Relaxing at the Beach & Tom's Fishing Expedition

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We've had a couple of relaxing days around the house recently. While it was in the high 30s at home, we decided to enjoy a sunny 21˚C day at the Broadwater Rock Pools water park. Alex built up his confidence as the morning went on and eventually was going all over the place. It helped that there was hardly anyone else there... it is winter, after all.

We've enjoyed playing at the beach... Tom building sandcastles and Alex destroying them. Alex has become much more brave with the waves and is enjoying chasing them... and then running away. Yesterday, he got caught in one and as he tried to walk inland, the wave battered him back and knocked him off his feet. Tom righted him quickly and there was a little whimpering (since he was fully clothed), but other than that, no ill effects. He went right back to wave chasing again today.

Since we arrived, Tom has been trying to catch a mud crab. There was a trap on the dock, and he wanted a big catch! After some online research, he first baited it with chicken... which disappeared. Then he tried frozen fish heads... the first batch disappeared after a couple of days and the second batch lured in two good sized Bream. Tom cleaned and battered them up and enjoyed them for dinner last night. He threw the remains into the crab trap and tossed it out once again (we had pretty much given up hope.) This morning, while we were getting ready to pack up and head out for breakfast at Pancakes in Paradise, Tom checked the trap... and voila! A real live mud crab! So, breakfast was delayed while Tom extricated the crab from the trap and managed to get it tied up. This crab had massive claws and was very flexible... it took both of us to get it tied up and into a bag for the freezer. He weighed in at 860 grams. We know what we're having for dinner tonight!

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Photos

Tom's Bream
Not a great eating fish... but did serve another purpose ;)

Lots of fun
It's tough to find things to do in the evenings - it gets dark by 5:30!

Mmm... before
Thanks to Tom for doing a great cooking job with the mud crab. It was very yummy!