New Discoveries

You never know when you will discover something new about yourself. For many years I would scrunch my nose at the mention of camping. That was not my idea of a vacation. The bugs, the dirt, a tent? No thanks.

As I alluded to earlier, my brother convinced me to join their annual fishing trip this year. At first I was apprehensive, but as the departure grew closer, I started to get excited. It was going to be a lot of fun!

After one week completely off the grid (cell service is spotty/limited in Northern Ontario once you're past Sault Ste. Marie and non-existent where we were) I'm happy to say that I've discovered a side of me that I didn't know existed. I loved it! The landscape was breathtaking and it was amazing to spend a week without the conveniences of home. The soundtrack for the week was lapping water, the call of loons and excited squeals when someone caught a fish!

My brother John is a like a hybrid of MacGyver, Bob Izumi and Survivorman. He is passionate about the outdoors and is a wealth of information about not just fish, but most living creatures and their habitats. With endless patience, he has passed on this passion to Josh and Kaelyn who at 13 and 10 are experts at tying lines, hooking worms and gutting fish!

I'd like to take a moment to brag - I caught the first fish of the trip! It was a pike and we threw it back, but still! My nephew Jesse (the group's youngest) caught the biggest fish - also a pike that we threw back. He was beyond excited.

The majority of our time was spent fishing but we also found time for playing some games, campfires and lots of stories from Grandpa.