Lake of the Woods June 2018

This isn't the first time that I've asked myself "Why do I blog?" but it should be stated this might be the last legs of this blog. Due to changes in our online presence we now post updates, photos, and day trips on Facebook. In addition, I now post my personal thoughts and expanded bird reports on the Ruminating Birder blog. Until we figure out a different location to share them, memories from Canada and a few other topics may be shared here in the future.

Four years ago we took the girls to Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada for the first time. We have visited at least once a year since and you can see photos from the 2017 trip here. Below are highlights from the 2018 June Canada trip where Malcolm and Mike spent 5 days total while Cindy, Christine, Michaela, and Danielle joined them for the last three.

Smiles

Time with family and friends is easily the best source of smiles for the girls. Christine and I believe they should see different places, have the opportunity to explore different things and have time in nature.

The girls decided to ferry a Spiny Baskettail (Epitheca spinigera) from the middle of the lake to the lunch island.

Sunsets

The view from my parents' single-wide trailer is the best. It reminds most every one of the advantage associated with this location; affectionately naming it "The Deck".

(Above Top to Bottom): Sunsets views from the Deck on June 13th, June 15th, and June 17th 2018.

Below: A phone snapshot of Danielle taking the above sunset photo on June 17th, 2018.

Outdoor Activities

While sunset dominates the view, there is more. It is tough not to enjoy the rocky islands, lake, and everything else that differentiates this location from KC.

 

Kayaking (above), swimming, and hiking were all part of the last couple of days.



 

Fish

I used to think the single reason we went to Canada was to catch fish. Fortunately, I realized a while back it includes the fish but is for the memories overall. We released many nice walleyes on this trip: 27' fish for Cindy, four 26' fish split evenly between Mike and Malcolm, a 25' fish for Danielle, and another ten between 24' and 22'. We've caught larger fish before, but fishing Thursday through Sunday was really good. We ate fresh fish most of the evenings and even brought a few back to share.

 

Above (L to R): The ladies holding a regular sized fish and one of Mike's 26' Walleyes.
Bottom (L to R): One of Malcolm's 26' Walleyes and Grandma Cindy with the big fish of the trip.

 

2017 Summer Travels: Canada in June

Timing worked out early this summer and we were able to squeeze in a week trip north to MN visiting family and fishing in Canada the second week of June, which was almost unexpected given the our commitments around the KC area.  

We left Friday and stopped in Staples before heading to Lake of the Woods the next day.  We lucked out and Great Grandma Betty, Stacie, Tessa, and Morgan were available for supper at Tower Pizza.

The girls spent two days in Canada while I spent an extra couple of days there dad while the girls were back in central Minnesota. Here are some photos and their memories from this year's jaunt north.

Baudette Minnesota...perhaps the land of 10,000 statues!

 

Michaela's Journal

 

Danielle's Journal

Here are a couple more photos from the trip. The sunset is similar to one that we've seen many times before, yet is still something to watch each night. The lunch location is similar to many throughout the lake; it only requires a relatively nice rock to land the boat next to.

 

These Yellow Perch were brought back for family, we ate walleyes and let the Northern Pike go.

It was wonderful seeing so many extended family during a get together the last night. We played a few games of cards but didn't get too many people to try out the slip n slide.

 

The next generation in Canada

This past Friday we left central Minnesota mid-morning for Canada. There were no blog postings the previous week, but I expect everyone that reads this blog also follows Christine or myself on Facebook and were able to see their adventures this past week with family. This was our first trip to Canada as a family when the girls were old enough to participate and remember the journey. I was extremely excited the girls could join Grandpa Mike and Grandma Cindy near Morison Ontario as I continue to add to nearly 30 years of similar journies with my grandfather, uncle, and father. To help remember the trip we took photos both in Baudette MN and Rainy River ON.

After quickly unpacking our van we all jumped in the boat and were fishing by late afternoon Friday. Michaela And Danielle we're excited for the opportunity and within a couple of minutes Michaela caught the first fish of the trip, a small walleye. We soon experienced another first for the girls, their first shore lunch. We didn't find many fish after dinner, but the girls enjoyed the stories of past fishing ventures. Seemingly someone had a fish on most of the day and we ended with nearly 50 fish, Michaela catching the largest of the day with a 20 inch walleye.



