Paul took us to his favorite Fly Fishing spot in Michigan this weekend. He went last year with Jake Budd, and Ryan Christensen and this year they decided to bring their families. In the end, I'm not sure they were all glad they decided to bring us, but we were. :)
The location is amazing. It's an old lodge right on the river that has been there forever. The rooms are small and quaint. The back door opens to a beautiful lawn that leads right down to the bank so you could literally fish out your back door. The rooms have not been remodeled since the 50's and I mean gold flecked laminate, plastic fake stone walls and vintage 50's furniture and light fixtures. It was so authentic it was like a time portal. I loved it! You could get lost in another dimension hanging out there. The people that own the place were awesome. They were super accommodating and friendly. They let us eat at their restaurant the first night, but since the restaurant is small they did not have room for us so they served us in this big board room in a separate building. We could be as loud as we wanted and the kids could get up and run when they were done eating. It was the most stress free restaurant experience I have ever had, and great food too! Liz and Annie and I split up all the food and we ate all the meals together. We had a lovely breakfast of pancakes Sat. morning, then paninis for lunch and Cafe Rio pork salad for Sunday dinner.
There was a free Orvis sponsored fly fishing class from 9-12 on Sunday. Paul insisted that I go. He really wanted me to learn to love to fly fish so that we could spend time doing it together in the future. Isn't he great? I was not so sure I could ever get into it, but I found it to much for fun than I expected. I like the casting. I'm not sure I how much I could ever love the thrill of the catch or the "hunting" part of it, but I can see the art in all of it. One of the hours of the class was all about the flies. This retired guy who has spent his whole life fishing talked for an hour about the types of flies that live on the river, their life cycles, what fish like, how to imitate them, and what to look for when you watch the river. You can actually see the flies hatching out of the water and identify them. He knows what time of year and what time of day the different types of flies hatch and he knows what will fool a fish and what won't. Fascinating. One of the owners was watching me practice casting with the class and he came up to compliment me afterward. He said I was a natural. That made me feel pretty good. Paul spent the afternoon fishing by himself and had a great time.
The girls and I spent a lot of time chasing kids and trying to keep them happy. There was a little drama, but I think they all had fun. Eirik wants to be 16 and he's 7 and it drives him crazy. I think all the kids had the best time when I took them wading in the water. It was cold, but once we all got in, we got used to it. The water was fast and I enjoyed fighting with the current to stay up and getting completely numb from the icy water. It was very refreshing and I could see myself enjoying fishing to just be out in the water and alone with nature for a while. It was beautiful. I don't see myself taking that much time for myself for a long time though. My kids need me every minute.
Before we headed home, we stopped at the fish hatchery so the kids could catch a fish. It was the kind of place where the minute your hook is in the water, you have a fish and the kids went nuts. At first Eirik was so excited but as soon as he caught a fish and watched it die he broke down into torrents of tears. He ran to the car and cried. He called himself a murderer and wanted to go home. Joren and Teig thought it was awesome and each caught some. We ended up bringing home 5 and I learned how to fillet them and pan fry them. I thought they were delicious and I was so glad to learn how to do it. Teig ate some, but Joren and Eirik did not want to. I just love Annie and Liz. They are two of my favorite girls. You would think that in such an awesome relaxing place we would have had tons of girl time, but we hardly had a chance to talk at all. Our kids are still young enough that we were mostly just cooking, cleaning, nursing, chasing, changing and comforting the whole time. It was really fun to see Paul totally in his element and it was fun to support him in his hobby that he loves.
Retrospectively this wasn't the easiest trip. And it wasn't very age appropriate. It was setting the stage for a future vision. Long term, I'm hoping our family can go on fly fishing expeditions all around the world to exotic locations. This trip allowed them first hand experiences with a beautiful river and the wildlife therein. Still, with an infant and a 2 year old in arm, we were not able to show the older boys the river as I would have liked. The best part of the trip was that Melody got to learn to fly fish. Our friends were great. The Budds and the Christensens. And everyone's personality and quirks came through. In the end, it was really fun...
Eirik's Vacation Journal:
Today is Monday. We started on Saturday. We just finished driving the car for five hours. We unpacked and met our friends for dinner. The next morning we woke up and watched some tv in our cabin. It was pretty nice. They said that the next day we could go canoeing. We played with our friends then I went to a fly fishing class. We went on a hike and then went back to the cafe for dinner. After we went back home we built a campfire and had smores. We stayed up late. The next morning we could not go fly fishing or canoeing but we got to wade again. Then we had breakfast and came back to the cabin. We played at the park some more and went tracking down by the stream. Then we got into the car and went to the fish hatchery and caught a lot of fish there- 5 to be exact. It was time to drive back to our house. When we got home it was rainy and we unpacked in the rain and put everything away. The best part of the trip was that I got to have time with my family and friends!!!
Once there was a campout. And here come the problem with Amy. She showed us her privates. I felt sad. We were at the playground when it happened. Everyone got in trouble. Then we, after that, there was, when it was lunchtime we did this little game. It was about whoever colored their fish page the nicest got a coin or a penny or a nickel or a quarter. After that we went to bed. The next morning we had another lunch. It was outside. And we with a table and there was some watermelon. And I liked getting wet in the stream. It was really really fun and I liked my family.
I liked the playground and playing checkers and playing my whittle tiny checkers and putting them in my bag and Eiriks pocket. Then I put them in my pocket. That's the last thing I did. I saw many many flies and saw them go into the woods. Into the tree with lots of holes. That where the fly house live. I hate those flys. There bug us. I can't fit in the fly house. I can't. I went swim. And I dig last morning. I ate a granola bar in the middle of the night and got messy all over my bed.
There trees are red. They're dancing and smelling the smell of the flies and to the black trees. And there was gone dun dun dun. That's the crudes. The mom come up and the baby come up and they say dun dun dun. That was a movie theater.
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