Fish! Fam! Boom!

Since the wind was blowing stronger this morning, we decided to try a different fishing spot. It's always hard for us to find a "new" spot, and today proved this fact once again. Dad, Tom and I boated over to Dick's Bay for our first attempt. After an unsuccessful run there, we moved back out into the big lake, and then through the channel to Lake Andrusia. This was the first time we ever remembered boating through this channel and into this new lake. We loved getting out of the wind and onto a calm lake, but determining where the fish were located was a bit of a challenge. After some time, we finally found a nice ridge, but were still only able to pull in four perch for our morning total. Ah well. It was still a nice adventure (as was the rough ride home with Tom's first chance at driving Dad's boat!)!

By mid-afternoon, we were ready to begin our 4th of July holiday in earnest. We began with a traditional picnic of hamburgers, brats and hot dogs on the grill, corn on the cob and watermelon.

It was a beautiful day to be outside, so I took Mom for a walk down to the resort next door (Sah-kah-tay), and then we sat on the deck at Birch Villa's lodge where we were joined by Phyllis and Chloe. Phyllis and I convinced Chloe that she should try knitting, so she received her first knitting lesson from Aunt Phyllis. She was a natural, and soon had both the "knit" and "pearl" stitch mastered!

Later in the evening, we enjoyed more holiday fun with face-painting at our Minnesota friend's cabin, s'mores around the campfire, sparklers and other small fireworks, and then watching big fireworks over the lake. Sitting out on the dock with the warm, southern breeze blowing in our faces as we watched the fireworks reflected on the water, made this 4th of July one of the best we've had in a long time.