Walkin' on Sunshine! (and thru puddles)

Wednesday, 7/16/2008:
We woke up to a gray, overcast day with rain in the forecast all day. We're still debating whether to try to get some fishing in before the rain starts or not. In the meantime, I'll catch up on my blogging...

Well, we never did get around to fishing, even though the sun did peek out several times in between showers throughout the day. After a lazy day around the cabin and lodge (except for Tom who took a bike ride), we loaded everyone up in van and went to Bemidji to catch the 5:00 show of "Wall-E," Disney's newest Pixar movie. Linda passed on the movie so she could have a little yarn-shopping time at the Ben Franklin downtown. Everyone gave the movie a "thumbs-up" although they said it was not what they expected. After the show we checked out several possible restaurants, and ended up back at the old stand-by: The Canal House at Stoney Point. Once again, we were not impressed as the service was slow and food just average. When we got back, Seth & Luke raced to the lodge to join the "Texas Hold 'Em" competition again. Luke ended up being "lucky Luke" as he came in 2nd, and won $40 (having paid $5 to play). The boys were both quite excited.

Tuesday, 7/15/2008:
What a great day! This was our best day yet in terms of the weather. We finally had a day with just a little breeze (great for fishing) and lots of sun (great for sunning, swimming, etc.). Tom, Linda, Seth & Luke headed out for fishing in the morning and went over the the Allen's Bay/Potato Island area. We ended up with 10 perch and 4 rock bass after about 3 hours of fishing. In the afternoon, the kids read books, played games, did crossword and Sudoku puzzles, and played with friends (Chloe). Linda finished knitting the hat for Leah, and Tom cleaned fish and listened to his book on tape. Later, Chloe went tubing with Madeline's family and Karrie pulled our kids again with Landen. Leah played a little pool with Landen as well. After supper, Tom & Linda headed out for more fishing. We decided to try our luck on Strawberry bar, but we didn't find much--only 1 perch after an hour. So we came back over to the ridge off of the Star Island point. Our luck improved with 4 more perch in the next hour--still not great, but at least we had a bag of fish to freeze. That about wraps up another beautiful day at Birch Villa!