Last weekend we had the opportunity to spend some time at my parents lake cottage with the family. It was a nice relaxing time, hanging out, kids swimming, everyone fishing, and just being. The first afternoon we got there we spent a couple hours fishing and with just two rods and we caught in the neighborhood of one hundred panfish. The kids were having so much fun with so much action, the only time they weren’t happy was when Dad(me) or Papa couldn’t get worms on the hook fast enough. We even were able to try out our new cane poles. They worked pretty well, but they will work even better when the new dock is in and we can get out to the fish better. We kept 20 fish and had them that night for dinner, fried up in some olive oil and seasoned with a little Mrs. Dash. It was great. And for the kids to be able to eat what they caught, it was pretty cool to see the pride on their faces.
I even got to work on my filleting skills (I have none) under expert tutelage of my dad. I think he was trying to make his 34 year old son feel better by telling me it is harder to learn/practice on smaller fish. That or he was telling me that I needed to catch bigger fish. Either way I got to practice a little.
The three oldest kids got to go swimming, with their cousin, since the weather was in the 70′s. I got up to my knees in the water, but it hadn’t warmed up quite enough for me to actually swim. We took out the small fishing boat and rowed around a bit, taking the kids that were interested for rides. We went for family walks every night after dinner and with all the fresh air and swimming, the kids slept pretty well. We also got to spend time just visiting with my parents and brother and nephew.
All in all, it was a great weekend, and I hope we can do it a lot more this summer. Here are a few pictures of the weekend.
What a view!
It really is amazing how refreshed you can feel after a relaxing weekend.