All good things must come to an end

It's Friday. And that means it's our last day at Birch Villa Resort on Cass Lake. To change things up a bit, we decided to join Dad in his boat and go over to nearby Crooked Lake with Paul's and Roy's boats. Beth also came along. While the change of scenery was interesting, the fishing was a little disappointing. Tom caught three crappies (which is always fun since we don't catch many at Cass Lake), we added three rock bass, and ended up with six fish to take home. After fishing, we helped Dad take the boat out of the lake. Beth and I keep trying to get Dad to slow down, but he insists on doing things himself, even if it results in a little tumble now and then. He got his shoes wet today when he took a small spill into the lake, but he was all right, and finally allowed us to help him a bit more.

In the afternoon Tom cleaned our six fish, and I gave Mom and Dad eight we already had frozen to take home with their catch. We always end up with extra fish in our freezer at the end of the year, so we were more than happy to share some.

The rest of the afternoon was spent saying good-bye to Mom & Dad, packing, kayaking (Deb, Beth and I), swimming and tubing. It was a beautiful sunny day, and with temps in the mid- to upper-80's, one of the warmest days we've had here this year.

In the evening, we had our "last night pizza picnic," another Cass Lake tradition. The four families that were left ordered out from "Great River Pizza," and enjoyed it on the picnic tables between our cabins and the lake. While we had all the kids together, we decided it was as good a time as any for the annual cousin photo shoot and "jump shot." We usually line kids up by height, but this is getting harder and harder as they are all evening out. Trying to decide who is 1/4" taller than who is a bit tricky, especially on uneven grass. We eventually managed to line all the kids up in front of the lake, and the adults all lined up like the Paparazzi opposite them to take photos.

We finished packing, settled up with Tony (ouch! two weeks cabin and boat rental is a chunk of change!), and played a little Shanghai before going to bed. Ahhh....tomorrow we go home.