Herrs At The Lake Part 1

Betsy's family spent most of last week with us up at the lake. We did so many things while they were there, and I took so many pictures, that I decided to break the report up into multiple postings. So here is the first.

Naturally, Henry continued to hone his pinball skills. Since his Uncles Will and Rob also have pinball machines, he gets lots of practice. Because his eye/hand coordination is so much better than mine, he regularly beats me!

I delivered a step stool that I made for Clara to her at the beginning of their visit. She used it to climb into bed and to spend lots of minutes playing at the sink, allegedly brushing her teeth or washing her hands. We all thought she just liked being able to operate the faucets herself.

The grandkids wanted to take turns at the wheel when we went out for boat rides or fishing expeditions. Henry actually got pretty good at running the boat. If he doesn't look too happy here, it is only because both he and Clara are becoming increasingly tired of being asked to smile for the camera.

For three consecutive years or more, we have been trying to make sure that Pete had a good fishing experience while he was at the lake. Prior years have not been all that eventful, but this year, I think we succeeded. He and I had fun fishing for bass in the river one morning and caught quite a few, though we released them all. Then we had two consecutive evening outings when crappie were hitting. We anchored near a floating bog both times and fished right at the bog's edge. The first night, we were treated to a rather spectacular sunset. (That is the bog in the foreground.)

We caught a total of 18 the first night, including one nice walleye that Kathie caught. We could have easily kept more, but cleaning 18 fish late at night was enough work. Anyway, Pete seemed to have a great time, as did we. We caught and kept 11 the second night when Betsy and the grandkids were along with us.

This is what it is like fishing at the edge of the bog.

Here are the 18 fish in the live well of the boat after we got back in for the evening.

Also, Henry showed that he had not forgotten how to fish. He caught this bass off the end of our dock.

More tomorrow (or the next day).