Sunday, August 10, 2008

We're Home!

We spent this last week at my in-law's cabin. It's on a beautiful lake with plenty of room for fishing, boating and just laying in the hammock, reading (which is where I spent a lot of time!). The kids had a great time. Egypt and Romania love the water for swimming, but Holland would rather fish it. Or hunt for crawdads. Or try to catch sturgeon. Sounds crazy to have sturgeon in a lake, but about 80 years ago, the lake had a saw mill on the property (before cabins were built). There was a Chinese cook who fished on the Columbia River and would catch sturgeon to use in his restaurant and for the mill workers. He rigged a big cage and would keep the sturgeon in it and just pull it up whenever he wanted to cook. One morning he went down to find the cage broken and all the sturgeon gone. One was caught back in 1935 and there's a picture of it in some historical book. The thing was about 7 feet long! Then about 10 years ago, someone across the lake caught one and super-hero dad had brains enough to grab his camera and take a boat over there. He snapped a picture just as the line broke and an 8-foot long sturgeon got away! I think that's why Holland would rather not swim in water where he cannot see what's around him. It's estimated that there are at least 3 giant sturgeon still in the lake.

I have lots of pictures to download and put in a slideshow. Romania got up enough nerve to go down the big slide at the swim dock. And why not? He already jumps off the boathouse roof!

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