Quotes from La

Marlon and Noe took their yellow belt tests today for Tae Kwon Do and after they 'kicked butt', we had sushi for lunch to celebrate. Then after that, we headed to Riverbend Regional Park to go hiking and fishing. We all caught some fish, but La seemed to have the most fun. Without recanting the whole afternoon, a better way to relay all the fun is to take excerpts from La. (1) BAM! I CAUGHT THE FIRST BASS (2) DON'T BE JEALOUS (3) JUST BECAUSE I CAUGHT MORE FISH THAN YOU DID DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE ANY LESS OF A PERSON (4) I LOVE FISHING WHEN I'M CATCHING FISH (5) I NEED A FISHING SHIRT (6) HOOOO! LOOK AT THIS - I CAUGHT ANOTHER FISH - THAT'S FOUR! HOW MANY HAVE YOU CAUGHT? WHOOOOOO! That's my La ;)

True Amphibians

We didn't see any fish to speak of during the hike, but we did see a few toads hopping around the trail. And where there are toads, there are tadpoles. We did see tadpoles in copious amounts and Noe proceeded to figure out a way to study them up close - empty Tic-Tac case! That coupled with our hardcore efforts to ensure we didn't pick up any ticks along the way, you could say we had a case of Tick-Tads! I know that was corny - sorry...

Father's Day Hiking

After I got back to the house, we jumped into the truck and drove over to Riverbend Park to hike along the Potomac. We took the Northern path this time to check it out as opposed to the Southern route which we have been on a few times now. By the end of the trip, we got the kids to hike 5 miles! La has some cool pictures up on her Facebook account - butterflies, lizards, cool trees. I was also keeping an eye out for some spots to flyfish from in future outings - I saw three accessible areas where a back cast could be managed with a short wade out. The river was swollen from all the rains we got recently, so the intel gathering was not as good as it could have been, but that's part of the game isn't it???...!!! Fun day and a tough accomplishment for the kids (they minimized the complaints since it was Father's Day)!

More Monday Fishing

Despite the rain, we all had an awesome time (and I got some great catches too as you have already seen)! La's sister and her kids are in town visiting. They've now joined the ranks of fishermen!!! More fun coming (surf...)

Griffin's Gnat and Some Other Bait

Here's a picture of the fishing fun culprit - Griffin's Gnat. This thing generates as much fun as the Bonefish Bitters I used to use - so simple yet so effective. Anyways - later in the afternoon, we hiked back our fishing spot at the Potomac River at the south end of Riverbend Park. It rained pretty heavily on the way in and the water had a little more speed to it than last time. I didn't see any perch today (shucks), but I did catch a bunch (next post). The kids had a great time walking across a section of the river (pretty shallow and low flow) which somewhat spooked the fish, but I like a challenge anyways (and heck the kiddoroosters were having fun). Along the way, we found earthworms and young toads - and we all considered using them as bait, but none of the kids wanted to be the one to spear the toad. Fun hike!