Back to the Daily Grind

I apologize for not keeping up on my blog lately. After coming back from vacation, I have been busy getting back into the routine of "real life". You know....the stuff that is mundane, sometimes aggravating and generally stuff that we have to do, despite our total dislike for it. Washing clothes, doing yard work and assorted chores in and around the house and paying bills, just for starters. I wish we could all flip flop our daily lives and make our vacation times our "real life" and make our "real life" our "vacation life". Wouldn't that be something...can you imagine this ever happening...you only have go to work, clean house, do yard work or whatever you have to do, during what would usually be your 1 week or 2 weeks of vacation time. Can you imagine being at work during your one week of vacation time and the boss comes up to you and tells you that you have 2 more weeks of vacation time that you must take before the end of the year and if you don't take it, you will lose it. Let's see a raise of hands here on this question....how many of you would tell the boss that you would much rather lose that time than take it. I see an awful lot of hands up on this one. To be on a continual vacation would be amazing. Unfortunately there would be some serious problems with this pipe dream....mainly money. Unless you are independently wealthy, you would need a non stop infusion of money in order to truly enjoy your "vacation life". Depending on the type of "vacation life" you want to live, it might not be a ton of money but money none the less. I am not sure whose bright idea it was for the almighty dollar to become something that the world revolves around. If I ever had the opportunity to locate and talk to this/these person or people, I sure would have quite a bit to say to them. One thing that I would ask for sure...why in the world did you decide to make money the thing that would dictate the quality of our lives as far as materialistic items, where we can go and what we can do. Why not something that I seem to have a lot of on a daily and weekly basis....grass clippings. Yes you heard me correctly folks....grass clippings....now that would be the ticket for my fantastic high quality "vacation life"....I would be on top of the world. I can hear them saying it now...grass clippings makes the world go around or "don't hide your grass clippings in your mattress, keep them in a safe place like the bank. I can tell you folks this...in Ricks' world, "vacation life" would be a lot easier and much more enjoyable. But unfortunately we have to deal with "real life" and speaking of the "real life", I have to go out now and caulk the cracks in the driveway....bummer. Damn I wish I was back in my "vacation life". Only 352 days to go until I am there again!!!!!

Canadian Vacation 2008 - Homeward Bound

Veronica and I woke up at 3:00 AM this morning so that we could make our 4:45 AM flight to start our journey home. Below are pictures of the airport in International Falls, MN. It is the smallest airport that I have ever seen. there is only one gate and Northwest is the only airlines that goes there. There were only 6 people, including Veronica and I, on this early morning flight. We flew to Minneapolis, MN. From there we flew to Detriot, MI and from there onto Norfolk. We arrived home around 1:30 this afternoon. It took us forever to get everything unpacked and put away. Then there was 2 weeks worth of mail to go through, loads of wash to do, emails to answer and it continued on. The usual after vacation stuff to catch up on things. Now we start all over again and start looking foward to next years vacation, which will be during the first 2 weeks of August. A long ways to go. I hope that you enjoyed us sharing our vacation with you. I guess now it is time to get back to real life...what a bummer!!!!

Photos of the Falls International Airport in International Falls, MN

The road leading up to customs at the Canada-U.S. border...entering the U.S. from the Canadian side at Ft.Frances leading into International Falls, MN.

Canadian Vacation 2008 Day 9

Here is the sign as you enter into the camp area.
Dock hand Jamie power spraying the boats. They are cleaned like this each and every night.
Here is a picture of the Bears at the local dump. We had to squeeze through the fence to get in. As you can see it was worth it. The sun and haze prevented me from taking a better picture.

The photo isn't very good but you can still see that we were not that far away from the bears. We will try again another night to get in close to see them.
This is the Paper Mill in Dryden. This is their major source of employment however just as many in the states are closing, this one is scheduled to close as well.

Some more building wall art. Canada is known for having many of their downtown buildings painted with local lore.
This is the hotel that Veronica went to as a small child with her Grandmother. They would dress up for lunch and have tea sandwiches and hot tea. She has fond memories of this place and wanted a picture of it.
The sign off of the gravel road telling you which way to head to Andy Myers Lodge.

Today was an off fishing day for us. We spent the day doing laundry, going into town for more provisions and watching bears.

We woke up late today around 8:30 and didn't go up to the lodge for breakfast. We got dressed and went into town and found a little Donut shop. This Donut shop called Robin's Donuts was a surprise to us as it had many many varieties of donuts, muffins and biscuits.

We then went into Walmart for some small provisions and stood in line for what seemed like hours. Veronica said long lines at Walmart were not just saved for the states but look here in Canada they have just as long of lines. Here though customers were telling the cashiers to call for a Manager and open up more "tills" and act as though they were open for business.

We then went and spent most of our morning at the laundry mat. The rest of the day was spent relaxing. For dinner we had homemade french fries and fried walleye.

Today a lot of people left camp so there are very few around. Right this minute Veronica and I are the only ones in the lodge. It is really very quiet here.

Tonight we went to the dump and saw a black bear and a couple of her cubs. I have pictures that will be uploaded but unfortunately the sun and the haze made the pictures come out of lesser quality.

Tomorrow we will be back at it trying to catch that trophy Musky. So, until tomorrow night I wish you tight lines and huge fish.

Part two of Rick Catching his Huge Northern Pike Fish

Scroll down to see Rick's fish part one. So, until tomorrow, I wish you tight lines and huge fish. Canadian Vacation Day 9 is a day off for us. We plan on catching up on some much needed sleep and doing a few things around the cabin. Stay tuned until tomorrow night for an update on our day off.

Rick

Canadian Vacation Day #3 photos

Below are various pictures that I took between 6:30-7:00 AM this morning. I hope that you enjoy them.
this is a picture of some building art that is hung up outside of the boathouse.

This is a picture of the fish cleaning house and the baithouse.

I thought that the angles of this portion of the wooden walkway leading to the docks were kind of sharp, so I took a photo of them.

Just about back to normal

I have been feeling really well as of late. Tongue is just about back to normal and my stamina is almost at 100%. A hell of a lot better than I was a couple of weeks ago. I am so glad that this part of my journey is over with. Hopefully it won't show back up in the future. Our Canadian vacation starts in a couple of weeks. It has been 15 months since we were there last. I have got all of my fishing gear packed up. Only thing left are clothes and the incidentals. Veronica and I are supposed to be going to Charleston, SC on Thursday morning on one of her business trips. We won't pull into Charleston until late but I know of some special places for photos and we should be able to squeeze in a couple of quick stops for those photos. Once I get back I will post the photos that I took. Until I return....take care and have a great day.