Thoughts of LoWriter

The Best Mini-Vacation Yet

So me and a group of my girlfriends have been doing a lot of running around this year, beginning with mini-vacations. These are weekend get-a-ways to someplace not here. They have to be close enough that we can still go to work on both Friday and Monay, and that's about the only requirement. We were supposed to do one a month, but we've all done some bailing out, and there have been four this year so far, one of which I skipped. We've done Turtle Lake, St. Cloud, Minot (which I skipped out on), and this weekend, we went to Morris.

Now, Morris is in NW MN and has a small branch of the U of M. My friend D's dad lives there with his girlfriend, both of whom are terriffic. Also, there is a hugimafied lake (Minnewaska) about 30 minutes from their house. So this weekend was fishing weekend.

The first night we got there, Morris was having a street dance because they were having "Prarie Pioneer Days." It cost money, so we didn't go, but we did take a tour of the town, which was pretty fun.

The next day, we went fishing for sunnies, which was great fun especially because I didn't have to a) bait my hook or b) take the fish off the hook. D's dad and grandpa took us out in two boats and took care of the grossness for us. It was also fun because we all popped a beer at about 10 AM, which was funny. (It's already dark under the boat!) I have not been fishing since I was about 16, and I sucked for most of the weekend, but I did catch a big ass sunnie (possibly the biggest sunnie of the weekend? It was not the biggest fish because my friend Mel caught a bass, which was also pretty exciting). We tried to fish for walleye a little, too, but they weren't biting at all.

After the first day of fishing, we went to D's grandparents' house, and they fried up the fish. They were fantastic. I haven't had fried freshly caught fish in so long and I had never eaten sunnies before. And the breading they used was amazing. Heaven serves food like that. There was plenty of it, too. The limit on sunnies is 20 per person, and we didn't come close to our limit, but there was plenty of fish. Also, her grandma made homemade strawberry rhubarb pie. Mmmm.

Then we went back to D's and rode 4-wheelers. I didn't do too much of this because that was the first time I'd ever driven a 4-wheeter, and I was pretty convinced that I was going to die at certain points, especially while we were driving through the woods. But it was fun, and if we go back, I'll try it again and do better.

We had a bonfire and made smores and then some fireworks started going off in town, so we watched them from the side of the little lake in D's backyard. Then we went off to bed and got up early the next day for more fishing. D's dad and grandpa cleaned up the fish and sent them home with us, so we can have a fish fry again.

I also got burned, but just in spots. I look like a zebra. While sunscreening it up, I missed some spots next to my tank top and in those got really burnt. Also, the dog ran away right before we were trying to leave, so we had to spend about half an hour finding her, but that was OK too because she turned up. We were all pretty worried there for a little while, but everything worked out fine.

All in all, I would say this was the best mini-vacation we've had all year. There is nothing quite as relaxing as sitting in a boat under the sun with the breeze cooling you off while waiting for the fish to bite.

Posted by LoWriter at July 11, 2005 08:08 AM