Day 3
Saturday morning in Empire seemed to come all too quickly. It might have had something to do with the fact that we did not get back to the room till almost midnight and it might also had something to do with the fact that I was getting up at 5 am to meet Bill to go fishing!
One thing I noticed while we were on the beach last night was that the sky really did not get dark. Even though it was midnight with cloud cover I could still see. It was not like high noon but it was not total darkness that I would have expected either. After meeting Bill downstairs we ventured out to the barn to get our car and go in search of a cup of coffee. Again I noticed how bright the night was. It was still an hour till sunrise but it was not dark. Being at 45 degrees north of the equator we were 7 degrees of latitude north of what we are used too and with it being so close to the summer solstice it must make a really noticeable difference in the amount of light at night from the sun being so far north.
Bill and I wound up driving back to Glenn Arbor in search of some place open we could get a cup of coffee at but when the sun goes down around that area the stores shut down and don't open again till the sun comes back up. We gave up our search and headed back to the beach parking lot at Empire beach which is right between Lake MI and South Bar lake that we would be fishing. We got our inflatable boat out and used the 12 volt pump I got for it to air it up. Much better than blowing it up by mouth! While airing up the boat the park ranger stopped by to chat. He told us about how locals catch pike on Mett's spinners and what to ask for at the local bait shop. We told him we were fly fishing and he told us where the gills were probably hiding at and that there were dog fish in the lake. I had never heard of a dogfish before and he assured us we would know it we caught one. I jokingly said that he probably thought we were crazy with an inflatable boat. He assured us we were fine as he had seen everything through the years.
With our boat inflated
and 6 am past so our licensees were valid we hit the water in search of the big one! Actually we just wanted to catch something so our idea did not seem so crazy to the rest of the gang LOL. Bill struck first with this fine example of a baby blue gill
I landed a nice blue gill shortly there after
Removing our fear that we were not going to catch anything. We caught several more bluegills before heading over to the west side of the lake to try and find some place we could fish that was out of the wind as we were getting blown all over the place on the east side. We were in a calm inlet that had wood walls that went down into the water along the edge and lilly pads covering most of the inlet. There was just enough open water in areas to cast our poppers. We were just a few cast into that area when Bill hooked what he thought was a bass but it immediately wrapped the line around a group of lilly pads. The line went slack and we both though the fish had gotten off the hook. Since it was closer to the back of the boat where I was I told him I would get his popper free for him. I pulled the boat over to the group of Lilly pads that his line was wrapped around and started working on getting him free. The water in South Bar lake was so clear we could easily see down close to eight feet so once I got the vegetation cleared back to where I could see I could tell that the fish was still on!!!! I told Bill it was still on the hook and I could see it and he was going "Get it, Get it!!!!" I rolled up my sleeve as far as I could and dove my arm deep. I got to the fish and slipped my left thumb in it's mouth and proceeded to put a death grip on it! While holding onto the fish I worked on getting the line free so I could brig him up. With Bill's constant encouragement I was able to get the line freed and handed him his fish. Bill was smilling from ear to ear and sounding like a teenage girl who just met her teen idol. He just kept saying "take my picture, take my picture!!" I went to take his pic but I could see every molar in his mouth so I had him tone it down just a bit but as you can see he had a lot to be smiling about!
A 22", 4 1/2 lb large mouth taken on a 3/4 wt fly rod and reel with a popper design more blue gill than bass is definitely something worth smiling about!!! After we made sure the picture took and was good we released this fine catch back into South Bar lake. He just floated beside our boat for a second or two before slowly diving down below the lilly pads where he came from. Now who are the crazy ones for taking a 40 dollar inflatable boat fishing in MI????
We would have stayed and fished all day after that but we told the girls we would be back for breakfast so we paddled back to the beach to get out. I was too cheap to pay the 20 extra dollars they wanted for the actual oars that went with the boat so I just brought one kayak paddle and broke it down into two paddles. Not ideal but it worked.
We got everything loaded up and the boat tied on the roof of Pearl for the short trip back to the house. I let Bill tell the others about his catch at breakfast then I proceeded to give him a hard time. It was my idea to fish, I got the boat, I took him to get the license, then he thanks me by catching the whopper!!! I was just thrilled we caught something, the big bass was just the icing on the cake! Plus we could go out and try it again the next morning too since we had a 48 hour license.
