A dip and some fly fishin’

We actually slept in on Tuesday morning. And, I don’t mean 7am, I’m talking really sleeping in; we got up at about 9am. The place we were staying has a continental breakfast every morning, so we filled our bellies and then the girls played outside our cabin while we got everything ready for the day.

Our first stop was a dip in Lake McDonald. It was a bit chilly, but incredibly picturesque. The water was crystal clear and it was good to cool off, as the temperature was edging close to 90 degrees. Apparently, we brought the heat with us, as this is unseasonably warm for Montana.

The girls looking for rocks

Bonsai!!!!

Beautiful! And the scenery is nice, too.

We then headed for a place called The Huckleberry Patch for some souvenirs.  Montana folks are very, very, very proud of their huckleberries. They have huckleberry pancakes, shakes, ice cream, pie, BBQ sauce, muffins, syrup, soap, lotion, etc…. If you can put a huckleberry in something, they do it.

HEY! Can someone PLEASE help me find something with huckleberries in it?!?!

We went back to our cabin and made some sandwiches and heated up leftover pizza for lunch. The girls hung out on the hammocks and ate. They really loved the setup here, and I know they’ll miss this place when we leave.

Our next adventure was fly fishin’ (g intentionally omitted). We arranged for two boats to take us out on the Flathead River.

Our fly fishin’ guides were two crusty old dudes who looked (and smelled) like they’d been out on the river for a while. They gave us some pointers on fly fishin’

Ashley and Sherri. Sherri is not practicing. She can catch a fish in 20 minutes with no practice.

After our quick tutorial, we launched the boats, cast our flies, and started watchin’ for the tugs on our lines. Haley and I got some good advice on things to say when you’re a fisherman, such as, “We fish, therefore we lie” and “Here, fishy fishy!” We also learned how to answer people when they float by and ask, “How’s the fishin’?” (Answer: “The fishin’ is great, it’s the catchin’ that’s not so good.”)

Emily pulling one in. Great catch, Em!

That's a big one, Em!

Me, Kurt, and Haley enjoying the fishin'

Pretty waterfall on the river

Ashley has that look on her face like she's about to catch something...

And BOOM! There it is. Great job, Ash!

Sherri reels one in. I know the feeling.

Given our inexperience, it was a pretty productive day of catchin’ (and releasin’) fish. The total counts:

Wes: 2
Sherri: 1
Haley: 0 :(
Ashley: 1
Emily: 1

I think I kept stealin’ Haley’s fish. Sherri, who fished a lot with her grandpa as a young girl, caught her fish in the 20 minutes that she spent fishin’. The rest of the time in her boat, Ashley and Emily had the rods.  Glad she wasn’t in my boat showin’ me up! 

After about 4 hours on the river, we docked, loaded the boats, and headed back to our car. I Yelped to find somewhere for dinner, but after lookin’ at the options, we decided to head back to Glacier Grill again. It was another late night (though, again, you can never tell in Montana because the sun stays up past 10pm).  We rushed back to the cabin to watch the rest of the movie before the 24 hour expiration (curse you, iTunes!). The kids really enjoyed the movie. The reason we chose this movie is that we’re plannin’ on visitin’ Alcatraz when we go through San Francisco. 

It was another full day for the Hummels.