Had Plenty!

Seth and Maddie decided to take the day off from fishing so we took Beth and Nicole with us instead. At Potato Islands, over the next 3-ish hours we were able to pull in 20 perch. It reminded me of a little thing my Dad would do with us kids when we were young. It went like this:

After a big meal, Dad would start with “Had sufficient!”

Then one of us kids would say, “Been fishing?”

Dad: “Had plenty!”

Kid: “Caught twenty?”

Dad: “Oh, my soul!”

Kid: “Broke your pole?”

Today we had been fishing, and we did catch twenty! Luckily, no one broke their pole.

We discovered that Nicole likes to tell fish stories and “strrrretch” the length of her fish a bit. It was a bit windy on the way back so she hung on to her Ben’s Bait & Tackle hat–a special memento from her grandpa’s hat collection.

While we were out fishing, Seth and Ollie took a little dip in the lake.

Later in the afternoon, Bill and Beth, along with three of their kids, took a bike ride on the Migizi trail. When Tom finished cleaning all those fish, we also headed for the trail.

Rather than take the bumpy gravel road to the campground, this time we drove to Norway Beach. From there we took the paved trail one mile to join up with the Migizi. Seth met up with us, having ridden from the resort, but soon left us in the dust. I had asked him if he wanted some bug spray before we took off, and he said, “No. I go too fast for them to catch me!” While Tom and I planned to do a partial loop, Seth planned to ride the whole loop twice.

Tom went 3 miles in and back out, testing his knee a little more than his first ride. I made it around once and back to the resort (13 miles), but not without a little excitement. Just past the campground along the south shore of Pike Bay, a young BEAR ran out in front of me! He immediately took off down the trail ahead of me and then cut into the woods. I stopped, grabbed my camera, and snapped two photos before he was out of sight. This was my first real bear sighting in the Northwoods of Minnesota!

Seth also had some excitement, though not nearly as fun. On his second loop around, he blew a tire as he crossed the wooden bridge. He called Tom, who then drove the bumpy, gravel campground road he had been trying to avoid, in order to pick Seth up. And Seth, while walking his bike to meet Tom was nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes and black flies. I’m thinking it might be wise for us to carry both bug spray and bear spray on future rides on the Migizi!

After all the excitement, we were finally back at Birch Villa, where we fried up those 20 perch (and then some) for dinner. Our more recent fish-fry tradition (deep frying outside in cousin Paul’s fish-fryer instead of pan-frying on the stove in our cabin), has become a highlight of our week every year!

By the end of our exciting day and our filling meal, we could all say: “Had plenty!”