 

The girls loved the time in the boat; they loved the rides, fishing, and grandparents.

Forecast for the weekend included heavy rain so dad and I left early Saturday morning, but returned a few hours later to get everyone else. Luckily the 4 women brought us better luck and we caught plenty of fish the next couple of hours. We even got all three of my women to hold walleyes!! We returned early afternoon before the rain showers and saw a little black bear walking along one of the islands.

 

We were fairly close to the black bear, coasting to only 25 yards or so before it ran away.

   

The girls even found the beach to go swimming. Heavy rain prohibited any additional fishing on Saturday but it didn't dampen our spirits. The girls enjoyed watching the movie Flipper and eating fish for the second day in a row.

We were fishing early morning on Sunday but our luck changed with the evening lightning and rain. Fishing was slow and we decided to troll. Danielle cut the only northern, a well-behaved 24 inched that modeled the teeth nicely for them.

Overall they saw walleye, sauger, black crappie, yellow perch, northern pike, and a small rock bass.
 

 

The girls even decided to thumb their first fish on the trip.

  It was a great trip.  Below are their journal entries....a bit overwhelmed but lots of good memories.

Michaela's entry

Danielle's entry

The story of a rod: Fishing Report Spring 2014

For much of the last decade, one of my regular activities has been fishing Lake of the Woods with my father (Mike or Dad) and others during Memorial Weekend.  This was the first opportunity for me to see Dad's new motor in action, which not surprisingly was quite expensive. With a smaller than normal group this year, we all fished in one boat.  Warm calm days made for easy fishing conditions, and we were fortunate to catch many fish: multiple 13.5 inch Perch, 16 inch Black Crappies, and of course Walleyes.

Having fished with my father on many occasions, I expect him to catch more fish than me more than half the time.  On this trip however I caught not only more but also bigger fish each of the three days. Some of the walleyes were quite finicky and biting light. At the same time, Dad was telling of other fisherman that can tell when a Walleye actually bites rather than nudging the bait. If I was ever able to put into words how grateful I am for my father's Memorial weekend invitations, all the fishing and hunting trips together, or for his regular car and home improvement projects I may have had a different epiphany.  As it was, I knew I needed to buy my father a nicer fishing rod.

Christine, who has a unique talent of price shopping, found what I wanted and I made a mid-week road trip to have a medium weight fast action G-Loomis GL2 for Dad to fish with the next weekend.  My parents went north to Lake of the Woods after work Friday while a friend from Winona and I drove up early Saturday morning. As soon as we got out of the car we were greeted with this photo of Mike's first fish on the new rod!  A 27-inch walleye!! This fish was larger than all caught the entire previous holiday weekend and in many years is the largest walleye of the season for my parents. Could the fishing get better for the new rod?

We had great fishing on Saturday May 31st. Calm warm weather allowed us to go wherever we wanted on the lake, with the only downside being that mosquitos would find us if we got to close to shore. By late afternoon we had approximately 20 walleyes between 17 and 23 inches, but no more big ones.  Dad decided to try another spot, where he had previous success. After catching a few nice ones, Dad said I'm going to slide the boat up into the little hole and catch a 30 incher. Babe Ruth's prediction and calling his shot was more believable, as he had hit many previous home runs.  Dad had never caught a 30 inch walleye before, but drove the boat when I had caught one about 8 years before.  Within 10 minutes however he hooked this walleye, which just happened to be 30 inches.....his largest walleye ever! The Great Bambino had nothing on this prediction.

We ended with over 100 fish that day, mostly walleyes with double digits of both northern and small mouth bass and only a few crappie and perch. The two fish that stuck out however, the first fish on the rod and largest walleye ever.

