Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Oh Canada

Peter and I spent last week in Canada on Lake of the Woods in the province of Ontario. It was a lovely trip. We got to be with his parents and brother on Canada Day (Canadian Independence July 1st) and also on July 4th! Because Canadian Independence Day and US Independence Day fall so close to each other Peter's brilliant parents decided to start hosting an annual spit roast on or around those holidays every year. This was the second annual. Unfortunately Peter and I missed the first. The massive event was held Saturday July 5th and almost all of Peter's Canadian family was in attendance.


Here is all of us together for the group family shot. In total 30 adults, 3 children, and 2 pregnant ladies! Peter grew up spending most of his summer in this part of the world and so it was nice to spend a good amount of time there and see what his lake life was like. I grew up spending a lot of my summers on Lake Sam Rayburn but the fishing on Lake of the Woods is very different. 


This was Peter's biggest haul. Mine wasn't worth photographing but because I helped him net this monster and get it in the boat he let me hold it. He totaled nearly 4 lbs. What I learned about walleye is they have very weak mouths and so you can't just jerk them out of the water the way we do with catfish. They have to be caressed slowly to the boat lest you rip the hook from their thin lips.

We also partook in some non motorized boating.



About 5 minutes after that picture was taken Peter and I flipped that tiny sailboat. It was a terrifying experience for me, as I have never flipped a water craft larger than a inner tube before in my life. It was fairly easy to get flipped back over which I was not expecting and we had a nice 40 minute cruise. The water levels were quite high in the lake due to a lot of rain and the water was coming in twice as fast as it could get out. We spent some time early in the week securing the boat dock with weights to keep it from floating away. 


From left Peter, myself, and his best friend Will Hall. Peter and I have been trying to get Will to move to Chicago for quite some time now. The agreement is if we can get Rahm Emanuel quoted to say that Will Hall is Chicago's favorite person he has to move here. I'm still working on it but if any one of my readers can make that happen I'll buy you a cookie!




THE MEAT! These two giant bone-in ribeyes were the main course of our Saturday meal. As you can see, like a good Texan, my favorite Canadian beer is something the locals think is swill. Hopefully it won't be another two years before we make it to the Great White North again.

Photo credit goes to John Tulloch. Thank you!

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