Vacation! (Shrimp Boat edition)

We went on vacation! We spent the week of the 4th of July in Ocean Springs, Mississippi (just over the bridge from Biloxi) and I would highly recommend it! We rented a house, so we could do laundry and cook some meals at home and have more space for the kids to hang out. We'd typically go to the beach in the morning and then again after dinner. We tried to find an excursion each day during the afternoon. One day we went on a shrimp boat tour, which was a lot of fun, and I took a lot of pictures of it, so I'll make a separate post and then put up some other vacation photos tomorrow.

James fell asleep during the short drive over the bridge and then slept through the first half of the tour. It was a good thing we didn't have to pay for him since he's 3.

They sent out a tri-line and caught some fish, squid, and shrimp. The kids were impressed by the squid letting out ink, and Amelie picked up a fish that flopped over and threw it back in the ocean.

We didn't get any pictures, but we saw a group of 3 dolphins out ahead of the boat first, and then they came back around behind the boat. The tour guide explained that they follow the boats to steal the shrimp and eat all of the non-shrimp seafood that gets thrown back in the water. There were also a lot of seagulls following the boat for the same reason.

Amelie got a turn driving the boat.

And so did James. James was very impressed that there was a big black dog sleeping on the boat during the tour.

This was also one of the only times I took the real camera out (I didn't want to leave it with our stuff on the beach or look like too much of a tourist) so most of the rest of the pictures are from our cell phones.