That was the score for today at least. We ventured out to a lake in the Superior National Forest to throw our lines in from shore on this hallowed fishing day and were greeted by a healthy young Northern Pike.

I say young and healthy instead of small because one day this will probably be the state record for length and weight, but it wasn’t quite there yet today.

Lottie is still a little skittish around water, so she found her own catch of the day in the woods.

Lottie and her sister Mullie playing their hybrid version of ‘keep away’ and ‘follow the leader’:

Lottie didn’t want to feel left out while Rachel was doing yoga, so she decided to join in.

No recipe here, but just wanted to make your mouth water.

Hauskins, we may need to have a cook off.

We were sitting by the river the other day relaxing after another busy afternoon when we both heard a faint buzzing.  Then we saw them:

And if you are wondering what the white background is, it’s snow.  It may seem incredible, but we have mosquitoes before we have had all the snow melt.

I can’t wait for the black flies to come!

Gretchen, Rachel’s sister, was a proud recipient of the 2008 UMD Bulldog award at a recent banquet.

Way to go Gretch!

The sign tells it all like it is.  This was not the Four Seasons or the Ritz, but The Rainbow has something in each room that those swanky hotels don’t:

All kidding aside, this was one of our favorite places on our recent trip.  The town of Livingston is really great with a couple outstanding coffee shops and restaurants (try the bacon wrapped meatloaf).  Apparently there is amazing fishing in the area (hence the name of the hotel) but I don’t think they ice fish so we were outta luck.

You may think I am kidding about the hotel, well I am, but not completely!  It was exactly what we wanted: a cheap clean place to stay in a good small town in MT with nice owners that would let us have our dog.

There is also this:

Here is a couple quick pics of the company I had driving 12 hour days across the country: