Life Through My Eyes: Sep 2, 2013

Veronica and I returned from our Canadian fishing vacation last night. The fishing portion of our vacation was one big disappointment. The heat made our time on the water brief. The heat wave lasted almost the whole week with the actual temps in the high 80s to high 90s but it felt much higher than that. Many days the water was like glass...flat with no ripples...no breeze and no wind to speak of. On some days we went out early for a couple of hours then returned to the cabin so that we could get out of the sun and heat. We went out after dinner when the sun went down and it started cooling off a bit. Our cabin didn't have a/c and even with the use of multiple fans, it got really hot in the cabin. Due to the lack of time spent fishing, the actual number of fish caught were down a whole lot compared to earlier years, so for this blog entry I won't be posting any fish photos because there really weren't any larger fish caught that were worthy of posting. Veronica caught the biggest walleye between the two of us with a 23 incher. My largest walleye caught was about 21". There were just enough keepers caught to allow us to have a couple of walleye meals for dinner. The best photos taken had nothing to do with fish on this trip. Instead they we of of sunrise and sunsets on the lake.
Veronica spent many Summers as a young girl up at her grandparents fishing camp...the Eagles Nest...next to Waldhof Bay Lodge. She had also returned a few other times over the years as an adult and then introduced me to Eagle Lake after we got married.
Veronica and I have been going up to Eagle Lake for approximately 10 years. A lot has changed during this time. Over that time we had stayed at 3 different fishing camps. We had some good times and experiences and some bad times and experiences at those various camps. Unfortunately the bad heavily outweighed the good and becameso much more frequent that it became readily apparent that it was time for a change. Thus the decision to close this chapter of our lives and move on to a new lake and a new fishing camp.
We are looking forward with excitement to this new chapter which will begin next year.
I almost forgot to mention....while walking to Concourse F in Terminal 1 at the Minneapolis Airport, Veronica and I walked right by Wayne Newton and his wife. Funny...no crowds...no autograph seekers....no squealing teenage girls.....no squealing senior citizen ladies...nothing. I think Wayne Newtons time has passed.
Here are some photos taken during our vacation up in Canada:
You can click on any photo to to enlarge it.

The colors outside of our airplane window on the morning we fly out were really beautiful.

Below are various photos taken as we drove from the Minneapolis Airport up to International Falls and then the rest of our way to the lodge we were staying at on Eagle Lake in Ontario province near Vermilion Bay

We had Sirrus radio in our rental vehicle and we found a great 70s station that played some of our favorite oldies

We come all this way only to be back in Virginia again

There was a wind turbine farm in the distance

During the drive up there was several times when the GPS would lose the satellite signal. Showing us that we had no idea where we were.

Getting ready to go out for a morning of fishing

The wake of our fishing boat on the water

Eagle watching was its highest perch

Nothing like a walleye dinner in the frying pan

Another great walleye dinner

A sign outside of the Vermilion Bay dump. Unfortunately we did not see any bear while we were there

While driving to where Veronicas lodge used to be located years ago, we came across a family of deer that were playing and frolicking in someones yard. We stopped and watched them play, took some photos and a video of them playing

We had some storms come through on Thursday that finally brough some cooler temperatures

We drove back to Ft. Francis enroute to Minneapolis via Sioux Narrows where we stopped at a souvenir store

Hockey Hall of Fame

Holiday traffic leaving St. Paul went on for miles. Lucky for us the traffic going into St. Paul was not like the traffic leaving.

View of St. Paul as we were entering the city

We went to the Mall of America our 1st night we were in St. Paul and then the entire next day and early evening. There was a big theme park within the Mall.