After breakfast we all met back downstairs and headed off to Traverse City to take in the Cherry Festival. In my head I had the image of this semi hootie tootie wine tasting affair so I wore cargo pants and nice shirt. First mistake, as we were outside most of the time and while it was not hot it was a bit muggy and we had to walk a lot. So I got a bit warm after a bit. We had no idea that Traverse City swells to 10 times it's normal population on parade weekend either. So instead of 40,000, there are close to 400,000 there! We could not find parking so after stopping in a Mc Donalds to regroup a nice parking lot attendant told us about a free shuttle service from the college back to town. So off we go to the college parking lot on the east side of town. While the brochure he gave us said buses ran every 30 mins we had to wait close to an hour due to the buses shuttling the marathon runners around as well. So now we have a Cherry Festival, a parade(not just a parade but a 3 1/2 hour parade!), and a marathon! Holy smokes no wonder the place is packed!
Cindy and I made the best of it and sat in the back of Pearl and finished off the wine we had left over from the night before. I know what you are thinking, left over wine? Did I mention we ate way too much the night before???
We finally got a ride downtown and started making our way through all the shops. It was probably a really neat lilt town during normal population levels but on parade day it was insane. Luckily most people came to see the parade so the stores, the ones that were open during the parade, were not too crowded. We found Cindy a really cute lil stand up paddling shirt at the first shop we went to. We went into the Orvis fly fishing store but everything in there was for a different class of fly fisherman than myself. I like to catch fish on fly rod but I have no clue how to "fly fish" so I did not need anything they had to offer. We found a nice shirt shop with awesome prices on all their clothes. I think we made 3 trips there and bought something each time we went in. I mean 3 pre shrunk shirts for 18 bucks with neat designs on them. What a deal!
We meet the others for lunch at the Traverse City Brew pub and enjoyed a nice snack because God knows we were all having a calorie deficiency!!!! I told the others on the way back to Indiana that my body was in total shock as I had not eaten three times a day with snacks for four days in a row since I had been living in the dorms at college!!!
At the end of our visit we decided to just walk back to the car thinking that we closer to the cars than we were the place where they said they could pick us back up. I think that was fuzzy math as it was quite a hike to the cars. Luckily one of my purchases was a short sleeve shirt so I changed on the way and was much cooler.
On the way back to Empire Cindy and I detoured through the harbor at Traverse City. After telling Cindy about my idea of us going to sailing school at Traverse City Marina she really wanted to check it out. We went to the public Marina and talked to them as the place that puts on the lessons is a private club. Plus, we were hoping we might run into Capt Scott who was up in the bay sailing somewhere. Scott was healed over at the time as he was sailing further north in the bay and was unable to answer his phone when we called him. So we just strolled up and down the slips looking at the sailboats and getting paint scheme ideas for the Memory Maker. One really nice thing about being best friends with the one you love is that something as simple as just walking and looking at boats is fun. I am not sure we are any closer to nailing down our paint scheme but it was neat to look at all the boats. I still fear that if we were to do the sailing school and spend 4 days on a 30 foot sailboat I would never get her back on our lil 20 footer! There will have to be a written, signed, witnessed and recorded agreement prior to sailing school stating we will not be getting a bigger boat!!!
After getting back to the Cottonwood and taking a lil nap we met back up with the others for dinner back in Glenn Arbor at Art's Tavern. Amy said they are known for their tator tots. On the way there I am thinking what can be special about tator tots? I had in my head that thy were handmade right there on site or something special like that. Nope, just big brown paper bags full of frozen tator tots!!!! It kinda cracked me up. It had been a long time, since I was eating lunch in grade school, that I had seen tator tots come in brown paper bags! Cindy and I were still full from our last big meal so we just split a platter or tots. Wow, they sure give you more than enough tator tots! We ate till we were stuffed then kept picking away at the ones that were left over. We laughed so hard during dinner several time I was fearful of loosing my tots!
It was late when we left Art's so the others headed back to the inn but Cindy and I headed to beach to sit by a fire for a bit. Sure enough, there was a open fire pit with a fire already lit just waiting on us. We just got sat down when something hit Cindy's leg. She was trying to figure what it was when I heard several more hits in the fire followed by the sizzles. The rain was upon us so we high tailed it back to Pearl.
It had been another long but very fun day and we were tired so we just idled back to the Cottonwood and cuddled in bed while we watch a lil tv. I am sure I did not last very long before I was out like a light. Who knew having this much fun vacationing was so exhausting???
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