A weather system came through that night and Sunday fishing was slower.  We ended with 30 fish in the boat for all four of us on Sunday.  Dan caught his largest walleye ever, a solid 26 inch beauty that bested his previous largest of last year by an inch.  Somehow I felt too tired to celebrate as much as I should have, being with Dad when he caught his big one made everything else seem small.


Dan's largest walleye ever, 26 inches.

Malcolm's 25 inch walleye.

A few other photos from the fishing trip are below.  

Mom's Smallmouth that was just under 20 inches.

Dad with the 30th fish of Sunday.

The rod will never be able to truly reveal all of my positive emotions toward my dad, but sometimes we need something tangible to speak what our mouths are unable to express.  Just writing these words have me choked up and struggling to type.  So I look forward to every time I hear about their fishing exploits as I remember the rod, the memories and all the other things that make my father the wonderful, supportive father he is.  I guess this is an early Father's Day tribute, but timely after an enjoyable time spent back home in MN.  Thank you Dad for another year of memories and helping me figure out who I truly aspire to be.

Last 3 Weeks

The spring semester had just finished and we packed up the car and headed back to central MN for a visit that coincided with Aubrey & Abi's MN visit.

Michaela and Danielle loved playing with Abi. The time with extended family and grandparents was awesome, as both girls love the attention and activity. The three girls were busy and on the go, but did well together and Grandma Cindy is absolutely amazing juggling/watching all of them at once. Christine and I were able to take in movie even, and watched Thor in Brainerd one weeknight.

We spent the week lounging around and visiting with many people, going to the park, finishing grades, and relaxing. Michaela and Danielle have picked up our interest in birds and our quite often curious about any animal outside. This chickadee was patient enough to let Michaela get approach and have a close-up look.

Christine and the girls spent one morning with the extended Kallevig family at a bounce house in St Cloud. Grandma Linda, Lisa, Renee, Christine and the seven kids had a great time playing inside while avoiding the spring showers.

Friday of that week Christine and I hoped in the car with my parents and headed to Canada for a Memorial Day fishing with John and Judy Bentler. Christine had not been there for five years, so it was especially nice that she joined us in the boat. We caught plenty of fish, enjoying fresh fish each night before playing up & down the river. A great big thank you to Dan and Linda for watching the girls over the weekend!

We came home Tuesday after Memorial Day in time for Michaela to enjoy the last two days of school. She has enjoyed the time with her class, making new friends and learning along the way. We'll miss the opportunity for Danielle to join a similar class next year if we were still in Marshfield, but will be looking for other options in Winona.

We met with a Realtor on Wednesday and drew up the paperwork for listing the house. This week on Monday a photographer came to take pictures for a virtual tour, and on Tuesday was the new listing caravan day...with the first showing right before it. We spent much of the weekend rearranging three rooms in the house and cleaning. If you've been to our house before you can see the old toy room, our bedroom, with Danielle's old room being the new toy room in the rearrangement.

The past weekend Marshfield had Dairyfest, so we enjoyed the festivities during the day and worked on the house at night. Christine took the neighbor girls on the carnival rides Friday night....she loves the rides! Saturday we went to a parade, the fairgrounds and a pony ride, and the zoo. Five hours in the warm sun tired us all out. Sunday we took the girls on some of the carnival rides as well, with Michaela and Danielle trying out four different rides. The traveling roller coaster was the least preferred, but Ferris Wheel, carousel, and tee-pot rides were a hit.

We finally ordered and received a point & shoot digital camera. We've been looking at them for quite a while, as we love the Nikon DSLRs but miss the freedom of not carrying the large cameras with when pictures are only a convenience. The camera came in handy when Christine took the girls shopping on Tuesday. Michaela's first time to the hair salon, she did great...but when they came home Danielle found a scissors and started cutting her hair! She wanted her hair cut too! So, needless to say both girls have their hair cut :)

I've been trying to wrap everything up before we move, and get caught up with other projects. One of lowest on the list is editting pictures. I am slowly getting caught up, with over 500 pictures uploaded last night with a 2011 album and 2010 album. The worse part is there are still snapshots from Dave & Liza's wedding that I have not got to...I'm sorry! Here are some 2010-2011 comparisons.