Life with Brianne is pretty dang awesome. She's a hard worker, willing to get up at 6 a.m. on her off-track to work alongside me full-time, putting in 10-hour days, on our feet all day, at a construction site with lots of heavy lifting. Not many wives are willing to do this. I don't want her to, but being in the poor-college-student phase of life, it certainly helps, and may God bless her for it.
But she also knows how to play hard! Our 4-day work weeks give us 3-day weekends, and with a Memorial Day holiday following, that turns into a FOUR DAY WEEKEND that we didn't even have to take time off for, and we still got the 40 hours both weeks that we were counting on. Brianne is not the kind of woman to let an opportunity like this pass us up, on this summer in Idaho that we've been looking forward to for a long time. So, Thursday night when we got off at 5:30, we headed straight home, packed up the car for a weekend adventure, and were in a really great campsite in Island Park by 10 p.m. Not bad, eh? We beat the Memorial Day rush and had our pick of the sites at Buttermilk Campground.
Here we are up at Big Springs. Johnny Sack's cabin (not open yet) is behind my big head across the springs.
Here is my wonderfully ecstatic wife gawking at the very large trout who like to hang out by the bridge.
And here is our otter friend!
We watched him swim out from under the bank some 20 yards away and he swam pretty much right for us. We wished we had something to feed the cute little guy because he swam in circles there in front of us for a bit before giving up on us, diving down to that green you see under the water, and taking a mouthful with him back to his hidden home in the bank. He's perhaps not as exotic as a linx or a Madagascaran lemur or wild jackelope, but we were quite pleased with this glimpse of wildlife!
Oh ho ho... there it is. Brianne's. New. Pole. Her very own rod and reel, hand-picked from the plethora of affordable options at our local Wal-Mart. And that is our Bowie knife in her hands. I guess she thinks her pole should be shorter. Or she is cutting the new line she just put on the reel!
Buttermilk Campground is located on Island Park Reservoir, and since the fishing at Henry's Lake didn't open until Saturday, we took the new pole out for her maiden voyage here, walking distance from our campsite. We're seated in our new camp chairs on a convenient dock, bringing us that much closer to those yummy fishies swimming in yonder deep.
Awwww. Such beauty. Such tranquility. The perfect site for a romantic evening together, just the two of us; a quiet spot, pulled away from everyone. Birds singing, frogs and crickets chirping harmoniously... and another family crashing through the forest to set up their poles literally right behind us. Haha I was just commenting to Brianne that all the fish were probably scared away by the all the splashing and rocks being thrown in the water around us, when the man behind me reeled one in. This raised our hopes, but alas, no bites for us on this night.
Saturday, May 24. Opening day out at Henry's Lake. It's been months since these famously large trout have seen a delicious worm so easily within reach, and what fish could turn down such a charitable handout? People have traveled from all over to be among the first to entice them, and already by 8 a.m. the Lake is packed! The gorgeous clear blue water was dotted with boats while shore fishermen like ourselves could be found all along the banks. In fact it was hard to find our own cozy little nook to fish from, but we did finally get into a nice cove where other fishers weren't even in sight.
Once we got all set up and ready to fish, Brianne cast in her line and exclaimed "This is gonna be a good one!" I took the picture you see above, and then came the familiar tug! Well, familiar to me, but Brianne wasn't really sure, it's been so long so her last fishing excursion, and after a few more tugs she yanked back on her rod and shrieked, announcing to the whole lake her excitement, "Dustin! Dustin I think I got one!"
And boy, did she get one!
She examines her catch, saying over and over "Whoa...it's so big...whoa." She's so cute :)
