  Savannah caught a few fish.

Samuel caught a few, too, but he kept dropping them before I could get a picture.  He did tons of fishing, though!

Sarah worked & worked to catch a fish.  Long after the rest of us were pretty well done, she stillhad not caught anything.  She was getting frustrated & upset.

But Larry told her we'd stay there with her until she caught a fish.  She was SOOOO determined!  Not long later, she did it!!!

They give out certificates for "first ever" catches at the center, so she got one!  (We got one for Samuel, too, since his first ever catch was at this same place about a month ago!)

This is Larry's mom & dad fishing with Savannah before she called it quits.

After fishing, we had a picnic lunch & then headed home for the day.  It was about 3:00 before we got home.  We took a brief nap (we were all pretty drowsy from our time in the sun, I guess) and then headed to my parents' house for supper.  I forgot to take my camera to their house, though.

Tomorrow we're headed for another day of cool family fun!  Til then......