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Summer Holidays for the girls... ... is over. At home here now, there's just a load of family and scenery pictures from the summer holiday so, this is more of a quick pictorial to post 'em up and proudly show off the girl's summer fish and fun. Read on if you want... Back on the school bus Tuesday morning, it feels like there was no amount of summer time at all. Home here now with a couple days off before heading North, I was looking over many of the pictures taken with them while we were together over their holidays. There was fishing for everyone; and even surprisingly my oldest daughter Summer came out for a day, but mostly their time was spent outdoors doing other things, as Bren and I tried to keep them busy. Before Summer's highschool exams and just nearing the start of their vacation, we all had to go North awhile to our old home in Moose Factory. Gone six days it was a full mix of time with extended family, travel and taking in some fresh James Bay air. Once the holidays actually began we all went our separate ways. The month of July both girls took off to camp. Summer was gone 28 days where she did leadership training and basically just kicked it with new friends. Leah's time there was cut into two 1-week blocks, so she was in and out over the span of the month. Brenda and I used those available days to escape to Great Slave and, when returning I spent a week hammering through a Honey-Do list that was page long. No ER work on the calendar for ten days either, very last minute after finishing up most of those chores I set out solo for Lake Nipigon. In the meantime, the girls came home from camp and took off for Toronto a few days with their mom to see Bruno Mars and the new Aquarium thingy... So ended July. August was looking like a clean slate coming in, but the ER's started filling up some available days. That was very much needed after a lean July. The girls home though, on days off they kept busy. Birthday parties, dates with their friends, time with the Grandparents, their MMA classes... as well we took them for a quick vacation to Lake Placid, New York. There at Whiteface they hiked up their first mountain, took a gondola ride, drove up Memorial Highway and along the Ausable River, walked through Ausable Chasm and, most importantly for Summer, they shopped. Hadn't been there myself since skiing back in childhood and forgot how beautiful the Adirondacks truly are, must have snapped 200 photos over the three days. The pictures don't really do Ausable Chasm and Whiteface justice. The Chasm hike itself is a couple miles and there were two dry chasms to explore as well. Some people rock climb, rappel, or raft through there also; as can barely be seen above with the tubers going through in one picture. It is the most visited natural tourist attraction in the State and it's pretty cool and worth the hike... The Memorial Highway to "nearly" the top of Whiteface had our brakes smoking so bad when coming down that I pulled over and popped the hood as we thought the engine was on fire. Don't forget to gear down, it's a relentlessly steep five miles or so!!! After climbing the trail up, the weather station at it's peak was interesting, the views incredible and the butterflies standing at some rock edges were a little nauseating. Leah had just watched a K2 documentary a week before and at 4,867 feet felt like she conquered the world... to summit K2 though, she'd need to climb another 23,384 feet. Shifts picked up at work and by end of August it turned into one of my busiest work months of the year... only fished two half days for the month. Before the girls were to sneak back to school though, I got away for a day last week with just them to visit Wheelers Pancake House in McDonald's Corners (now home of a Guinness World Record) After brunch we took to a private section of the Mississippi to hike, swim, and fish a little in the rapid pools along the river. Leah at my side, between the two of us over a couple hours we caught smallies on nearly every cast with an ultralight set-up. Gonna guess sixty fish or so, maybe more... but nothing much better than a pound and a half. Probably my favorite place at home here in Eastern Ontario to simply take in scenery and find quiet with the kids. And the girls all did fish too. Leah is becoming a more regular partner as she's up for anything almost anytime. Most recently I "had" to test out some new bucktail jigs I'd tied up, and try the new Terrova, so Leah took her first crack at jiggin' lakers. With her gar and smallie days added, she happily reeled in a good variety of fish this season. Summer agreed to a trip out too, as long as she got to swim a little and didn't have to fish too much. And Bren joined me for a week of lakers and a day of gar. It was a good but fast holiday for all and for fishing, but it was made better with the three of them more often at my side. Bunk.